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The market’s middlemen are quite used to contending with wafer-thin margins and intense competition, but the gravity of the downturn has still left the first-tier channel fearing for its future.
Channel Middle East called senior executives from 10 companies featured in last issue’s Power List and asked: Will the Middle East distribution sector be able to survive the current financial climate?
Mehdi Amjad, Almasa IT Distribution
Distribution has a very clear value add in this region, more so than any other territory due to the fact that you have a large region sizably, but at the same time each market is different and very complex.
There are different dynamics in Saudi Arabia versus the UAE, versus Levant, and so I think distributors offer a very strong bridge in reaching this customer base.
We are faced with a lot of challenges and threats, but there are also opportunities to reiterate our position and restructure our position to be fit for future growth. Distributors that can survive this storm will emerge much stronger and remember 2009 as an opportunistic year.
Hesham Tantawi, Asbis Middle East
The distribution sector will be able to survive, but I think the number of distributors in the Middle East will decline, meaning the business will become more consolidated.
