Saudi Gazette Stressing on innovative approach for quality inventions of Black & Decker, Bahir Omar, country business head — KSA of Stanley Black&Decker, announced a strategic partnership with U-Mark company for distribution. [caption id="attachment_47297" align="alignnone" width="640"] Jahangir Khan, trade marketing manager — KSA, Bahir Omar, Asem Hurani and Tarek Deeb, business manager consumer — KSA pose for a souvenir picture.[/caption] "They will be the main distributor of our products across the Kingdom. Black & Decker as a company for consumer range for the household gives a full solution in product range that includes ovens, toaster, kitchen, machines, and cleaning products," he said at an event in Radisson Blu Hotel, Jeddah. StanleyBlack&Decker is the company that was the outcome of a merger in 2010 between Stanley and Black & Decker. "It (the merger) changed the DNA of the company to make it very innovative on cross platform technologies to use all what we knew from all those years to invent a better product for end users and has multifunctions," Omar said. [caption id="attachment_47298" align="alignnone" width="640"] The steam mop. Dustbuster, and other Black & Decker products on display.[/caption] On the new synergy between Black & Decker and U-Mark, Asem Hurani, general manager of U-Mark Distribution, was hopeful of bringing about a quick turnaround with this new partnership. "What we will be doing is repositioning the brand in the market. You'll see a complete range of small home appliances, you will see mass distribution of Black & Decker products, so hopefully within two to three years we will see this brand, if not No. 1, in the top three brands in the market," Hurani said. "Black & Decker is one of the leading brands in the field of home appliances, they are ranked No. 1 in many markets especially North America," he said, adding, "Unfortunately the share of Black & Decker products in Saudi Arabia is not very remarkable because of many reasons like product availability and agency's weakness and also the focus of the mother company." "Now we are coming with the background of a specialized company in the field of all home appliances distribution in the Kingdom. We have the largest network for all key account in hypermarkets, supermarkets. We cover every single outlet in Saudi Arabia. We have more than 300 promoters and when we talk about our association with Black & Decker we are talking about big opportunity for big brand that has not yet taken its right position in the market." "The other issue of the number of players in small home appliances in the market are not really many, like international or reliable brands, and our target is to be one of the top three brands in Saudi Arabia," Hurani said, adding, "The market potential is very huge and Saudi Arabia is a big market and it grows every year by a huge percentage. We have the capability to make it." On the competition provided by non- and other brands in the market, Hurani was confident that Black & Decker will get its share. "Consumers at the end of the day look for a quality product. There are many non-brands with low quality in the market, and we cannot compete with them. We are going to position ourselves above them and offer them quality, which will be much higher than the price advantage offered by these brands." He added: "There are many products of Black & Decker that are worldwide like the dustbuster, and we are No. 1. If you mention rechargeable cleaner then there is one name only and that is Black & Decker." "The product has not taken its right position, and nor has it got right market share. We are going to reintroduce it here in a big way and we are aiming for the medium and high-end segment," Hurani said, while thanking StanleyBlack&Decker and its Saudi team, for forging this partnership. "I believe together we can do big business and do wonders." Omar, on his part, extolled the company in his speech during the launch of the partnership. "For over 170 years StanleyBlack&Decker has been the leader in innovation in the tools industry. We are the largest tool company on the planet. We manufacture under Black & Decker, being a consumer-focused brand, lots of products." "We have many operating offices across the world to empower our relationships with our customers and our distributors and we have established our headquarters for the whole MENA region in Dubai. Because of the big demand in Saudi market we decided last year to set up an operational office in Jeddah for the whole Saudi operation," Omar said. He stressed the fact that Back & Decker are leaders in innovation, and also that the household range, which is a small range in comparison to the operations of the company, doesn't make more than a total of 5 to 10 percent of the whole operation. "As Black & Decker company we were the first people to innovate drills and all the equipment that has been used by NASA and the equipment that has been used on the moon by the Apollo missions. That's where the innovation started. And we have continually evolved to make green, LEED products that serve the environment and give lot of solutions to the consumers every single day," Omar said. On new products that the firm expects to launch in the Saudi market, Omar was optimistic about the two in the pipeline. "We have the window cleaner, which has lot of features and is multifunctional — cleaning the glass, wiping, spraying from nozzle and suction feature and the good thing about it is that it has a rechargeable battery," he said. "Then we have the aero fryer — an oil free process of frying. It gives you the taste of frying but it is very healthy and it uses heat generation as a source for cooking and the good feature we present in this product are unique to Black & Decker," he added. "Basically you don't have to open the machine to see what's cooking inside, as the glass door enables you to see inside. It can cook, bake or even barbeque," Omar said, adding, "Starting May we are expected to introduce these products in the market." Commenting on competition in the tools segment, Omar said: "StanleyBlack&Decker have been in the market for a very long time. We have set up operations in Saudi Arabia because we believe that we have to be closer to our customers, increase our penetration in the market. All other peers do have their representatives as distributors, but we are here ourselves to see that the penetration is maximized and the support is doubled." Earlier, Jahangir Khan, trade marketing manager — KSA StanleyBlack&Decker, revealed that the event was to highlight the new partnership. "This event is basically to tell promoters in Saudi Arabia that Black & Decker has officially moved on to a new distributor who will be taking care of all distribution and services and we have moved on from our previous distributors based in Dammam." "Going forward it started in mid 2015 when the business was being established, now all the operations have ceased and now U-Mark is taking care of all businesses and services related to Black & Decker in Saudi Arabia," Jahangir said, adding, "They will be providing not only distribution services but also marketing and as well as all the maintenance of service centers as well." "U-Mark, headquartered in Riyadh, is a big name in Saudi Arabia. It has two side of businesses, one basically to do with sporting goods and the other is to do with appliances. You must be aware of the brand name emjoi in KSA and that's the brand that was brought into Saudi Arabia by U-Mark. It is their own brand and since they have their own network they were ready to distribute our product as well, Jahangir added. "They were looking for quality products to distribute and we fit the bill, and with their resources and network we thought U-mark is the right partner, knowing their potential. What happened with us is we were previously working with distributors who had their own businesses as well, and those businesses were primary. And these were like major parts of their businesses. So there was some concentration that was missing on the appliances," he said. "It is fine with U-Mark as it is a company that distributes appliances of similar nature, and they have a very well-established network. It makes it very easy for us as well as them, for the synergy is there," he added. "Black & Decker has been in the Kingdom for the last 40 years, even now if you ask people there are certain products that resonates with them and the first name that pops up in their minds is Black & Decker , especially when you talk about handheld cleaners — dustbusters — an innovation of the company in 1979. The steam iron and steam mop too are extremely popular as are its mixer and blender, " Jahangir said. The event saw a presentation by Tarek Deeb, business manager consumer — KSA StanleyBlack&Decker. He took the promoters and the attendees through the Black & Decker range of products and highlighted the fact that positioning of the products at various outlets would be the key to achieving the target sales. He also intimated the fact that of the two new products to be launched in the Kingdom, the aero fryer would be having a Ramadan promotion price such that the 5-liter machine would only cost SR699.
