DHL sees 15 per cent growth Bahrain’s SME sector.
Bahrain SMEs claim big share in DHL’s business
MANAMA, 18 hours, 7 minutes
ago
Bahrain’s small and medium enterprise (SME) segment has garnered a significant share in global logistics major DHL’s business in the kingdom, said the company’s chief executive officer.
“Our growth in this sector has experienced double-digit numbers, more than 15 per cent within the last year alone, with many of our new customers in the trading, manufacturing, aluminium, automotive and pharmaceutical industries,” DHL Express Mena chief executive Nour Suliman told the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication, in an exclusive interview.
He said the company’s adoption of a more dedicated approach comprising new credit facilities, competitive pricing structures and focused customer-care initiatives, were the key reasons for this growth.
“SMEs are increasingly becoming the cornerstone of Bahrain’s economy; they contribute more than 30 per cent of the nominal GDP and account for over 70 per cent of Bahrain’s private sector workforce,” he added.
The company decided that there was a lot of potential for DHL to capitalise on in ensuring that SMEs were no longer isolated.
“Our focus for Bahrain’s SME sector is to offer services that make their business run smoother and more efficiently; we are introducing new e-commerce tools to make shipping easier; we are also improving our track-and-trace systems to enable greater visibility on shipments and customised tracking reports,” he said.
“We are looking closely at what SMEs need to grow and are developing SME-friendly solutions to help this budding sector flourish.”
Suliman said that the Bahrain government being fully aware of the tremendous impact the smaller players would have on national growth, invested in capital injection and a solid national ecosystem to help these smaller players flourish into viable ‘middle’ segment companies that could contribute to the economy in terms of productivity, exports and employment.
This comes at a time when focus on diversification is at a high and there is a conscious effort to embrace a more sustainable economic model, he said.
Bahrain is also focusing on empowering its youth and building the next generation of private sector leaders.
“With an estimated 60 per cent of the population below the age of 20, the government is tapping into its dynamic pool of entrepreneurs to encourage start-ups and boost job creation, turning SMEs into a pillar of Bahrain’s economy of tomorrow.”
DHL set up its Regional Distribution Hub in Bahrain nearly 40 years ago, and the company says it has grown to be the largest express and logistics provider in Mena.
“Setting up our regional operations in the kingdom was one of the best strategic moves the company ever made. The country’s geographical advantages, healthy business environment and liberal policies have facilitated our growth over the past decades, not only locally but throughout the region,” Suliman said.
He said Bahrain is ideally located only 45 minutes from the region’s largest powerhouse, Saudi Arabia and less than an hour by plane to the Northern Gulf.
“The country also boasts the shortest travel time between its seaport, airport, and the logistics processing zone of anywhere in the Gulf.”
Combined, these factors pose tremendous benefits for DHL’s operations which depend heavily on speed and efficiency in order to serve customers on time, Suliman said.
The past decade, he said, has seen Bahrain transform with massive investments in infrastructure, real estate, tourism and logistics.
According to him, DHL Express holds more than 54 per cent of Bahrain’s market share with ‘an impressive double-digit growth within the Time Definite international product’.
“We currently have more than 160 dedicated daily flights and have a fleet of approximately 1,800 vehicles operating within this region.” – TradeArabia News Service