Hassan Mohammed (second left), Managing Director of Gulf Desert Industries WLL; Nayef Mohammed Al Ibrahim (right), Founding Partner and CEO of ibTECHar; and Khalid Al Kubaisi (second right), Co-founder and CEO of QCHAIN; during the first session of Mousht
Gulf Desert Industries W.L.L. has been around since 2007 as a trader of air conditioning ducts to small businesses here. However, the company claims it has finally turned the corner only in 2017 after the boycott was imposed against Qatar.
The company saw new opportunities from the blockade and decided to expand into manufacturing their own ducting insulating products and exporting to new markets abroad.
At a panel discussion held here yesterday on the sidelines of the three-day Moushtarayat 2019 Conference and Exhibition, local entrepreneurs discussed the challenges and success stories of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Qatar.
Hassan Mohammed, managing director of Gulf Desert Industries W.L.L. said, “Today things have really changed in our business. Before the blockade, we depended only on one market. Now we learned not to depend only on one market. We found there’s a huge demand for our products in international markets and we already started exporting. In 2017, we also started our manufacturing plant. We were at first traders for the local market, and now our own brand is being sold in major Qatar projects and we keep exploring new markets abroad”.
Khalid Al-Kubaisi, co-founder and CEO of QCHAIN, said operating as a small start-up company amidst big players in the cyber security market was already tough enough. However, the company rose to the occasion by adapting innovation and technological advances such as block chain, artificial intelligence, and cloud technologies.
He also said, “The blockade turned out to be positive. Trust was built in local products and we gained the consumers’ trust. Also, for a startup company, it was difficult earlier to bid for big projects in Qatar due to our limited capacity. But due to movements in various sectors, new opportunities have opened for SMEs where we can now be part of big projects in Qatar, even in the oil sector”.
Nayef Mohammed Al-Ibrahim, founding partner & CEO of ibTECHar, a service company that provides digital supplies to educational institutes here, highlighted the increased demand for local products and services in the country after the blockade.
Al Ibrahim said, “The blockade opened opportunities for ‘non-existing’ companies as there has been more demand for local products and services in the market. Services provided by international companies earlier can now be provided by local providers”.
According to Mohammed, the company allocated a budget for effective marketing to ensure that their product was promoted at the right place and at the right time.
Speaking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of the event, Mohammed also said, “We started small. Our budget was only QR600,000. We did not even touch QR1mn; and we would buy local products as a small trading shop. We would sell to small traders and businesses. But over the years of our hard work, we made sure that we go into projects. And we found there’s huge demand for our products. P3
We decided to build our own manufacturing plant. Thanks to Qatar Development Bank we have now touched nearly QR11mn as a startup company. I’m sure in the coming days we’re about to invest bigger amount. We’re now exporting to six countries including Kenya, Algeria, Kuwait, and Oman; and our main target is to expand our market globally”.
Meanwhile, for Al-Ibrahim, finding a business partner who shares a common vision was also an important factor to achieving success. He added, “Definitely, it is extremely important to find the right partners. Because I think having shared values and common perspective toward life and even vision. It helps makes things much easier to operate when you’re working either locally or regionally. The focus is we want to capitalise the local market as long as there is opportunity. This by itself is helping us as a company to build our internal capacity and expertise. And hopefully we’re planning to expand beyond Qatar border. Maybe within the coming one to two years, we should start offering our services somewhere beyond Qatar”.
We decided to build our own manufacturing plant. Thanks to Qatar Development Bank we have now touched nearly QR11mn as a startup company. I’m sure in the coming days we’re about to invest bigger amount. We’re now exporting to six countries including Kenya, Algeria, Kuwait, and Oman; and our main target is to expand our market globally”.
Meanwhile, for Al-Ibrahim, finding a business partner who shares a common vision was also an important factor to achieving success. He added, “Definitely, it is extremely important to find the right partners. Because I think having shared values and common perspective toward life and even vision.
