Interview: Camille Samaha, SPAN Group

Camille Samaha, general manager of SPAN Group, explains how the Dubai-based material handling specialist has continued to strive in the past year, despite the global downturn.

How has SPAN Group developed its presence in the materials handling sector over the past few years?
After 20 solid years of continued growth, SPAN managed to secure a leadership position in the supply chain industry by providing world-class storage, material handling and warehouse management solutions for companies operating in the logistics field. The past years gave us the opportunity to expand our product lines, diversify our suppliers and upgrade our professional skills to meet the strong demand period that we witnessed in 2008.

As a veteran company in the market, can you provide an example of a contributing factor to SPAN's success?
SPAN has evolved from a humble storage systems provider to what is now a large organisation. For long years, we relied on small projects and worked our way up the ladder. When everybody else was mainly focusing on big projects, we were still giving attention to small and medium size businesses. This was a contributing factor to survive the economic turmoil.

To what extent did the global downturn impact your operations last year?
Our foray into 2009 was very solid as we had in our pipeline many large projects as well that kept us cruising. In addition to that, the new distribution agreement we signed with the German materials handling manufacturer, Jungheinrich, proved to be winning and earned us a big success at the Supply Chain and Transport Awards (SCATA) where we clinched the Material Handling Provider of the Year trophy.

What approach did you take to the market slowdown?
The slow period was also an opportunity to explore new sales territories and bend our attention on our regional branches where we have witnessed a strong activity and higher demands. We also continued to work hand in hand with our clients and we introduced multiple new solutions such as the demand planning and forecasting, fleet management and several other products that are intended to help our customers cope with the downturn. Overall we must admit that 2009 could have been a very difficult year if we did not have the foresight. Our aspiration is to keep the team together, work closely with customers and suppliers to ensure the best solutions are being delivered to our clients and we are hopeful that the economic recovery has started its early stages.

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