Hesham Tantawi, the Vice President of MEA at Asbis, speaks to Channel Post about the company, the product strategies in place, and the channel and marketing plans for the next couple of months.
Tell us something about Asbis.
Asbis is a multi national company, working on distribution business for 27 years. We are a 1.7 billion dollar company. e are the largest distributors of components in EMEA emerging markets. We also distribute A-branded finished products such as tablets, smartphones, laptops, desktop computers, servers, networking equipment to retail, corporate clients, SMB and wholesale, as well as IT components – such as complete solutions, building blocks and peripherals – to enterprise segment, assemblers, system integrators and local brands.
In addition, we also purchase from leading global brands such as Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Toshiba, Dell, Acer, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, and Gigabyte and top IT components manufacturers such as Intel, AMD, Seagate and Western Digital. Furthermore, a significant part of our revenue is comprised of sales of Consumer Electronics and Enterprise Solutions under our private label Prestigio as well as peripherals, imaging, and accessories under our own trademark Canyon.
What are your strategies for the Middle East region for the next couple of months?
We will soon be launching smart health and smart home products in the region. Our focus in MEA is to be number one in mobility, in addition to components, software, and networking products. We have now stopped distributing notebooks and PCs, because mobility is taking off quite fast.
We also see cloud computing picking up in this region. We work with companies and system integrators in this region on the cloud front, by supplying storage solutions. In addition, all products we sell under the Prestigio brand, such as smartphones and tablets, come with free cloud storage. For instance, each Prestigio smartphone we sell, comes bundled with 200GB of free cloud storage. That’s how we add value to everything we do.
How have products under the Peestigio brand taken off in this region?
Our products are already proving to be a tough competition for many mobility players out there on the market. In fact, our Prestigio range of products have been proving to be a tough competition to beat by many brands, over the past two years.
Our tablets are currently at the number six position worldwide already. So we are bigger than most of the A brands you see on the market. Most of the markets we work in have been positive for us. Saudi, UAE, Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq, are some of the fastest growing markets for us.
What are your channel strategies for the rest of the year?
We work with all sorts of channel partners and we will continue to do so for the rest of the year. For Prestigio range of products we have a proper channel model since we are the vendors here.
For other products we distribute in the region, we have a channel community set up in the countries and regions we are present in. We offer technical and support certifications to our channel partners. This is in addition to training programs, seminars, road shows and so on. We are a channel driven company and hence we focus a lot on the well-being of our channel partners.
Tell us about the health products you will be launching under the Prestigio brand.
We will soon be launching a range of healthcare products under the Prestigio brand. These products include body fat scale, body mass scale, pedometer, blood pressure monitor, and so on.
