Exclusive interview with Farouk Sabry, the owner of United Brothers

Interview with Farouk Sabry, Owner and President of United Brothers

What is your opinion about the current environment—politics and business—in Egypt?

It was very bad for 3 years. Now, since the last 6 months things are improving here. There is peace. I don’t feel there is any danger now. All is well here now.

What are your expectations?

My expectations are that we shall have more money flowing into the country. I will tell you why. Our President announced that he will make a new branch for the Suez Canal, which was built hundreds of years ago, which would cost 60 million pounds. He was adamant about not taking any loans from any other country for this. He invited the Egyptian people to contribute. Within a week, people contributed over 68 million pounds and the president said, ‘stop, don’t send anymore’. This is a proof of the people’s trust in the government, trust in the future. It was estimated that this new branch of the Suez Canal will take 5 years to be completed. The engineers told the president that they need 5 years for this. He said, ‘one year, not one day more’. So, now they are announcing that it will be done in 11 months, which means one month ahead of the president’s deadline. So you can imagine what the future would look like. You can imagine what this new channel of the Suez Canal will do for the country’s economy. It will open new vistas for the economy and open new venues and branches for trade exchanges between Egypt and other countries. Egypt will be a transit point, trading point.  The number of ships crossing the Suez Canal will increase. So this is why I feel that the future looks bright.

You said that Egypt is in need of investments. What are the areas that require urgent investments?

The fact is that even in other cities, not only the ones surrounding Cairo, but most cities, the government is getting the ground ready for investors by letting them build factories, industries etc. at a very cheap price. This would mean millions of jobs for people. All these figures will only help boost up the future.  

As you are mainly involved and famous in the film industry and film production, please describe the film industry in Egypt. We know the Egypt is famous for its film industry, so please elaborate.

Egypt was the second country in the world to produce cinema. When the film industry was started by the two French brothers, the Lumière brothers, immediately the next year, Egypt produced the first Egyptian film in Alexandria. This was before America or before Europe knew about the cinematic world. Initially we were producing up to 100 films a year. Nowadays there is not much happening in the way of film production. It is about 20 to 25 film a year. But of course, this number reduced because of the situation. However, we cinema there has been an increase in the number of cinema screens, by over 400 to 500 screens. Previously, it was very difficult to produce a film. You wait for almost a year or two to screen a movie, because there was no screen available. Now, there are many screens, but the number of films has reduced. This is a gap we are facing. This gap will be dealt with.

I think in every industry there are up days and down days. So, now our production team is facing down days, but it will get back to normal soon.

You are the owner of United Brothers Film Company and the theatre division. What is your position in the film industry in Egypt? Are you leading?

I am the vice president of the Chamber of Cinema. I am also a member of the union/federation of the film industry. For 17 years, I was the advisor for culture, tourism, media, cinema etc. in the parliament. However, when those people – we don’t like to mention their names – came to power I refused to continue in my position as advisor. I said I was ill, but I wasn’t. The new parliament will come to force in 4 to 5 months from now or maybe even before that.  

Please tell us more about your company United Brothers Cinemas and theatre. What is your role in the market? Tell us your story.

The main market for the Egyptian film industry is the Arab countries. This is the main foreign market and the local market of course. However we are dreaming of something more in the future. We have maps in our mind of how to reach out to other neighboring countries as well. Now we know that there are problems in almost all Arab countries. All the cinema houses have been destroyed, there is almost nothing left of them in most places. So, we are looking for other markets, where the public will be interested and will appreciate and accept our kind of films. This requires study and research and we are at it. For example, our films are being screened in Canada and Australia sometimes. Do you know why? Because in countries like Canada, Australia and America, there are a lot of Arab communities. So, it has been my dream to use the cinema houses there to screen Egyptian films. India is doing this. At the beginning nobody was interested in watching any Indian films. So, they started to have their own cinema houses. Say an Indian has a Canadian friend; he will invite him to see an Indian film. He will accompany his friend to watch a movie for 2 hours. But finally he will come back very impressed by the music, the songs and action sequences. Now they are producing very good action movies, because India is producing about 3000 films every year. But only 300 to 400 of these movies are getting exported abroad. The rest are screened for the locals in India. Sometimes it is a place for people to spend the night in the cinemas.

However, India is also very good at technology. They have achieved some feats in space technology, which is not even achieved by Americans. A country with this kind of intellect does not need to be worried.

What is your strategy to expanding and export your movies abroad? Is it for your company, United Brothers alone?

It’s for the whole cinematic world in Egypt. United Brothers makes a maximum of 3 to 4 films a year. But we are distributing other 5 to 6 films belonging to other producers. There are other producers that depend on other distributors. So, when you have a cinema house in Canada or in the States, everybody will come and watch and bring friends to watch their movies.

Is United Brothers the main film producer in the country?

Yes, we are one of the main producers. I hate to say that we are the main, even if we are the main and one of the oldest companies, but I hate to brag about it. We are one of the good companies.

Can you tell us a bit about the other companies working under the United Brothers mainly involved in production and distribution of the industry and commerce?

Industry and commerce is a completely different company. It has another registration.

Isn’t the production and distribution involved in the export and import of films?

No, they are not involved in it. This is a different company. They are involved in the export and import of goods, but they are mainly involved in importing goods. This is managed and run by my son.

There are also another two companies, Oscar tours and Sunny land Tours, on tourism.

Yes, I’m taking care of these two. I am the only Egyptian, who owns two travel agencies. They are located in the most important place in Egypt. You will be surprised to know that the first company was established when I was still studying in the second year at the University of Commerce. I was the youngest in Egypt to have conceptualized establishing a travel agency. It is in my nature. I always do a thorough research before embarking on anything. When I go on business, I do a thorough research on the business by reading about it. When I got to know everything about this industry, I found that what was happening in this industry was not right. So, I used new strategy, quite different from the other companies, and this succeeded. We became one of the best and most successful travel agencies. We are working with many countries in Europe; we are working in China, with India as well, with Japan and Arab countries of course. However, most of the Arab countries need our services only for reservation purposes, because they know the country very well. Most Europeans come to Egypt with a book about the history of Egypt, he reads about the facts and figures here and he consults the book regarding how a place or a hotel or restaurant is rated. An Arab tourist is very interested in finding out how to spend his days, his nights and basically his time here in the most enjoyable way. So, there are different types of tourists, so we have to handle them differently. 

You said you have presence in Europe, China and around the world. Are you collaborating with the local agencies there?  

No, we collaborate with some companies in each country. In each country there are about 3 to 4 different companies and we represent them. This keeps the business going. Also, for your information, this business was badly affected in the last 3 years.  

We also interviewed some people from the Tourism Authority. We also met the Ministry and everyone is claiming that it was badly affected everywhere. There have been serious damage on the revenues etc.

Yes, seriously everything was affected. You come here for your holiday. You want to enjoy your time, you read in the newspapers that there are bombings and crisis, why will be pay money to come here to put your life in danger? Why would you spend your money on this? You would rather spend your money in a quiet and peaceful area. This is human psychology and you have a complete right to think this way. I knew this will happen and that it was affecting the industry.  Some company was just laying off most of the staff, but we refused to shut business. We said, ‘no’. Our staff has been working for us for years; they have their families, wives, their houses. It is not nice to say goodbye to anyone. The situation is improving now. I am optimistic about that.

What is your strategy for the tour and travel agency? Are there any markets that you haven’t yet explored?

We are working in the markets that affect us. This is an open world. We have contacts everywhere. The company already has a big name and is well known. For 33 years our first company Sunny Land Tours was the first company of its kind. Oscar Tours is about 30 years.

What’s different about them? Why are they two different companies?

That’s a good question. Previously, in Egypt, there was the concept of Eastern wife and Western wife. I was already feeling that sometimes when you are concentrating on one business, the other business was suffering. So I said to myself, ‘okay, one wife is fine, but why not have another one?’ I established the other company and the idea of two wives turned out to be a good one to balance things out.

Is there any message that you want to give?

I want to say that it was a great pleasure to have met both of you. I hope we get to collaborate with you in the future. You have a family and brother in me and you can depend on me to do anything for you.

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