Building Material Distributors in Ghana: Haiflow – Africa

Interview with Karim Ghazale, General Manager of Haiflow – Africa (Sara Group)

Give us your overview of the construction and building materials sector in Ghana. You came in 2009, so how has the sector evolved since then?

When we started in 2009, the sector was very promising and it continues to grow but at a much slower pace. In the beginning when we started back in 2009 and 2010, the economy was growing at a double digit rate and a lot of foreign investment was coming into the country so we saw a huge potential in the Ghanaian market. Unfortunately over the years and due to certain internal and external factors there have been some obstacles. Those obstacles are affecting the economy today and there are more negative aspects than there are positive. We have seen over the last couple of years a decline in the amount of foreign investment; however as it is in most of Africa, African countries have their ups and downs and Ghana is just going through a downward cycle right now but eventually over the next twelve to eighteen months hopefully things will turn around.

Your company Haiflow is representing different international brands in different segments. Which segments do you cater to?

We typically cater to a lot of different sectors. First of all we are focused on dealing with some of the major European brands such as Grohe and Villeroy and Boch. Grohe produces taps, faucets and bathroom accessories and Villeroy and Boch produce sanitary ware and tableware. Those are the two main brands that we carry in addition to ceramic tile lines like Pavigres from Portugal, we also have Eliane from Brazil, and we deal with Gardenia Orchidea from Italy. We have a lot of international brands that we introduced to Ghana that have helped us build the business over the last five years.

To give you a quick background, Haiflow is owned and operated by a company called Sara Group. Sara stands for Saudi Arabian Agencies and the company was established back in 1967 in Saudi Arabia and over the years has expanded to the majority of the Middle East. Our main market is the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, having numerous locations in both countries not to mention Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Lebanon and Syria. Our current headquarters is in Beirut, Lebanon.

Talking about Haiflow, you are looking into expansion.

I am in charge of the African market as a whole for Sara Group. Sara Group on the African continent is represented by Haiflow. Today Haiflow currently has four branches that are operational in Ghana, mainly in Accra and the suburbs. Over the next twelve to eighteen months we are hoping to expand into other countries, namely Nigeria and there is the possibility of Ivory Coast as well. Our main focus at this point is Nigeria and we are yet to make a final decision as to when and how we are going to be doing that but it is something that is going to come up soon.

Can you tell us why you chose Ghana?

We are very well known not only through the name Haiflow but also through our brands. Some of brands such as Villeroy and Boch were non-existent in Ghana at the time, and Grohe did exist in Ghana but on a smaller scale.

A lot of us read about African countries from different perspectives such as security, economics, operations etc. so the reason why we chose Ghana was mainly for security purposes. Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa that proudly promotes the high level of security that they have compared to countries like Nigeria, Niger, Mali where security is, I don’t want to say it is non-existent but it is very low. So that is one of the main reason why we chose Ghana, number one for security and number two was that at that time the economic growth was in double digits so somewhere between 9 and 13% growth year to year. Thus that growth and the high level of security were the two main reasons why we chose Ghana to start with. Over the last four or five years that we have been here we have built a good understanding of the market in Africa and of how things operate so I think now is the right time to start considering expansion into other countries.

Who are your main clients? Are you currently taking part in some major projects?

Yes. Over the last five years we have been able to grow a name for ourselves where we are among the top building material distributors in Ghana. We are very well known not only through the name Haiflow but also through our brands. Some of brands such as Villeroy and Boch were non-existent in Ghana at the time, and Grohe did exist in Ghana but on a smaller scale. We helped evolve the brands and helped them grow in Ghana and by doing so we were able to take part in numerous large projects that came up over the last few years. Some of them being the Kempinski Hotel that is about to be opened in the next couple of months and another project that we are dealing with on a large scale is the exchange project which is a shopping mall, hotel and business centre including residential buildings all in one compound that is coming up near the international airport.

We have had several large projects with hotel resorts in Takoradi. We are also dealing with a water park that is coming up in the coastal area near Prampram. We will be supplying Villeroy and Boch on that project. Not to mention numerous residential apartment building complexes that we are involved in. A lot of people who are renovating their multimillion dollar homes come to us for the higher end brands.

We as Haiflow have spent a lot of money in upgrading showrooms to distinguish our company from the typical African showrooms that they have here. Typically they just import products with the intention to sell at the highest margins without any sales training or product development or proper marketing for the brands or products themselves. For us, we don’t do that; we have a large company to represent and we are going to represent it well so we spent a lot of money designing our showrooms to give the proper image of our brands and customer service.

For the time being you mostly cater to Accra, what about other major cities in Ghana?

We currently cater mainly to Accra; we also supply products to Takoradi, and to Kumasi which is the second largest city. We are working on a few school projects up in Tamale which is on the border of Burkina Faso. We deal with projects all over the country but Accra is the commercial hub for Ghana. A lot of companies that sell our similar products up in Kumasi or in Takoradi have smaller operations, they don’t carry a lot of stock and many people who are coming to purchase building material products typically come to Accra to make their selections and have them delivered out to wherever they are. The main commercial hub is definitely Accra and that is why our main focus is Accra. In the future we will be considering distribution in other major cities but nothing is in the foreseeable future as far as opening up a branch in those cities.

Is there anything in particular that you would like to promote?

For Haiflow in Africa, I think we have come a long way since we started. Typically companies who start out in foreign countries without having name recognition or anything of that sort encounter many challenges but I think we have come a long way in a short period of time. We have the full support of our company Sara Group and they are sparing no expense to expand their name and their brands in Africa. We started in Ghana five years ago and we look forward to a promising future not only in Ghana throughout the African Continent.

As a foreigner in Ghana, what is your personal message?

A lot of foreigners call Ghana the Paris of Africa because Ghana today as I mentioned earlier, takes pride in the level of security they have, so even as a foreigner if you live in Ghana you can still experience evenings out, the nightlife, the touristic places etc. There is a lot of history and culture to understand and discover in Ghana. A lot of foreigners love coming to Ghana to enjoy all of that. Me personally, I have enjoyed living here for the past 5 years and I look forward to many more to come.