Shaker Group: strategy for the leading air-conditioning player in Saudi Arabia

Jameel A. Al Molhem, Managing Director of Shaker Group talks about the strategy for the leading air-conditioning retailer.

The stringent regulations will put the cheap ACs out of business so you will do even better. Also, you acquired a company in the UAE which is focused on preserving energy and water on an industrial or commercial scale. What are your strategic priorities for 2016 locally and internationally?

Shaker Group runs on a five-year plan, and everything goes into the execution of that plan. For 2016, we are prioritizing the introduction of our new ERP system which we have just launched company-wide. The aim is to bring that system to a mature level, and also to begin to reap its benefits in such areas as supply chain, demand forecasting, and consumer insight.

The second priority is human resources. If you have access to suppliers and the right systems, you also need the right team in order to execute your strategy. Putting these teams together and nurturing them, giving them the right training and access to the right information and systems, will allow us to step ahead in the execution of this strategy.

On the international front, the company is present in Jordan with our subsidiary. They have the exclusive dealership, exclusive partnership with LG across all of the categories: appliances, ACs, consumer electronics, and so on. The Group owns a similar stake in a Lebanese company which also partners with LG. In the United Arab Emirates, this company has an important subsidiary which is the energy management services. They have done energy audits for mega projects– the Dubai Mall, to name one– and they have a strong web of existing relationships in the UAE.

So it is that know-how on energy relations’ maturity– especially in Dubai– that we can bring to the Saudi market at exactly the moment these services are in demand. We strongly believe that energy management services are going to be needed going forward in Saudi Arabia and all around the region, for that matter.