Profitability of companies will surely improve if sales collection is good

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Published on Tuesday, 01 December 2009 04:00

Written by Shilpa Jasani

A keen athlete Yasser Alkuwari joined Union Press, a family-owned business, in 1987.  Right at the onset of his career he faced a power struggle between several groups within the company, which resulted in dissatisfied clients and delays in delivery schedules.

“The infighting forced our then production manager to leave the company and I took over.  We took a hands-on approach and identified bottlenecks in the production process.  These were dealt with individually which resulted in an increase in sales by 45% within 3 months. After turning the company round, we employed another production manager, who is working with us to this day.”

Union Press was established by Yasser’s father, Fahad Ahmed Dhaen Alkuwari, in 1973 with a staff of 4 employees- a composer, printer, binder and cutting machine operator.

“My father was an experienced businessman who had a lot of firsts to his name. He started the first paper bag factory in Dubai, and also established the first floating restaurant in Bahrain in the 60’s, which was very popular then. With business interests in the construction industry in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, his interest in reading and literature inspired him to start a printing press,” said Alkuwari.

Born in Bahrain, Yasser opted to join work after graduating from high school and pursuing language study in the UK, rather than go for further studies.  “The main focus of our company is on the Bahrain and GCC markets, with an office and warehouse in UAE.  We will be exhibiting our envelopes at the IPEX 2010 in UK, where we also plan to study the European market.”

Reminiscing about the memorable moments in his career, he mentioned that before ten years the company bought its first 4 colour machine, which was a huge leap and start of real growth Union Press.

“I feel the success of Union Press came from the trust that we earned from our clients. Our success rate in meeting deadlines without compromising quality, gained us the respect of our peers and clients.  However, the current market situation is a challenge to everybody, not only to printing industry. Now is the time to fine tune management skills to optimise utilisation of machinery and productivity of our manpower.”

Commenting on the dynamic UAE market, he said, “Everything in the UAE and especially in Dubai is more advanced and sophisticated than the rest of Middle East. It is more evident in the printing industry due to the Dubai government’s open media regulation. UAE is a trend-setter that spurs the other countries in the region.”

An ardent horse rider, Al Kuwari felt that the high cost of machinery and longer periods for return on investment, is a major challenge facing the printing industry, coupled with the non- existence of specialised training centers to train staff to operate the new machinery and specialised printing techniques.

When questioned about the credit policy existing in the market, he explained, “Definitely, the profitability of the company can improve if its sales collection is good and the cash flow is strong, but due to prevailing market traditions /policy of “no credit - no sales” we are forced to give credit. Though this is becoming more challenging and risky in the backdrop of the global slowdown.”

Expressing his opinion on the potential of the digital market, he felt that digital printing in the region was still vastly untapped especially when compared to that of countries in the Western hemisphere and Japan.  He also added that in his opinion, most important change that happened in the printing industry was the digitalization of the pre- press.

With the fluid economic scenario and constantly changing dynamics, there is an excess of supply over demand in the region. On the manpower front, however companies are not worried of losing staff and on the contrary organisations are now in a stronger position to retain and choose the right staff. Union Press currently has staff strength of 318.

The global slowdown has caused a problem of over-supply in most industries including the printing industry. “Therefore most of the printers in the region will not be able to reach their full capacity in the coming 3 to 4 years.”

Looking five years ahead, Alkuwari wants to position Union Press to be a full fledged one stop shop for commercial print, envelope manufacturing, packaging and flexography printing.

“Success means different things to different people, “ adds Kuwari, “for myself, I’m still searching for my definition and once I find it, I think I’m going to retire and move on.

“My advise to other printers is that we should not be pessimistic but we should think positively and try to look for opportunities, as in the saying which goes – “don’t curse the darkness; be productive and light a candle”.

HIGHLIGHTS
● Union Press established in 1973
● Main focus is the Bahrain, GCC and UAE markets
● Currently employs 318 people

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