Vistas spoke to Baltazar Fernandes, General Manager of Loay International LLC, that is the distributor and primary reseller of a host of IT brands like Acer, Epson, Apple, BenQ and others, and has its own showrooms all over the Sultanate.

Excerpts:

Please give us an overview of retailing in the context of your company. What are the brands/goods your retail? What is your retailing strategy?

Retailing has in the past contributed less than 5% to our turnover. However, starting July 2008 we are going to have 3 new retail outlets at the  Al Araimi Centre, Qurum and hope to achieve our target of making retail contribute upto 25% of our turnover by the year 2010

Where does Oman stand today in retailing? How big is retailing in Oman, it in your experience?

Oman is still developing in as far as the retail is concerned. With the major shopping malls expanding regionally, the emphasis on retailing is increasing and customers are now beginning to demand a wholesome experience when shopping for their needs.

What do think needs to be done to make the industry more competitive? How many big players can the market support?

The industry is already competitive as the retail prices are by far much lower than you would get any where in the region. However, the choices are currently limited but with new international chains and local distributors of leading brands opening up retail outlets the dearth of variety will be done away with.

Is the availability of trained manpower an issue?

To some extent this is true but like in any other business out here in Oman on the job training is helping build the pool of talented Omani staff

What about retail-related activities such as retail supply logistics, warehousing, sourcing and merchandising management that  are seen as absolutely essential if the front-end retail business is to take off on a meaningful scale across the country?

These facilities are just starting and currently being used by major companies but surely, there is need for more companies to enter this field and provide competitive rates for logistics, merchandising etc

Any other thing you would like to mention about retailing, specifically related to the kind of products/brands you retail?

We have so far retailed only the products we distribute but starting July this year we are planning to retail multiple brand of products.