Services
Building brands and growing sales for companies who have decided to strategically focus on the Middle East market
Your regional representative office
Our long term partners refer to us as their regional office. Walkers Shortbread refer to us as ‘Walkers Dubai’.
Why?
We are their Middle East office, through one point of contact they have an entire team who give them access to the entire Middle East at a fraction of the cost of setting up and running their own office. They have no fixed overheads and an existing team who have years of experience and the network of relationships they can utilise immediately.
This entails strategically plotting a route to market in each new territory by undertaking market analysis first and then selecting the best fit distributor to represent Walkers. We then work hand in hand with the distribution partner on an ongoing basis, helping them build the brand in their market.
We offer access to our network of relationships and our IP that has been built up over 40+ years.
Our Services & Roles
Consistent on-shelf presence, strong distribution, promo execution, product displays
- Representative office
- Market Analysis
- Route to market strategy
- Building Distributor network
- Boots on the ground
- In trade support
- Shows and exhibition support
- Market lead NPD
Market Analysis
We can undertake short term market analysis on your behalf. This might be a one-off piece of work for a few months or it might lead to you wanting to work with us on an ongoing basis. We are adept and open to both options.
Plotting route to market
Plotting the best route to market and executing the agreed strategy is one of our strengths. If it’s appropriate to initially build brand equity by entering the market through another approach other than via distributor, we can help you.
Boots on the ground
One of our team members is in a different Middle East country each week, visiting the trade, meeting buyers and supporting distributors in whatever way is appropriate. Keeping abreast of all markets and their developments and the progress of our brands and competitor’s brands is a key role we play for our Principals.
Working With Distributors
When mass distribution is decided upon we build and then manage a network of Distributors across the region giving you one regional point of contact. We work hand in hand with the distributors. We have weekly and monthly management meetings, build A+P budgets, strategise on NPD and range developments, train sales staff and merchandisers. We also work alongside distributors in listening to the market and collaborating to develop and bring to market new region-specific SKUs.
Merchandising Support
Richmond have a full-time travel retail merchandiser as well as full-time support staff in the modern trade whose sole role is cataloguing shelf presence of our brands and their share of category and checking and ensuring plannogramming is followed and merchandising well done.
Shows, expos and exhibitions
We have our own stand and annually exhibit on behalf of our Principals at the key Middle East conferences and expos including Arab Health, Gulfood, HoReCa and several others. We also support our Principals by working on their stands at International expos such as SIAL and Anuga. By having our account manager present we can support our partners in all ways but especially useful is our ability to immediately respond and field regional inquiries that are relevant to the ME/Africa and our markets.
Listening to the Market
Market or Production lead? Often we are presented with products that are popular and successful sellers in their own territories. Where we have been very successful is using our local market knowledge to tweak NPD or innovate to come up with new SKUs, lines or product types.