Aptec ME, one of the Middle East’s major regional distributors, saw revenue growth of 43 per cent in the three weeks following the September attacks in the United States, compared to the same period last year.
“Tragic as it is, the recent global slump has not affected our market,” said Essam Baghdady, vice-chairman, Aptec Group. Among the several reasons cited by Baghdady for the Middle East not showing any visible drop in business is the fact that “Arabs are keeping their investments within the region rather than in the United States since the GCC stock market seems to be more stable.”
“We are monitoring our daily sales since the attacks and every indication points to business as usual,” Baghdady said. Aptec has seen marked increases in some its products including D-Link, one of its major brands, where sales-out revenue has shown a 49 percent increase compared to the period prior to the attacks.
“Of course, this could be attributed to the special promotions, but if there is a slump in this market, promotion or no promotion, there would have been a marked drop in sales figures,” he said.
Baghdady anticipates continuous growth and is planning several seminars and forums before the year ends.
“We have not seen any drop in registration for our networking and security seminar in Saudi Arabia nor for the Symantec seminar in Lebanon,” he said. Aptec has registrations from more than 450 resellers for these seminars.
