Survival of the fittest

Being part of the prestigious Al Futtaim Group doesn’t necessarily mean guaranteed business for FAMCO. The storage and handling company has to bid and fight it out like all the others

Al Futtaim’s Motor Parts Distribution Centre

With over 50 companies in the Al-Futtaim Group, you would think the storage and handling division of FAMCO, which supplies products for transportation, construction, manufacturing, warehousing and marine sectors, would have plenty of guaranteed business.

Not so, says Ayman Ismail Ahmed, Divisional Manager, explaining that his company had to fight to earn the shelving deal for Marks & Spencer’s new logistics facility run by GAC. “We actually faced huge competition to secure this deal for them. SSI Schaefer was with us in this deal competing like-to-like, and we secured the business with GAC.”

Marks & Spencer, a member of the Al-Futtaim Group, has contracted GAC for its logistics, while GAC has contracted FAMCO for its shelving. So why the middle man? Why are the two divisions of Al-Futtaim working with a third party, and not using group member Al Futtaim Logistics?

“That is proof that Al-Futtaim Logistics does not automatically get the business,” says Paul Floyd, Managing Director, FAMCO. “We don’t even automatically get the shelving business for [Al-Futtaim member] IKEA. We have to go and compete for it like everyone else.”

“There’s no divine rule that says we automatically get Al-Futtaim business.”

FAMCO is also able to work for clients in direct competition with one another, for example supplying racking for both IKEA and Home Centre warehouses in Dubai.

“That is no problem at all,” says Floyd. “We operate autonomously, so there is not an issue there.”

The company will, however, guarantee exclusivity to its suppliers. In the storage and handling division, FAMCO supplies Dexion shelving and racking systems, Hart and Nassau door systems, Stertile dock shelters, Linde material handling equipment, Bott vehicle interiors and workshop cabinets and Bruynzeel off ice mobile shelving. Within its other divisions FAMCO remains exclusive distributor for Volvo trucks and buses, as well as Yanmar marine engines.

Left: Paul Floyd, Managing Director, FAMCO and Ayman Ismail Ahmed, Divisional Manager, Storage & Handling Solutions Division, FAMCO

And in true Dubai-style, the division is soaring with the emirate’s economy. “We’re growing at an extraordinary rate,” says Floyd, who refuses to divulge f igures, but will proudly give percentages. “From 2005 to 2007, we doubled our annual sales revenue.”

As for 2008, he says, “Sales are not going to double, but are continuing to grow very quickly. The litmus test is market share, because obviously everyone is growing,” he adds. “We are gaining market share.”

This market share has come from mega-projects such as the Al- Futtaim Motors Parts Distribution Centre (PDC).

This 5,110 sq metre facility in Dubai Investment Park, contains over 30,000 shelves, covering 27,500 sq metres, and a total lineal length of 54 kilometres. In total, racking has a linear length of over 76 kilometres (see box). One section of the main warehouse is f itted with an over rack platform with U90 Dexion Long Span Shelving for the storage of small parts, and the remaining warehouse is racked out with Dexion P90 Pallet Racking along with accessories to store a wide and varied range of large parts from body panels to windshields. Al-Futtaim says the racking and shelving solution will be used for storage of 70,000 products.

“The centre is now Toyota’s largest parts operation outside of Japan, and one of the biggest in the world,” says Floyd.

And he insists this is another project FAMCO had to fight for. “Toyota, globally, has its own supplier for warehouse racking solutions, a Japanese company. We convinced the decision-makers that our solution was as good as, if not better, than the standard Toyota solution, and they took it.”

Ahmed seems particularly proud of winning a contract with the RTA to supply Hart roller shutters for the Dubai Metro at the project’s two main depots in Rashidiya and Jebel Ali Free Zone. “We are going to install 115 roller shutters!” he exclaims. “To be involved with such big names as Dubai Metro and RTA is a very great opportunity.”

FAMCO is also supplying Nassau doors and Stertil docking equipment for Agility’s new warehouse in Jebel Ali. “This is over 100 doors and over 100 docking stations,” says Ahmed.

Their new mobile document storage equipment is also taking off. These products include Compactus – Bruynzeel mobile shelving. “We did all the archiving systems for Emirates and HSBC bank,” says Ahmed.

His division also took care of the automatic storage and retrieval system (ASRS) for Dubai Airport’s new cargo terminal. “This facility is fully automated,” says Ahmed. “As soon as you receive the goods at the docks and put them on conveyors, the conveyors will go to the place programmed into your system from the beginning. The conveyor will take the cargo to the crane, the crane will take the cargo to a certain position in storage. There is no human interference in handling these goods.”

“Think of the accuracy of the build of that system,” says Floyd. “The racking is very, very tall and that crane is moving laterally and vertically very fast holding a pallet. When the crane puts that pallet on the top row, that pallet location has to be where the machine thinks it is. It can’t be half an inch to the left, or half an inch to the right – it will crash. The accuracy of the build has got to be absolutely spot on.”

“People are looking at more and more sophisticated solutions in the UAE,” he explains.

And Ahmed agrees. “ASRS is a new trend on the market for logistics companies,” he says. “I think it will be something we see a lot of in the next few years.”