Western Digital (WD), a leading hard drive manufacturer, has announced plans to expand its distribution channel in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with a strong focus on the fast-growing African markets, particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco. WD also has announced plans to strengthen its presence in key markets in the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries.
WD’s Dubai office will provide marketing support to its operations in the African markets. The company also is expanding the SelectWD channel loyalty program to these markets, in addition to providing localized RMA support through its local distributor.
WD recently appointed King Line Computer (KLC) as a direct distributor of its hard drives in Algeria. KLC is WD’s first in-country distribution partner in Africa outside Egypt. The agreement with KLC marks the first step of WD’s distributor channel expansion plans for the region, which include the appointment of more local distributors.
“WD’s steady growth in the MENA region encouraged us to further expand our operations in this region,” said Hafeez Khawaja, WD’s Senior Regional Director for Middle East, Africa and South Asia. “We will enter new, untapped regional markets, and at the same time strengthen operations in existing ones. At the centre of WD’s expansion strategy are the rapidly evolving and promising African markets, such as Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Nigeria and Kenya. The former three have high IT literacy levels.”
“Our partnership with KLC will help us efficiently implement our business strategies for the Algerian market. KLC has a very impressive track record, and boasts a distribution channel known for its wide reach and efficiency,” Khawaja added.
WD has already entered into alliances with local distributors in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan and Turkey, in addition to regional partners in Dubai such as FDC International, eSys, and Tech Data. Through its distribution partnerships, WD delivers in major markets in the Middle East its entire range of state-of-the-art hard drives for desktop and notebook PCs and corporate servers, including WD Caviarâ, WD PassportÔ, and WD Raptorâ.
“We are committed to supporting our distribution partners and helping boost their efficiency. WD has been participating in major trade shows alongside its distributors, besides organizing various workshops and technical seminars,” Khawaja said.
“WD’s main strategy will continue to centre on offering highly-reliable, high-performance, technologically-advanced hard drives to its customers. WD’s drives are designed with features that meet specific user requirements, and are globally reputed for their quality,” Khawaja concluded.
About Western Digital (WD):
WD, one of the storage industry’s pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company’s core business produces reliable, high-performance hard drives that keep users’ data close-at-hand and secure from loss.
WD was founded in 1970. The company’s storage products are marketed to leading systems manufacturers and selected resellers under the Western Digital and WD brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company’s website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.
