The 25-year old company, Quality Group is all set to move to its new 85,000 square feet headquarters in DIP, says Vasant Menghani, Founder and CEO, Quality Group.
Established in 1988, Quality Group has been one of Dubai’s homegrown IT companies. Started out from Khalid Bin Waleed Street, 25 years ago, today the company is in the process of moving operations to an 85,000 square feet, two storey headquarters in Dubai Investment Park (DIP).
Vasant Menghani, Founder & CEO, Quality Group says, “We had founded the company with just five products. Today, we are all about product innovation and have more than 1,100 products and 35 product categories under Touchmate, our IT and electronics brand, right from private labels, desktops, laptops, accessories, software developments to tablets and most recently smartphones too.”
The new headquarters will also have a showroom to display its complete product range and also has a factory set-up. Subsequent to this move, the company also plans to go on a hiring mode to have enough personnel to handle the mobile and solutions business. “We are looking at adding 40 to 50 more employees by the end of this year. I’m looking for scientists who can keep pace with my speed and be aggressive to go after opportunities in the new business lines.” Menghani’s primary focus is to move entire operations to the new location, “The whole world should recognise our group and brands. Then, our next move is to enter smartphones category more seriously.”
Touchmate, Quality Group’s flagship brand, has a wide reach through partnerships with large retailers in the region such as Carrefour, Lulu, Sharaf DG, Axiom, Jacky’s Electronics, E-city and Hyper Panda. “We were the first supplier for Carrefour when it entered the market around 15 years ago and were exclusive suppliers for the first five years,” he says.
Instrumental in the region’s IT development, the company has been partnering with global names such as Intel and Microsoft to bring about innovative offerings, since the last two decades. “We have introduced a 7.85-inch tablet in association with Intel, which is new to the market. And will also launch world’s biggest tablet with Intel, which is 19-inches and works on dual mode — Android and Windows— we believe in working towards our customers’ satisfaction.”
What differentiates them from competition is the fact that they are not just traders, says Menghani. “We understand technology and this knowledge is our differentiator. 75 percent of customers are untouched, because they cannot afford expensive brands, therefore, there definitely is a huge gap in the market. Also, today customers don’t want to touch the low-end Chinese brands. They want a known brand such as Touchmate.”
In terms of location, the company plans to focus on areas such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, India and Iran. It is also planning to open an office in Africa. “We already have distributors in these areas, we are now looking at an in-country presence. We have presence in Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain through our retail partners. We have distributors nearly in 65 countries,” Menghani adds.
Currently, the company sells about 60 to 70 thousand pieces every month worldwide and is working towards increasing this to 150 thousand pieces every month in the global market by the year end. Menghani says this growth is expected from the new locations.
On a parting note, Menghani says, “We don’t work only for money. I work for the IT industry and for my user.”
