Al Zahi Laundry
Strategic shift
Emad Ali Saif Al Ghafri runs his carpet laundry business with a turn-around strategy and renewed focus
Emad Ali Saif Al Ghafri came to Zubair SEC with an idea of organising tourism events, managing and renting equipment for traditional tents and seatings. He later was selected for Zubair SEC’s Direct Support Programme; after meetings with the advisors at the Centre, they realised that he had a small laundry business for cleaning carpets. He also had a few other business activities, which Zubair SEC team advised him to close so that he could focus primarily on his two lines of business – the laundry and events. As he was riddled with bad debt he was also advised to close the shop for his rental business, as it would enable him to save upon rent and to maintain the renting equipment without an outlet.
Zubair SEC carried out a market study on the laundry business for carpets and the results showed that the business had great potential. The Centre then did a small teaser for the market introducing Emad’s offering and as a result his laundry business increased by over 60 per cent in a span of three months. The increase in turnover was achieved with a 15 per cent decrease in cost, giving him an encouraging profit margin. Zubair SEC also helped him procure new equipment to increase his business capacity and a new financial management system.
As part of the marketing strategy, the Centre then helped Emad rebrand his laundry as Al Zahi Laundry with a registered brand owned by him. A part of the branding exercise was branding his vehicles, with the logo of Al Zahi Laundry. These vehicles have become a mobile advertisement for his shop as they showed the business’ telephone number, branding and other details. All this work has been achieved in the soft launch phase of the laundry business, indicating its true potential.
With the grant money Emad received through the Direct Support Programme, Zubair SEC brought him new equipment which helped increase laundry capacity to 100 square meters per day. Emboldened by the initial progress, Zubair SEC has been helping Emad to increase his laundry’s capacity by installing a new production line. The new line will increase the laundry’s capacity from 100 square metres per day to 2,000 square metres per hour. On the marketing side Zubair SEC facilitated contracts for Emad from other domestic laundries. As a result he now has three partnerships and they are working as a sales point for him.
On his part, Emad has been persistent and self-driven. Once he is advised on something, he takes it seriously and works hard to get things done. Overall, he has exhibited traits of being a natural entrepreneur who appreciates advice and is always open for suggestions.
He has dabbled with various businesses over the last 15 years; he struggled with most of them, finally closing them and focusing on the laundry business model that has proven to be a significant turnaround strategy in his entrepreneurial journey.
Emad has been re-engineering his business. Prior to coming to Zubair SEC, he thought that events management was his most promising business, while he had a small operation for laundry, but now it is the other way around. Overall, it was not very difficult to convince him as he was keen to listen and willing to change. As a result, it was easy to change his business model within a short span of three months.
As of now Zubair SEC does not advise him to have extra outlets but to go in for more partnerships with other outlets. Emad has been approached by a few people who want to become franchisees of Al Zahi laundry. The plan is to franchise the brand later on or to facilitate partnership contracts and agreements with domestic laundries in other areas.
Emad has great aspirations for his business, he wants to be everywhere geographically, but he wants to achieve this by franchising Al Zahi laundry.
Overall, Zubair SEC has helped Emad identify a business opportunity, equipped him with the tools to make it viable and to increase his chances for progress and success.
“I want to expand my business and to have Al Zahi operate all across Oman. Zubair SEC and its mentors have opened new vistas for me.”, says Emad Ali Saif Al Ghafri