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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2012
business
Porsche Centre Kuwait celebrates a double triumph KUWAIT: It was a good start to the year for Porsche Centre Kuwait as they picked up two key awards that reflected their commitment to sales and service perfection. While Porsche Centre Kuwait finished in first position in the Porsche Service Excellence Awards for 2011, Mohamad Al-Moussawi, Showroom Supervisor, won the Porsche Sales Excellence Award Middle East and Africa for the 4th time. As the first placed winner of Operation Ice Storm, Moussawi will now travel to Finland between the 22nd and 26th of February this year to test drive the Porsche range on ice on a trip arranged by the Porsche Travel Club. “ To win such important awards shows a tremendous level of effort and commitment, not only to customer service but to all aspects of after sales processes and procedures,” said Callum Bottomley, Aftersales Manager at Porsche Centre Kuwait. “A big thank you must also go to the management of Behbehani Motors Company for without their continued
help and investment such an award would be difficult achieve. The awards will serve as a big benchmark and inspiration for 2012, and we look forward to exceeding expectations once
more” he added. The Centre was assessed on 4 key criteria - customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, service purchases and parts purchases all of which they met with flying colors. With the
new 911 hitting the roads recently and the Panamera GTS set to launch, the signs are good for Porsche Centre Kuwait to pull off a repeat performance.
Al-Tijari offers customers 10% cash back
Japan Tech Fest ‘KoTEN’ returns to Kuwait Easa Husain Al-Yousifi & Sons Co and Sharp join hands KUWAIT: Easa Husain Al-Yousifi & Sons Co (EHY) yesterday announced the return of the Japanese Technology Festival - “KoTEN” to Kuwait, this time to be held at the Eureka showroom in Salmiya. As always, Sharp promises great product offers and special discounts to their Kuwaiti customers through the efforts of their partner’s EHY and Eureka. Wael Deeb, General Manager - Electronics Wholesale Group, expressed great enthusiasm regarding the event. He commented that “KoTEN was a success at all levels the last time we conducted it and this time we promise to make it bigger and better”. “We have recently run some successful promotions with our partners Eureka and in extension of these promotions, we will be holding KoTEN this time at their Salmiya outlet.” “Customers are increasingly interested in multiple offers and we noticed how popular our bundle offers were during the first KoTEN event”, says Floyd D’Souza - Sales Manager at Sharp Middle East FZE. “We are bringing
together some really exciting bundles this time as well to ensure that our customer’s walk out of the store with a huge smile and a bundle of Sharp’s eco-positive products to enhance their lifestyle”, Floyd added. Sharp is a 100 year old brand with the legacy of an innovator of some of the most universally used technologies today such as pocket calculators and LCD TVs. With the single aim to improve people’s lives, Sharp has spent the past century globally providing reliable consumer and business solutions to help customers lead a healthy lifestyle and manage businesses optimally. Some of its latest innovations such as its unique air purification technology Plasma cluster Ions (or PCI) and its water oven Healsio will also be on offer at KoTEN. At the upcoming KoTEN event, Al-Yousifi and Sharp promise their customers a fun filled family experience like none other. Families will be able to avail these special offers in a specially created Japanese Festival environ-
ment that promises much on offer to meet domestic home appliance and home entertainment needs. “Be it your desire to upgrade to a large screen LED TV, or a total overhaul of your home appliances, we have something for everyone” concluded Mr. Wael. A preferred partner for some of the world’s leading brands, Easa Husain Al-Yousifi & Sons Co’s retail network has made it a natural choice for manufacturers like Sharp and global electronics retailers like EUREKA who wish to establish business in Kuwait’s lucrative market. One of the leading distributors of global brands in Kuwait, the company has an enviable line-up of Consumer Electronic and Home Appliance products from various brands. The company’s concentration on improving the quality of life for its customers has been rewarded in more than financial terms. It received ISO-9002 certification in 1999 and ISO-9001 certification in 2000.
Qatar Airways to boost Kuwait-Doha services Airline honored by Service Hero in Kuwait KUWAIT: Qatar Air ways, the national carrier of the State of Qatar, was proudly reigned as a “Best Regional Arab Airline 2011” by Service Hero at an awards ceremony in Kuwait that commemorated companies receiving highest customer satisfaction. Winning in the Regional Arab Airlines category, Qatar Airways was honoured for its dedication to service excellence on eight service dimensions - reliability, speed, product quality, value for money, location of offering, staff quality, call centre and websites. Qatar Air ways Countr y Manager Kuwait Mohammed Al Jumairi collected the award and thanked the travelling public in Kuwait for their ongoing support
of the airline. “Qatar Airways is proud to be recognized by discerning travellers in Kuwait for the airline’s relentless emphasis on providing genuine and hospitable service. “Kuwait, one of the airline’s long-standing routes, serves as a pillar part of our Gulf network, with rapid connections via Doha to a host of destinations which are popular for travellers from this region, including London, Bangkok, New York, Shanghai among others,” said Jumairi. The Kuwait - Doha route has been a solid performer in the airline’s regional network, seeing services expanded to six-times daily at the beginning of the month, with a 7th frequency
starting on 1st April, 2012. Service Hero, an annual customer satisfaction monitor assesses consumer feedback in various service sectors. Votes were collected online during a three-month period at the end of last year and covered 17 private sector industries including banking and finance, regional air transport, hospitality, food and beverage and more. Customers rated the companies based on a 10-point scoring system that measures customer expectations versus actual customer satisfaction across eight service dimensions. Qatar Airways was the winner of the pinnacle accolade in the aviation sector - World’s Best Airline 2011 by the industry mon-
itor Skytrax in which more than 18 million travellers worldwide were surveyed. Qatar Airways has launched two new routes so far this year, to Baku (Azerbaijan) and Tbilisi (Georgia) respectively; with seven further destinations planned for 2012 including Kigali (Rwanda) from 21 March; Zagreb (Croatia) from 9 May; Perth (Australia) from 3 July; and Gassim (Saudi Arabia), Helsinki (Finland), Mombasa (Kenya), and Zanzibar (Tanzania). The airline currently operates a modern fleet of 104 aircraft from its Doha hub to over 110 key business and leisure cities across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North and South America and Australia.
KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait announced, in cooperation with “True Value” Co and Al Babtain Electronics Co, the launch of new marketing campaign which will provide a distinct offer to the Bank’s customers when using any of AlTijari credit cards (Visa, MaserCard, prepaid card) for shopping at “True Value” Showroom and Al Babtain Electronics “LG” Showroom. The campaign will last from 22/2/2012 to 22/4/2012 and the offer will enable the Bank’s customers to enjoy cask back equal to 10% of the value of their purchases during this period. On this occasion, Ramzi Al-Sabboury, Executive Manager, Marketing and Sales Department said “We launched this campaign upon the customers’ request due to their proactive interaction with the previous analogous campaigns and the remarkable success the Bank achieved with its partners. Al Sabboury added that customers will obtain the cash back after the offer period expires i.e. beyond 22/4/2012. Commercial Bank of Kuwait’s
distinctive campaigns comes within a set of the continued campaigns specially tailored for the Bank’s customers to meet and satisfy their needs and encourage them to take advantage of the best offers when they go for shopping.
First prize draw program based on Islamic sharia in Kuwait from AUB KUWAIT: Al-Hassad Islamic is the only scheme to offer high value weekly and monthly prizes that are significantly higher than the total outlay of other prize schemes. AUB has announced the results of the weekly draws of its Al-Hassad Islamic savings scheme. The lucky customers winning the grand weekly prize worth KD 25,000 each at the draws held on the 15th 0f February 2012: Mahmoud Shehadeh Al Salti, Abdulrahman Saleh Mohammed, Rajan Frederic. The following Al-Hassad Islamic customers won cash prizes of KD 1000 each: Rajab Riyadh Al Syed Mahmoud, Hashem Hussain Abdulrahim Al Saffar, Shajea Fahhad Mohamad Al Ajmi, Khaled Mohammed Saleh Mohammed Ali, Nada Ali Hussain Al Musalam, Jobara Mohammed Al Remaihi, Abdeen Abhuhumeid, Ahmed Kamel Mohammad, Bassim Suliman El Khatib, Sayed Abbas Mahmoud Hashem Mazidi, Sowmya Natesh Kumar, Abdulla Mutlaq Talq Al Azmi, John Georges Baroudi, Zayed Faisal Fahad Al Enezi, Mohd Akbar Sharshani, Khadija Farookh Jamal Hasan, Kaleekkal Oothuppachan John, Salahaldin A.Rahim Mahmood Salim, Hamad Mubarak Hamad Mohd, Karoth Yalappil Bhargayan, Noof Hasan Ali Ridha, Mufeed A.Nabi Abedali Rajab, Mohsin Mahmood Mohd Taher, Faeza Moiz Haji Taher, Nada Hasan Hussain Ahmadi. With the new Al-Hassad Islamic 2011 scheme, customers have a lot more to look forward to. With 28 Weekly Prizes totaling KD 100,000 each week and “Salary for Life” Prizes every month, the chances to win bigger prizes more often couldn’t get any better. The most attractive feature of the new scheme is the chance to win bigger prizes, more frequently with 3 grand prizes of KD 25,000 each, week on week plus 25 other weekly prizes of KD 1,000.
Chances to win big prizes on a weekly basis, offer instant rewards to both existing as well as new Investors in Investment Saving Account (AlHassad Islamic). With the introduction of a “Salary for Life” Prize of KD 250,000 every month, the grand prize is also now more frequent and customers do not need to wait for a quarter or more to qualify for the grand prize. The “Salary for Life” has been a core feature for the AL Hassad Islamic scheme with prizes paid out to date exceeding KD 10 million. The monthly “Salary for Life” prize has enabled winners to afford better homes, ensure better education for their children and enjoy an improved quality of life, with the assurance that the rewards will continue to come month after month for 250 months. Al-Hassad Islamic is the only scheme to offer high value weekly and monthly prizes that are significantly higher than the total outlay of other prize schemes in Kuwait. In addition to the attractive prize pool, customers with high balances can opt for other unique features such as Investment savings plan, cheque facility linked to their investment savings account and state of the art e-banking and 24 x 7 Contact Center support. The new Al-Hassad Islamic 2011 is geared to meeting the needs of salaried individuals. Customers can benefit from not only the biggest and most attractive prize pool but can also enjoy state of the art banking benefits and access to AUB’s unique products’ range for Islamic Finances ,credit cards and investment products. All Al-Hassad draws are conducted under the scrutiny of officials from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and independent auditing firm, Ernst& Young. For more information on the Al-Hassad Islamic investment savings account, its prize structure and eligibility criteria, customers may visit any AUB Kuwait.
Gold rises after Greek deal gives euro brief boost LONDON: Gold rose for a second day yesterday, taking its cue from a rally in the euro after European finance ministers struck a deal with Greece on its emergency funding, while silver shrugged off data showing a steep drop in Chinese imports. Euro zone finance ministers sealed a 130 billion euro ($172 billion) bailout for Greece to avert a chaotic default in March after persuading private bondholders to take greater losses and Athens to commit to deep cuts. The euro held onto gains on Tuesday due to relief over the deal, but skeptical investors were looking to sell into any bounce on doubts whether the countryís
debt burden will become manageable. Spot gold rose 0.3 percent on the day to $1,739.06 an ounce by 1248 GMT, while most active US April futures rose nearly 0.9 percent to $1,740.60 an ounce. “Gold is trading more like the other metals - as a risk asset, rather than a risk hedge,” Citigroup analyst David Wilson said. “You’d have thought that all the macro issues would be supportive for gold, when looking at US and European debt and a slowing China, but it seems to be largely driven by the dollar/euro,” he said, adding his bank saw the gold price moving closer towards $1,800 an ounce later this year. — Reuters