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DEALER FOCUS JUNE 2021
VARA ON HIGH VELOCITY
BOBCAT’S IRAQ DEALER, VARA MACHINERY, HAS HAD A GREAT RUN SO FAR, GRABBING THE HIGHEST MARKET SHARE FOR MOST OF THE MANUFACTURER’S PRODUCTS IN THE COUNTRY. THE COMPANY’S CEO TELLS CMME ABOUT THE REASONS FOR ITS SUCCESS, THE PECULIARITIES OF THE IRAQ MARKET AND HOW HE VIEWS THE FUTURE
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ere’s a surprise: the most popular backhoe loader in the Iraq market is… Bobcat! It’s not the usual JCB, nor is it a Caterpillar. And the reason that Bobcat has managed to corner this segment of the Iraqi market is because of its dealer, Vara Machinery. The Erbil-based company is the exclusive dealer for Bobcat equipment in all of Iraq and its relationship with the Middle East’s premier compact equipment brand stretches back around five years to 2017. But Vara itself is a company that is much older and with a rich history in the Iraq market. Speaking exclusively with CMME, Haidar A. Maulwed, CEO of Vara Machinery, describes the legacy, excellence and future of the Iraqi equipment giant and outlines why it is one of the best performing dealerships of any brand in the Middle East in general and Iraq in particular. “Vara is one of the leading companies in the earthmoving and construction machinery business in Iraq. We go back to the late 1900s and had humble beginnings as a seller of agricultural tractors, spare parts
and other equipment, and grew to become the authorised dealer for Doosan and later Bobcat in Iraq. “As a company we started in 1972, but it was only in 2007 that the name Vara became well-known in the Iraqi market. We began mainly with the agricultural business, but after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq, we branched out into heavy machinery and became the dealer for Doosan heavy equipment for the country and supplied Doosan Infracore excavators, wheeled loaders, dump trucks and other such machinery to the Iraqi market. “When it comes to Bobcat, it is part of the Doosan umbrella, so when we were successful with the Doosan brand in Iraq, we also took on Bobcat in 2017, as we saw a definite demand for compact equipment in the country. Today, Vara has a great relationship with Bobcat, which both companies value, and we are so close with Bobcat that together we call ourselves one family for the Iraqi market.” Maulwed himself has cultivated a very close relationship with the top management of Doosan and Bobcat over the years, both in the Middle East and the wider EMEA region. This has led to several benefits for both parties, especially where the Iraq market is concerned.