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CLEVELAND CABLE TRADING: PROVIDING THE RIGHT CABLE SOLUTIONS ACROSS THE GLOBER
Cleveland Cable Trading: Providing the right cable solutions across the globe
ONE BRAND THAT CATERS TO VARIOUS INDUSTRIES AND THEIR NEEDS
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Established in 1978 and with over 40 years of experience in the field of cables and cable accessories, Cleveland Cable Trading offers 360 degrees of cable solutions to some of the world’s most critical and demanding industries. With an established client base in Europe, the company successfully opened its facility in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone in 2016, to offer its services to the Middle East and Africa through its 20,000 square meter facility.
During his interview with the Zone, Michael Powell, General Manager, Cleveland Cable, shed light on the way in which the company has made use of e-commerce platforms to drive its growth.
Would you like to provide details on what kind of cable solutions you offer to your customers, and which are the industries you cater to? CCT provides full power, Instrument, control, data, and communications cable solutions for a wide range of industries which include Construction, Power Generation, Oil and Gas, and data centres. Wherever possible, we source cables from within and around the UAE to minimise our carbon footprint and to assist the local economies wherever possible.
During the 40 years of your existence in the market, what kind of strategies have you adopted to ensure growth in business? We have learned to adapt and embrace change as it happens. It started as early as the mid 1980’s. Suddenly Telecom operators were moving away from copper and looking into glass fibre as the main cable source for communication. Since then, we have seen a decline in lead-lined / oil-filled cables which have been replaced with far better materials in terms of insulation and sheathing. We have been through the development of more rigid and harder wearing polymers for outer sheaths to replace external cables that may have previously been armoured, the use of finer strands that create flexible cables, the move away from carcinogenic plastics inside buildings which have been replaced by a low smoke, and zero halogen polymers.
We ensure that we are always at the cutting edge when a new technology presents itself, we can only do this because of our unique relationships with our trusted manufacturers. Because of this approach, each of our branches and companies have vast stocks of both new and traditional legacy cables available for immediate use.
What aspect of your company do you think serves as your competitive advantage over your competitors? We believe that our stockholding is unrivalled, we carry a large range of cables in-house for immediate pickup or delivery, throughout all our branches and companies. Due to our relationship with manufacturers, we receive the best pricing and best lead times that are available. The business this brings is a major competitive edge and we often find that we
enabled by our Fully featured e-commerce website, developed from the ground up with a bespoke data strucure
opened a 10,000 square meter facility in 2016 in Jafza to caterer to the MENA region
aren’t really competing like for like with other distributors. Our biggest single competitive advantage though is that if a decision is needed, any member of staff can directly call the directors and senior managers, because of this, we run very lean as a company and are able to respond rapidly to new opportunities, and react to problems before they start to affect our customers.
How has your company made use of e-commerce to ensure its growth? 20 years ago, we started to write an in-house intranet-based electronic stockholding and ordering system which we call Eclipse. Five years since we undertook the decision to upgrade it and decided on a three-point approach to ensuring that whatever the information our client needs, we will listen and provide it in a format they want. We set out to upgrade our stock control system Eclipse, our general IT system, and then finally our web presence.
In early 2019, the decision was made to bring Cleveland Cable Company’s web and online development task in-house after several years of working with outside partners. This decision was taken after an assessment of the need for innovation in this area, and an acceptance of the requirement to take full ownership of the whole development pathway from inception to launch.
The first project fully undertaken by this new team was the redevelopment of our core website into a full-featured web presence, information store, catalogue, and lead generation platform. The success of this project lead to the widening of the team’s remit to include ground-up redevelopment of our electrical wholesale e-commerce website consisting of a bespoke data structure, coded using proven open-source technologies, controlled by an ergonomic and mobile friendly UI/UX solution, and fully integrated both with third-party critical infrastructure and our own internal order capture and fulfilment systems. Launching the e-commerce site in the UK, will therefore act as a benchmark for releasing an entire system worldwide.
How has your existence in Jafza helped in the prosperity of your company? Jafza has given us the ability to grow as a company in the UAE and GCC. Being the hub of business in the Middle East, we can now trade across the region as the free zone offers a gateway to the GCC.
Revolutionising the world of e-commerce
ARE E-COMMERCE AND ONLINE PLATFORMS THE NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS? THE ZONE SPOKE TO INDUSTRY EXPERTS ACROSS VARIED SECTORS WHO HIGHLIGHTED THE VARIOUS WAYS IN WHICH THEY LOOK FORWARD TO DIGITISING THE ECONOMY AND LEVERAGING THE BENEFITS OF E-COMMERCE.
Hany Al Deeb
Managing Director GCC & Iraq, BPC
Here at BPC, we are well aware of how important and critical managing finances could be. Which is why our focus since 2008 has been directed towards adopting digital solutions that not only ease the management and movement of money, but also eradicate the risk of human errors. Our aim has always been to digitise the economy and drive the progress of the nation. Through our SmartVista platform, we have been able to provide our people solutions that vary from card issuing, payment acceptance, to marketplace management, thus making digital ecosystems and smart cities a reality.
Having been in the market for over 50 years now, we truly understand how important the satisfaction of our customers is. Which is why we have always been at the forefront of upgrading ourselves with the help of the latest technologies and solutions. Guided by our strategy for 2025, we have harnessed globalisation, digitalisation, and sustainability in order to ensure the profitability and long-term growth of the e-commerce sector. Moreover, we have not restricted our logistics solutions for profit margins alone. As the world gradually transitions towards recovery from the pandemic, we continue coordinating humanitarian efforts through our Global Humanitarian Logistics Competence Center in Dubai, to coordinate the movements of aid and relief for needy communities on behalf of humanitarian organisations.
Amadou Diallo
CEO, DHL Global Forwarding Middle East & Africa
53%
The e-commerce sector that was a small channel across the GCC region five years ago has now become a key contributor to economic growth. In 2020, e-commerce in the UAE witnessed a 53 per cent year-on-year increase, recording a market value of AED 14.3 billion
Hamed Eslamian
Founder, Black and Blanc Fleur and Growtality Group
Over the years, we have seen a rapidly increasing dependence of the global population on technology to optimise their work. With new concepts coming up such as the metaverse, the world is moving towards a whole new era of innovation and limitless opportunities. The e-commerce sector is no different in this regard. From re-inventing the way in which people purchased products by taking it online, to making use of AI to personalise the shopping experience, the sector has come a long way. Since our establishment in 2017, we have made optimal use of the power of e-commerce to drive the progress of our company. Our online store has been designed to keep customer satisfaction first, and has been successful in terms of building our reputation over the years.
Over the years of our existence in the market, the one thing we have understood extremely well is the fact that the biggest factor that drives the progress of an organisation is the trust it manages to gain of its customers, and the ease of services it offers to them. Our strategy has always been to firstly understand what our people need, and then find ways to have those needs satisfied in the easiest way possible. Our team has developed a user-friendly website that serves as the ideal online shopping platform, and caters to specific needs of our customers. This website is a massive contributor to our success, as it helps us stand by our commitment, and also differentiate ourselves from the rest of the market.
