BYRNE INTERVIEW WITH JAMES DODGSON GENERAL Manager KSA
1. WHAT IMPACT DID THE PANDEMIC HAVE ON BYRNE AND HOW ARE YOU
The pandemic had a significant impact on Byrne, most notably across our events department. In 2019, we had a fantastic events season which gave us momentum going into 2020 in
EMERGING FROM THIS?
anticipation of an even bigger and better season. This only emphasised the shock we faced when the world and in turn the events industry, came to a complete standstill. However, Byrne quickly adapted to the landscape around us by utilizing our employees' skill sets and experience and channeling this towards the COVID-19 relief efforts. The team at Byrne built and deployed field hospitals, COVID-19 testing and vaccination stations. I am proud of the way we handled the situation; we adapted to the circumstances and limited any losses to the company.
Emerging from this, Byrne’s focus has primarily been on staff wellbeing for which we had a successful vaccination drive across the company in 2020/21. We have also focused on investing in new fleet across all product ranges in line with our customers' needs, to bolster our offering and ensure we emerge from the pandemic bigger, better and stronger. We want to guarantee that we are able to service the events sector across KSA in anticipation of an industry boom in the post COVID period.
2. WHAT ARE YOUR PREDICTIONS
The events industry in KSA is only going to get bigger and better – it
FOR THE EVENTS MARKET IN
has already come back with such force. The industry is booming and
KSA?
there is so much we can give to the economy in terms of events. Popular events such as Riyadh Season and the F1 demonstrate that The Kingdom is ready to step it up a notch and produce bigger and better events, on a global comparison scale.
We foresee a drastic shift in the delivery of events in The Kingdom – they are opening up on a global scale and catering for a diverse range of people. More events being structured across the entire Kingdom has definitely been a shift in the way they are being executed and we see this continuing into 2022 and beyond.
3. WHAT IS BYRNE’S STRATEGY
Our strategy going forward is investing in people with a strong focus
FOR GOING FORWARD, INTO
on the youth of today. It’s imperative that we employ the youth of
2022?
today regardless of where they come from; they are the future of the industry and will be leading the next wave of business. We need to be investing in those people.
More specifically, we intend to employ local young talent in line with the policy of Saudization. This generation are the people who are going to drive us forward. They will bring to the company a lot of focus, drive and effort and a new dynamic to the organisation and its processes.
4. WHAT ARE BYRNE’S GOALS AND OBJECTIVES FOR 2022 IN KSA?
Our goal going into 2022 is to emerge bigger, better and stronger than before while ensuring the health and safety of our employees is at the forefront of our operations. We have already been putting the contingency plans in place across our business in KSA with a vaccination push,
ensuring
all
of
our
employees
are
vaccinated and educated on COVID protocols.
Byrne caters to a number of industries as well as events, inclusive of but not limited to Oil & Gas, Construction
&
Infrastructure,
Retail
&
Commercial, Military and Defense and Medical, and we aim to continue diversifying to meet the market demand across all of these sectors.
Our focus moving forward is ultimately to be ready for the unexpected and to keep evolving by being consistently responsive to our customers’ needs.