GfK Group expansion in the Middle East and Africa
December 18, 2008 - With the acquisition of an existing company and the establishment of two new ones, the GfK Group is expanding its commitment to the Middle East/African growth region (MEA). The companies will be integrated within the Custom Research sector.
The GfK Group acquired a 74% majority stake in the Egyptian consumer re-search company, Market Insight, as of November 2008. The company has been active in the region since 1987 and has been GfK’s preferred coopera-tion partner for some years. The company operates under the name GfK Egypt. In 2008, the company, which has a staff complement of 40, will record sales amounting to around EUR 1.3m. Dr. Mansour El-Ganady will continue to manage the institute, which will be consolidated on 1 January 2009.
GfK Egypt is among the leading research organizations in the Middle East and North Africa and offers research and consultancy services in the field of Cus-tom Research, in particular for telecommunications, the food industry, finance and real estate, retail and pharmaceuticals. Major clients include Mobinil, Mercedes Benz, Pizza Hut, National Bank of Egypt and Credit Agricole.
In line with the GfK tradition of combining practical market research with aca-demic knowledge, GfK Egypt, in cooperation with the Arab Academy, has es-tablished the first Market Research study course culminating in an MBA in the region. In this way, by training highly-qualified young professionals, the company is backing Arab society in general, as well as the market research industry in particular.
Further information
Dr. Mansour El-Ganady
Managing Partner of GfK Egypt
Tel. +202 241 47 559
mansour.elganady@gfk.com
GfK Custom Research Middle East
In order to exploit the growth potential in the Middle East region, also in November, GfK established a joint venture together with the Median Group under the name of GfK Custom Research Middle East Holding, in which GfK holds a 51% stake. The two new companies, GfK Custom Research Dubai and GfK Custom Research KSA (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia), will commence business operations in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in January under this umbrella. GfK is already involved in numerous projects in the Custom Research sector in this region. In future, these new companies will enable GfK to offer its surveys directly for their own account and in this way provide clients an even more efficient service.
Ranabir Sen and Tilak Makherji will manage the Dubai company as Managing Directors, with Adil Ali M. Al-Najaei appointed as Managing Director in Saudi Arabia. All three have many years of experience in managing research organizations in the Middle East and Asian region.
Further information
Siegfried Högl
Managing Director GfK Marktforschung and member of the Global Custom Research Boards of GfK
Tel +49 911 395-2364
E-Mail siegfried.hoegl@gfk.com
Press Release