Gulf Construction Online - Daimler boosts its presence

Saudi Arabia

Daimler, Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Al Khaldi and Jipco officials at the signing ceremony.

Daimler boosts its presence

01 May 2017

Daimler Commercial Vehicles Mena FZE, along with its regional partners, has secured key orders in the Gulf region in the past couple of months, further reinforcing its presence in the region.

The company and its Saudi partner Juffali Industrial Products Company (Jipco), the authorised general distributor of Mercedes-Benz Commercial Vehicles in the kingdom, recently signed a major deal for 539 Mercedes-Benz trucks from Al Khaldi Transport, a Dammam-based company.

The order includes the full range of Mercedes-Benz medium- and heavy-duty trucks sold in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region, namely Accelo, Atego, Actros 4x2 tractor-heads equipped with Mercedes PowerShift automated transmission, Actros 6x4 and 6x6 tractor-heads and Actros 6x4 and all-wheel drive chassis.

All trucks ordered by Al Khaldi are provided with a tailor-made after-sales package, including driver training, technical training and 24/7 roadside assistance, and will be delivered by Jipco in Q2 and Q3 this year, according to Daimler.

The contract was signed in late March, in the presence of Stefan Buchner, the head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, Till Oberwoerder, head of marketing, sales and servi ces Mercedes-Benz Trucks, and Roland Schneider, the president and CEO of Daimler Commercial Vehicles Mena in Dubai.

On the deal, Buchner says: “It is our clear ambition at Mercedes-Benz to build trucks fulfilling the highest standards and requirements delivering quality and excellence to our customers. The latest major order of 539 Mercedes-Benz trucks further proves that we succeed in our ambition.”

Daimler Commercial Vehicles Mena last year marked a major milestone with the sale of the 100,000th Mercedes-Benz Actros in the region to Al Khaldi.

“This fleet deal is also the result of our new regional centre Mena in Dubai, which makes us even more effective in the region – not only in sales, but also in customer services,” he adds.

Sheikh Hamoud Al Khaldi, the chairman of Al Khaldi, says: “We have decided to further expand our truck fleet and with the latest order, we will increase our total fleet of Mercedes-Benz Trucks to more than 1,000 units. With Jipco and Mercedes-Benz, we have strong and reliable partners ensuring our fleet operates at low cost and the highest availability, which is key to the success of our business.”

Schneider says the big order including an after-sales package impressively underlines the competitiveness and leadership of Mercedes-Benz Trucks in Saudi Arabia.

“We congratulate our strong and long-term partner Jipco on this impressive deal and we thank Al-Khaldi Transport for their continuous commitment and trust in our brand and products,” he adds.

Saudi Arabia is a core market in the region for Mercedes-Benz Trucks, with more than 43,500 trucks delivered since 2002, the year Jipco was founded. With a fleet of more than 1,000 Mercedes-Benz trucks, Al Khaldi is one of its key customers.

Kobus van Zyl, CEO of Jipco, comments: “This order has been the result of our customer-centric approach where we are aiming to not only understand our customer’s operational risk and challenges, but also agree on solutions to ensure the highest uptime and lowest cost of operations. This was and will be an incredible team effort for the total term of the contract and beyond (see also UAE Focus).