By Maha Ellawati
Benghazi, 26 December:
Business has been challenging for a Benghazi building supplies store that opened its doors in September, so . . .[restrict]the management is planning a major marketing drive in the new year.
The key problem, according Fakhri Al-Anizi, the general manager of Danube Libya, which opened a 12,000 square foot outlet in Al-Hawari fours months ago, is the lack of craftsmen to instal home improvements.
“ You cannot say the business is doing very well yet, but it’s OK ” Anizi told the Libya Herald, “ We have our business plan and we are launching a big marketing campaign next year”. He added that Danube Libya had also set up a customer credit arrangement with a bank.
The company is part of the UAE-based Danube Dubai franchise, which describes itself as the biggest building resources company in the Middle East, selling household as well as construction materials.
“Right now we are not doing the construction materials” explained Anizi. “That part of the project has not yet started. What we have started with is sanitary ware and home improvements, curtains, wallpapers, baths, flooring and luxury items such as jacuzzis and spa baths.”
Libyans he said, had not yet picked up the DIY habit, preferring to hire workers to instal their home improvements. However, because of employment visa difficulties, there were simply too few skilled craftsmen, who in the past have come principally from Tunisia and Egypt, to take on the work.
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