The new Al Khobar office will be headed by the recently appointed Operations Director, Adel El Said, who joined the joint venture from January 1st. With 20 years of experience of the logistics market in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Adel El Said also has extensive knowledge of the energy sector in Saudi Arabia.
The main purpose of Al Khaldi-Bertling Logistics Ltd. will be to jointly explore new and existing business opportunities in KSA in both the oil & gas, the broader developing energy industries and non-oil sector; the latter segment expanded for the fourth month in a row in December 2020, as per official sources. The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 Strategy and In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program have already resulted into local reforms, energy sector diversification and business environment reforms, which will continue to leverage foreign investments in KSA in the coming years.
“Saudi Arabia’s ‘Beyond Oil Program’ is critical for the diversification (especially in non-oil sectors), modernisation and well-being of the local business environment and society”, says Colin MacIsaac, CEO of Bertling Logistics. “The empowerment and employment of nationals (male and female), the expansion of the private sector as well as the ease of doing business in the country and the increased support of local suppliers and partners are key of the Kingdom’s future vision and also anchored in the ambitions of our JV company”, MacIsaac continues. “Local content will be key to make our new setup in Saudi Arabia a success”.
Both JV partners have been in the industry for many years and have a long history of working in KSA. While Bertling’s focus is on global project logistics and transport engineering solutions, Al Khaldi primarily specialises in local logistics/trucking services and transport vehicle supply.
In doing so, Al Khaldi will contribute its strong local logistics expertise, wide-spread partner network and modern transport vehicle fleet, while Bertling will bring in its global office and supplier network, modern IT infrastructure and a varied project expertise in Saudi Arabia, neighbouring regions and other foreign trade countries and partners of KSA (like South Korea, China and India) to contribute to the success of the JV. Of special value will be the in-house customs clearance department of Al Khaldi-Bertling Logistics Ltd, which will enable the company to offer door-to-door service, advice and documentation services to their local and global client base.
“We are delighted and proud to have in Bertling a loyal partner to add value and broaden our local service offering in KSA and to diversify our portfolio”, says Megren Al Khaldi, vice President of Al Khaldi Logistics Company.
“Saudi Arabia has always been an important market for Bertling and our global team is passionate about all the new business opportunities arising in the country”, comments Colin MacIsaac. “We are convinced that our new JV will obtain a leading position in the Saudi logistics market and that we will be ideally positioned to adequately respond to and serve the many business opportunities we have identified resulting from the increasing investments and on-going reforms in KSA”, MacIsaac concludes.