WD celebrates 10-year anniversary and eyes further regional growth

The event was attended by several senior WD representatives, and key regional resellers, distributors and partners of the company.

Speaking at the event, Scott Davis, VP International Sales, Western Digital said, "It has been an exciting and highly rewarding decade for WD in the Middle East, a period which saw us go from strength to strength while reaching milestones with each passing year. Today we enjoy a commanding market share in the Middle East's hard drive market, and we are well on course to improve this in 2008."

"The dedication and commitment of our partner network in the region has been a major contributor to our sustained success in the Middle East, and we look forward to their continued support in the future," he added.

Western Digital is the world number one in external branded products, with this business contributing approximately 20 per cent to the company's overall turnover. WD was the first to ship in volume, 250 and 320 GB notebook hard drives; and was also the first to introduce in volume the 320 GB per-platter technology. Another noteworthy achievement for WD came in the form of its 'Green Power' drive, which uses up to 40 per cent less energy compared to other drives, making it the most energy efficient hard drive in the market, especially for large data centers.

In 1997, Western Digital became the first company in its domain to set up a regional office in the Middle East and Africa region, with a dedicated service center and on-the-ground personnel to effectively cater to the demands of the market.

"We are now reaping the benefits of our investments in the region and are ideally positioned to make fresh investments in R & D and people. We will continue with our channel strategy in the region and are keen on intensifying our activities to drive the mobile and branded businesses to the next level of market share and success,"

Davis concluded.

Western Digital has in-country local distributors in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan, Morocco and Tunisia; while the company's regional distributors are present across the Middle East and Africa region.