Wella Middle East hosts unprecedented GCC conference at Al Maha Desert Resort

The annual conference provided an ideal platform to highlight Wella's dynamic growth and sales performance throughout the region.

Change and Commitment proved a fitting motto for this year's unique GCC Conference, reinforcing the ongoing change Wella Middle East strives for at all levels and its commitment to consumers, trade and partners throughout the region.

Wella broke away from the norms of staging a function in an inner-city hotel ballroom to host the conference in a purpose built marquee within the stunning grounds of the Al Maha Desert Resort.

Al Maha Desert Resort offered an exclusive, uninterrupted and central environment to focus on the comprehensive business programme and provided an ideal setting to discuss the past year, share the achievements and successes, and talk about the challenges and opportunities that lay ahead.

The infrastructural requirements alone for the event took more than a weeks preparation beginning with the levelling, watering and compression of the selected site, construction of the various marquees, delivery of three power generators, as well as the installation of all the necessary state-of-the-art audio visual and lighting equipment.

Commenting on the conference, Kamil Najjar, Regional General Manager, Wella Middle East, said:

"Hosting the Wella GCC Conference within the challenging environment of the desert demonstrated our shear determination to illustrate that we are always striving to move away from the norms, position Wella as unique and are committed to deliver strictly the best, no matter how harsh the conditions."

The instrumental backing given by Wella's partners has accounted for much of the breathtaking growth and success of Wella throughout the GCC. In 1998, one manager oversaw the entire region and now heads the Wella Middle East Regional Office. Wella Middle East has grown from strength to strength, with the regional office now comprising a highly qualified 12-strong team, who together cover the region, with further growth expected to continue in 2002 and beyond.

With the celebration of the first year anniversary of the Wella Middle East Regional Office in Dubai, UAE, Wella Middle East also celebrated record sales growth. It has recorded a 22 % increase in IMS (In Market Sales) for the year 2001 and 23% in export sales, with Saudi Arabia alone being the largest single partner country importer of Wella products in the world.

While ranking no. 2 in the total retail hair care market, Wella continues to hold the leading market share position in three out of the four hair cosmetic categories. Wella leads the market in Colour, Styling and Conditioners, reaching up to 72% of the colour market in Kuwait, which is the highest market share by Wella in retail colour world-wide.

The double-digit growth within the Wella Middle East group is also reflected through Wella's performance world-wide with an exponential sales increase of 14.4% to Euro 2.274 million recorded between January to September 2001, compared to the same period for the previous year of Euro 1.988 million.

Speaking about Wella's plans for the future, Najjar added:
"We have an ambitious plan for 2002-2004 and the challenge to reinforce Wella's image as Young, Modern and Trendy, while building upon Wella's reputation as the hair care expert. We aim to revolutionise the hair care industry throughout this dynamic region with unique and innovative initiatives."

It is through the dedicated support provided by its marketing communications agency Impact/BBDO that Wella Middle East continues to challenge its competitors, in all aspects, with new parity breaking campaigns.