Global construction markets booming

“Today we are in a totally different world than that we imagined 12 months ago,” Managing Director JCB Sales Marco Bersellini began during his Sunday visit to Galadari Brothers Co. LLC head office in Al Quoz.

The UK-based construction equipment head’s opening gambit could have elicited a sense of foreboding given the global business outlook conditioning received over the course of the pandemic, if they hadn’t immediately been followed with an excitable: “The global construction and industrial market is booming — in every region in the world.”

Unaccustomed to such off-the-bat candid optimism, the infectious spirit surged. “Every market is on fire,” Bersellini added.

In the UAE to meet with JCB’s UAE distributors: Galadari Brothers Equipment Solutions (GBES), part of Galadari Brothers Co. LLC, Bersellini sat down with company leaders including Galadari Brothers Co-Chairmen Suhail Abdullatif Ibrahim Galadari and Mohammed Abdullatif Ibrahim Galadari and Group CEO and Director Mohamed Yahya Kazi Meeran.

The boardroom talks focused not only on capitalising on the current upswing in business activity, but also planning for a stronger more fruitful partnership. The face-to-face, Bersellini explained, was made even more significant as a result of an almost two-year air travel hiatus between his firm’s base and Dubai.

“We came out from the disruption of Covid-19 in 2020 very strongly. Customer demand for machines has dramatically surged in recent months and currently it is challenging our ability to produce enough machines to fulfil the orders received from our customers,” Bersellini said.

“We want to understand the opportunities for next year and the years to come to make sure we can supply all machines to our distribution partner and specifically here in the UAE to Galadari Brothers Equipment Solutions. It was a 360-degree discussion. We looked at what is the market demand today and how we can maximise our opportunities with the available product range, but sharing a glimpse of what product is coming next year allows us to do some homework on the coming customers and trends.”

Innovation — a core element of JCB’s DNA says the Italian — is key to cracking tomorrow’s commercial landscape. Enjoying segment leader status; improvements to output attract increased brand awareness and interest alongside heightened scrutiny, though this is pressure JCB is comfortably equipped to absorb given the technical leaps the machinery giant consistently achieves. Nowhere is this more apparent than in areas such as sustainability, for example.

“We never stop developing,” Bersellini said.

“In the last two and half years we have been developing our electric range. We were first in the market with our mini excavators, and we have just launched our electric telescopic handlers.

“We are publicly talking about hydrogen solutions: how we can take a current internal combustion diesel-powered engine and turn it into a proper hydrogen engine. It gives an opportunity to operate construction machinery with zero impact and zero emissions. This is where the world is going, and we need to give this solution to our dealers and customers.”

Bersellini revealed the relatively new JCB venture into power generation equipment, with which Galadari Brothers Co. LLC has been intrinsically involved in region, has been an unprecedented success.

Expo 2020 Dubai has been another rich avenue for marque visibility, Bersellini said, though the world fair may prove a more valuable long-term tool for peering into industry developments set to spring up down the road.

“It is a great opportunity in understanding what the new projects may be and what we’ll see in the country in the years to come.

“Our job is to listen to our customers and meet their needs to allow them to work more efficiently…for both JCB and Galadari to grow our business and even more importantly make more customers happy to buy JCB equipment.”