RIYADH, 21 July 2007 — The Saudi Research and Marketing Group (SRMG) announced the appointment of Booz Allen Hamilton, leading global consulting firm, as its management consultant for the development of its vast growth strategies aimed at guaranteeing its sustained growth besides fortifying its market competitiveness, according to an SRMG statement yesterday.
Hamilton will make extensive studies on SRMG’s short term and medium term initiatives for the ideal performance of its media companies.
Hamilton will lay down the plan for getting maximum benefit from the expansion opportunities of its conventional and digital media companies commensurate with the SRMG’s portfolio that is to fortify its lead position in the market and strengthen its information services.
It has to be noted in the context that SRMG has lately been rated by an independent international rating agency as enjoying a formidable position in the printing, publishing and advertising market. SRMG gets it position thanks to four unique features such as owning outstanding trademarks, strong financial standing, and capable administration supported by international expertise.
According to the Nomura Investment Bank report SRMG has several unique features compared to the region’s other companies in the same field. The new companies entering the information industry in Saudi Arabia are likely to face tough challenges though the industry will offer strong and profitable growth to the established major companies, the report noted.
Commenting on the group’s performance over the past two years the report said that it achieved remarkable profits with excellent operational performance despite shouldering comprehensive programs of reconstruction.
The report importantly noted some favorable features for widening investment opportunities for the group. They are its potential to conquer new markets in the Middle East and North Africa particularly in the printing and publishing industry, a favorable population structure in the region where the majority of population are in youth bracket, the increasing trend of liberalizing the journalistic sector which would lead to considerable increase in the interest in reading amidst the public in the region, the growing number of the local and foreign advertisers, growing level of general education which would apparently make considerable growth in the number of readers in addition to the group’s huge office and infrastructure to distribute its products through various information media. The report observed that it is hard to find other establishments in the same industry that could be compared to the SRMG with its vast and unique potentials even internationally let alone regionally.