AN ACE PLAYER
Domain knowledge, patience and reinvesting in the business have helped Muscat Sports to become a leading company in sports merchandising company. Mayank Singh reports

To be or not to be that is the question” said Eng Mohammed al Busaidi (a founder member of Muscat Sports) recalls Ahmed Salim al Busaidy, managing director, Muscat Sports. The year was 1994 and the company faced the choice of either moving up a few notches by opening an outlet at the Al Araimi complex at a steep investment of RO50,000 or to continue being a marginal player in the business. The Shakespearean soliloquy worked wonders as the management decided to take the plunge.

Moving up in business
Muscat Sports opened an outlet in the Al Araimi complex, spending an additional RO11,000 (apart from rent) on furnishing the shop. Says Mohammed, “The decision proved to be a turning point for Muscat Sports.” The new found visibility of Muscat Sports helped it to introduce a number of international brands like Reebok, Speedo, Puma, Stingray, Umbro, New Balance, Lotto, Asics etc to its customers. This helped the company to move a few steps closer to its goal of becoming a leading sports merchandising company in Oman.

It proved to be a quantum leap for a company which started off in 1990 in a 75 sq feet shop in Hamriya, Muscat with a seed capital of RO6,000. Realising the importance of being in a high profile location, Muscat Sports opened up another retail outlet at Markaz al Bahja in 2004. As the city shifted towards Seeb, it made commercial sense to have a store in the vicinity of that area. The store proved to be a success from day one. Muscat Sports is giving final touches to an agreement with Safeer hypermarket to open a store in the mall soon. Says Ahmed, “It is a good area with no sports stores in the vicinity. We are opening up a small store in the hypermarket.” The chain covers the entire Muscat area with its three stores in Al Araimi, Markaz al Bahja and Ruwi.

Apart from these, it is also a wholesale supplier of various brands like Puma, Speedo, Stingray etc to hypermarkets like LuLu, Carrefour, Sultan Centre, Safeer Hypermarket etc. Muscat Sports also supplies merchandise to sports shops in Salalah, Sur and Sohar. “We choose people who have a good set up,” says Ahmed. Thus the chain has managed to create a pan Oman footprint for itself.

Stellar brands
The acquisition of major brands has been another important reason for its success. Muscat Sports is the exclusive distributor of most of the brands mentioned above (except Reebok). In 2005, it became the sole distributor of Techno-gym – the second biggest gym equipment company in the world and the number one company in this category in Europe. To service its customers better it floated a new company called Sports Solutions in 2007 which takes care of the Techno-gym brand. The company has done up the gyms of hotels like the Al Bustan Palace, The Chedi, Sheraton, Park Inn etc. Rising consciousness about fitness is encouraging people to install fitness equipments in their houses. The cost of a gym can range anywhere from RO10,000 to RO200,000.

In a business where distributors get changed every few years, it is a testimony to Muscat Sports strengths that it has managed to hold onto its brands for years. Almost every brand that the company acquired has remained with it. Says Ahmed, “In Dubai for instance Middle East agents for sports brands change every 2-3 years but all our brands have remained with us from the beginning because we make a special effort to service them.”

Muscat Sports floated its own in-house brand called Marma in 2006. The company makes T-shirts, shorts, footballs and sports wear under the brand name. The company supplies these to local football clubs like Habourah, Fanja, Nizwa, Ahli, Sidab, Dhofar etc apart from selling it in its outlets. As each of these clubs use their individual colours and change T-shirt designs frequently, it is a challenge to keep up with them. An in-house brand like Marma helps Muscat Sports to take better care of these changing mores. The lack of an intermediary agent keeps costs down making it more acceptable to local clubs.

Though Marma may be a shade cheaper than established international brands, the company keeps a strict tab on its quality standards. Says Mohammed, “We use China and Taiwan as our manufacturing base as the cost of labour in these markets is low, but we constantly travel to these units to ensure that there is no compromise on the quality standards.”

The company entered into an agreement with Oman Football Association (OFA) in 2006 as its sole supplier for the next three years. Muscat Sports provides all the requirements of the Oman Football team like T-shirts, shoes, gloves etc free of cost. The agreement gives Muscat Sports the right to use the Oman football team’s logo on T-shirts and to sell them. The company sees this as an important brand building activity and a contribution to the national team.

Success mantra
The company which started with four people (three Busaidi brothers and an employee) is today a 60-strong organisation. Looking back Mohammed feels that there have been few important reasons their success. Having grown up playing sports the Busaidi brothers have a first hand knowledge of the sporting requirements of clubs and sportsmen. Mohammed was a handball player, Zoher al Busaidi his elder brother is the assistant coach of the national football team, while their younger brother Said al Busaidi was felicitated as the best football player during his hey days. “If we started a business that we did not know about, it would have been difficult for us. Since we started something that we loved it has helped us,” says Mohammed.

Though the company has been through its rough patches like the Muscat Securities crash of 1997, the promoter’s policy of reinvesting their earnings into the business has paid off. Muscat Sports has been making consistent profits since 2004 and expects to continue growing in the coming years. “It is important to have patience in a business, one should not look at making a fast buck. We never withdraw money from the company and have always been ready to inject more if needed,” says Ahmed. Such single minded focus has meant that Muscat Sports has never had to go back to dilemma’s like ‘to be or not to be’ ever again.

Top^