SACO CEO says global shipping crisis impacts goods availability, raises costs

Haytham Al-Hamidi, CEO of SACO

The continuation of global shipping crisis for a longer-than-expected period since the onset of the pandemic, is beginning to impact the availability of some goods, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Saudi Company for Hardware (SACO), Haytham Al-Hamidi.

“This led to a significant rise in shipping costs, thus impacting procurement costs in general,” Al-Hamidi told Argaam in a telephone interview.

The company’s real challenge lies in maintaining stock quantities to meet customer demand.

SACO succeeded in importing larger quantities than usual, but there is still a shortage of some items and products due to pressure on factories and the global shipping crisis.

The CEO said that the total area of the company's branches reached 214,000 square meters (sqm) by the end of Q2 2021. He expects to open two additional branches in the Western region by the end of the second half of 2021.

The new central warehouse will start operation by next year, in order to improve the performance, effectiveness, efficiency, and speed of receiving goods from suppliers, in addition to storage and supply to the company's showrooms in Riyadh.

The new central warehouse is projected to have a decrease of about 20% in storage expenses.

Al-Hamidi said that it is difficult to predict the impact of utilizing the new central warehouse on sales at present due to several external factors, including the global shipping crisis.

According to a data compiled by Argaam, SACO reported a net profit after Zakat and tax of SAR 30.1 million in the first half of 2021, a 33% decrease from SAR 44.9 million in the same period last year. In Q2 2021, the company posted a net profit after Zakat and tax of SAR 14.4 million, a decline of 56% year-on-year (YoY).