Jarir aims to maintain market share amid competition: Alagil

Chairman Muhammad Alagil 

Jarir Marketing Co. faces fierce competition, and aims to maintain its market share, said Chairman Muhammad Alagil.

He told Al-Arabiya TV that profit in the second quarter of each year is less than the other quarters. Profit and sales cannot be managed on a quarterly level. The coming years should be considered as they will serve as a very important element for the company's progress.

Moreover, Jarir is seeking to secure a larger market share amid strong competition, therefore it applied many discounts, he noted.

According to Alagil, Jarir's market share in laptops segment reaches 50%, with an average of about 20% in smart phones segment, 40% in the books segment, and between 30% and 40% in school books.

The company is also working on opening new showrooms and adding product categories, said Alagil, adding that it has opened three new showrooms and will open another one in the next quarter of this year, with a plan to open six to seven new showrooms next year.

Jarir also has expansion plans in Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, as Bahrain and the UAE have strong growth opportunities for the company, while Kuwait is witnessing growth in e-commerce. The company has also introduced the installment system in Qatar, while there are some difficulties in Kuwait, said the chairman.

There are no operations for Jarir in Egypt currently, but it has real estate and showrooms in strategic locations across the country, which will be used in case of expansion. It logged paper loss represented in the difference between the purchase and the transfer values, but the real estate prices did not fall, as the purchase took place in the US dollar, and some of this real estate is leased, the Chairman stated.

Jarir's profit declined to SAR 403.5 million in H1 2023, compared to SAR 428.5 million in the same period a year ago. Profit for Q2 2023 amounted to about SAR 155.8 million, according to Argaam's data.