Having generated new business at its Djibouti establishment and seen prospects brightening in its other joint ventures and operations, Bahrain Maritime & Mercantile International (BMMI) is optimistic it will be able to grow and exploit opportunities in various fields both within the Gulf and internationally.

Some of that optimism was voiced by BMMI’s COO for logistics & supply chain, Robert Smith, while providing an overview of some of the significant developments in the company.
Only recently, Smith said, the company was granted a contract by USAID to receive, store and re-supply aid cargo of up to 30,000 tonnes a time at its warehouse in Djibouti. To accommodate that much capacity, BMMI would have to expand its warehouse capacity, and the additional portion is being leased through the Djibouti Free Zone.
B&B Logistics is operating the Djibouti facility (a joint venture with the Banz Group). The USAID contract has greatly encouraged BMMI, and Smith said: “We are continuing to work directly with our principal contractors and major subcontractors. We’re looking to diversify our existing client base to expand our business throughout the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. That’s from a client perspective. From a service perspective, we’re entering into joint ventures and subcontracting arrangements to enhance the range of services we can offer our clients, services such as providing remote area full life support services.
“We’re developing collaborative relationships with regional suppliers and subcontractors and international contractors capable of taking on major government contracts.”
With a great deal of opportunities arising from every quarter of the world, the need becomes imperative to take strategic decisions – acquire companies or enter into subcontracting or teaming arrangements.
That kind of thinking led BMMI to partner with Banz. B&B Logistics was formed as a third-party logistics group to explore logistics possibilities not only within Bahrain but also outside the kingdom. B&B has operations in Bahrain (in addition to the Djibouti one) and the partnership is eyeing prospects in Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and the UAE. “BMMI-United, BMMI’s Kuwait venture in joint venture with United Warehousing and Refrigeration Company, has materialised, while the Qatar and UAE enterprises have still to be formed. Qatar is our next priority. BMMI has extensive business there for which we wish to provide state-of-the-art facilities including offices, warehousing and logistics services,” says Smith.
B&B’s Bahrain operations commenced at Mina Salman in 2006 and the venture is now operating at full capacity. The partnership is exploring opportunities at the existing port and looking to see if it can have a role in the new port in the making at Hidd.    BMMI’s own warehouse adjacent to its offices at Sitra is working at more or less full capacity. The facility has gone through several upgrades including the installation of a new mobile racking system to increase capacity and assist in BMMI’s organic growth. “The capacity is sufficient for the businesses we are currently projecting,” says Smith. “The racking system is in use in part of the facility. There’s scope to extend it. Parallel to that are the improvements going on with the company’s IT platform that will enable the company to execute its strategic plan.”
BMMI is happy that its joint venture with Inchcape Shipping Services (ISS) is a particularly successful one. “We have excellent relations with them at both regional and global levels, and we have seen considerable growth year on year,” says Smith. “With the opening of the Hidd port we expect to see further growth opportunities in Bahrain.”
In addition to its commercial shipping activities ISS has a regional husbanding contract for the US Fifth Fleet.  “With the port privatisation having taken place and the new port at Hidd to come on stream by next year, we see a major opportunity for Bahrain to become a hub for the northern gulf. ISS will be well positioned to capitalise on this opportunity,” observes Smith.
BMMI’s major supply chain is in the US where its Philadelphia buying office has the ability to purchase directly from manufacturers and co-packers without the need for third-party consolidation.
And, recently, BMMI opened up a supply chain capability in France to support its Djibouti operations. This too is a major supply channel. In response to the development, the company put in place a Djibouti-based French-speaking structure to manage the supplier relations and the supply chain coordination.  Not surprisingly, the company’s Djibouti country manager is French. The supply chain team is a mix of local Djiboutian employees supported by a small team recruited from the French-speaking community in Mauritius.
 In Djibouti, BMMI views immense opportunities, having already made a mark in the logistics business within a short period of launching operations there.  To start with, the company has reasonably high ambitions for the short term. “We expect to extend the supply chain capability into Africa and Central Asia in places such as Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Afghanistan and globally in terms of inbound traffic,” says Smith. Nearer home, in the Gulf, it sees itself expanding across all the regional states.
The geographical spread around Djibouti holds great promise for BMMI.  “Djibouti is the gateway for Ethiopia. We need to think about the best supply routes and we’re developing our supply chain model for Sudan and Somalia. If Northern Somalia is to be served, Djibouti is an option; if it’s the southern area of Somali, Kenya could be used. For Sudan, options include Port Sudan from the North and Mombassa from the South, there is even a desert route through Libya to reach western Darfur,” explains Smith while dwelling on the supply chain scenario.
Djibouti has received large investments from Dubai-based organisations and these are deployed in a number of fields including the seaport, the airport, customs and hotels. Some $300 million is being poured into the first phase of a new port project. The development is combined with an industrial free zone. Everything points to making Djibouti the gateway to Eastern and Central Africa.
BMMI is aware that every market has its own special needs. “Your clients determine what you do,” observes Smith. “In Africa, the Chinese and Malaysians are active, so it would be worth your while to look at China and Malaysia as supply sources.  If your client is the UN bringing troops from South Asia, you have to source products from that geographical area.”  Acumen like that could get BMMI advancing further afield.
BMMI is conscious that no matter how great the dreams, they amount to nothing without the right people in position. So it places great store on language skills. Senior managers with proficiency in more than one language have been recruited. For example, the business development manager in Bahrain speaks French, English and Arabic.
The company is also proud it has encouraged Bahrainis to join the company. At Bahrain Logistics Services, which runs BMMI’s warehouse at Sitra, the Bahrainisation rate is over 90 per cent. “The divisional manager is Bahraini, and from the top down we have a very high level of Bahrainisation, probably greater than any other private company,” comments Smith.
“As the company has appointed many locals, other Bahrainis feel comfortable about joining it. We have invested in new equipment within our company. We provide a good working environment – clean and safe. And last year we introduced the minimum wage, helping us to recruit and retain high-quality employees.”