Chapter 40\ After Cyprus came Kuwait

There was a quick realization at Intermarkets that the game was changing after the merger, as regional tasks could no longer be handled remotely from Beirut, despite the growing number of local account and media handlers. When the first assignment emerged from Kuwait, none of the old MEMAS people seemed ready to travel, even though the project belonged to their own portfolio. All eyes therefore turned towards me, as both the management and my colleagues seemed to think I was always packed and ready to travel because of my frequent Ceylon Tea, Shell and Pan Am trips.

I persuaded T.G. Peiris to join me for a tour of Ceylon Tea importers in Kuwait, and by the time he secured clearance from his head office, I had collected the Nacet Shaving Blades brief for Kuwait from Raymond Accad and worked out the travel arrangements.

Antoine Saad, another Egyptian/Lebanese, had been stationed by MEMAS in Kuwait since 1969 and was at the helm of the first Lebanese agency to branch out into Kuwait. Antoine was waiting for us at the airport and the trip proved to be successful, both on the Ceylon Tea and Nacet fronts. South Asian single male workers represented the largest group of Nacet’s two-sided shaving blade users and launching a free telephone card offer was a timely defense against the imminent launch of Schick Sword blades. For Ceylon Tea, our meetings with leading importers such as Al Wazzan and WJ Towell & Co’s Sultan family assured T.G. that he should expect a surge in buying at the upcoming tea auction in Colombo. For me, the trip was an eye-opener and a practical introduction to a new market.

Before long, Intermarkets’ management realized that new blood was needed at the Kuwait agency. Surprisingly this time they did not look for another middle-aged Egyptian, but the search turned towards AUB, hoping to identify a graduate who could hold the reins in Kuwait. This change in recruitment policy had been influenced by the positive evaluation they received from Shell and Ceylon Tea. To my luck, another acquaintance of mine surfaced as a result of the search. Youssef Habbab, a business administration graduate, had been my classmate in a few elective courses and was part of the group that I hung out with at AUB’s Milk Bar. This meant that my circle of friends amongst the new joiners was growing by the day.

Having a classmate in Kuwait was a strong incentive for me to return whenever a business opportunity cropped up in my portfolio, or even in those of my colleagues. By that time, Youssef, who had relatives in Kuwait, had settled down in a really nice way. At his home I was introduced to Ibrahim Sahyoun of the Pan Arab Computer Center (PACC), Sami Raffoul of the Pan Arab Research Centre (PARC), Saad Abdel Latif of Pepsi’s Kuwait bottler, his brother Fouad, and Nabil Kanazeh, the king of toys in Kuwait.

When Youssef took over the management of Intermarkets Kuwait, he was introduced to Abdel Aziz Al Masaeed, the local sponsor of the agency. Foreign companies were not allowed to operate in any of the Gulf States without having a 51 per cent national partner, according to government regulations. However, no company wanted to part with such a large chunk of its shareholding, nor its management responsibilities. The majority came to hushed agreements with their national partners, whereby they were paid a flat annual amount, which came to be known as a “sponsorship fee”,  in return for an under-the-table arrangement that their 51 per cent ownership was not to pose a liability for their foreign partners.

Abdel Aziz Al Masaeed was the founder, owner and publisher of Al Ray Al Aam, an Arabic language newspaper that had been established in 1961. Youssef quickly realized the conflict of interest that plagued his clients when he booked ads on their behalf in other newspapers. The more Intermarkets became known as an Al Masaeed-owned agency, the more other publishers made sure that the clients of the agency would never be granted prime positions or other privileges. Youssef flew back to Beirut and presented his recommendation to replace the national partner with the M.H. Alshaya Company, which was Kuwait’s specialist in sanitary products. However, this family business was extremely well diversified, beginning with the establishment of the Kuwait Sheraton, which was then the Middle East’s first five-star hotel and the first Sheraton outside of the US. The M.H. Alshaya Company was also in the automotive and many other businesses. Intermarkets’  management instantly agreed.

This new partnership allowed Youssef to gain an introduction to the Sheraton group. We all became friendly with the mainly Lebanese management of the Kuwait property, as we regularly stayed there, and soon they awarded us their advertising business. As a result of the good work we delivered, the team introduced us to its international management group, which was in the process of establishing a Europe and Middle East regional office in London. As soon as this was up and running, and as soon as the Sheraton Park Tower Hotel opened its doors in London’s Knightsbridge in 1973, it became our preferred hotel in the British capital. Youssef was successful at getting close to the hotel management and the frontline staff, so it was not surprising that Intermarkets was introduced to all the Middle East’s Sheraton hotels, the numbers of which were growing from Hammamet in Tunisia to Sanaa in Yemen.

We were then invited to the Sheraton’s global marketing meeting, which was held at the Sheraton Skyline in Heathrow. Youssef and I attended and both of us were fascinated by the wealth of marketing knowledge gained from the distinguished lecturers. The catering was superb, as each of the participating hotels had brought along their executive chefs, and then came the black-tie farewell dinner, where the amazing dancing skills of all the general managers was on show. The hit tune “Pop Corn” was played repeatedly and kept echoing in our ears throughout the long flight home.