SupplyVan.com, the first dedicated MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) products multi-vendor marketplace portal in the region, which was founded in 2006 and has over 150,000+ listed SKUs (stock keeping units) from more than 1,800 online international brands in over 1,500 categories. A UAE based online tools and hardware store to buy industrial goods, MRO products and general office supplies.
It is a one-stop shop for MRO product sourcing and supply through Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and a marketplace for millions of products from thousands of global brands across diverse industries, factories, workshops, offices, contractors and businesses in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
SupplyVan.com guides the MRO tools market in the Middle East
The global MRO market was valued at USD 610 (AED 2,240.52) billion in 2019 and is anticipated to make USD 689 (AED 2,530.68) billion by 2025, according to Mordor Intelligence. The Middle East is projected to create 10 per cent of global MRO tool demand and caters to diverse industries such as power tools, hand tools, material handling and storage, outdoor equipment, safety products, hydraulic and pneumatic products, electricals and lighting, paint equipment and supplies, Packaging, and sealing, to name a few.
The non-existence of rise in demand and digitisation for MRO products after the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions has sustained SupplyVan.com’s business projections.
Facility management (FM) is one of the leading user industries of MRO tools. The advancement of the FM Industry in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region is projected to drive demand for MRO tools and the strong construction industry is driving the demand for FM services in the GCC region. The FM market size in the region is set to reach USD 71.4 (AED 262.25) billion by 2024. Several massive MRO product businesses have a huge presence in the GCC. With upcoming energy and utility projects in MENA, the demand for MRO products is projected to increase exponentially.
SupplyVan.com has expanded four-fold in the last two years having shifted into a new logistics facility near Dubai International Airport and are targeting a three hundred per cent revenue growth this year as compared to the previous year. The team is working to bring value addition in terms of procurement for their retail and business to business (B2B) clients with their custom portal and catalogue solutions. The online portal sources from manufacturers and distributors at lowest prices for branded and original products locally and across the globe combined with rapid and excellent support, the founder of SupplyVan.com, Ali Asgar Raja said.
The company’s unique selling proposition (USP) is timely delivery, technical accuracy and customer support, Raja added.
The roadmap
SupplyVan.com’s e-commerce store has thirty-four categories and over two hundred subcategories that sells major brands such as Honeywell, 3M, DeWalt, Bosch, Hitachi, Milwaukee, SKF and Fluke, and so on.
Raja is strong about the start-up’s roadmap in the growing market such as the MENA, which is thriving on a pent-up demand for MRO tools.
The company aspires to be the largest business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) supply chain solutions firm with expertise in technology enabled procurement, vendor portfolio management and software-as-a-service (SaaS) products in the region and afar, Raja said.
Primarily, last year, SupplyVan.com had opened a 4,700 square feet logistics centre, and later this year, it has extended operations to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Qatar and Oman.
Strategies are stirring to expand to Africa by next year, launching its second logistics centre and white label SKUs of high-volume product lines.
Disincentive to MRO products’ supply chain
The glitches with the existing MRO products’ supply chain are:
- Fragmented supply base
- Complex MRO procurement for buyers
- Shortage of economies of scale
- Shortage of geographical and operational scale to deliver proper service
- Elevated pilferage and wastage
- Low-tech adoption across the supply chain
- Payment term and cash flow challenges
- Timely delivery Challenges
- Unreliable supplies
How do tech-enabled supply chain solutions benefit buyers benefit sellers?
Assimilation of VMI makes the process of procurement of MRO products automated which facilitates in significant simplification of the process. Furthermore, automation facilitates in several other ways such as:
- Automated ordering: Automation of ordering and issuing consumables lets further control and transparency.
- Built-in user management: This attribute facilitates selective-user approach with its built-in user management system. This implies that only a group of personnel would be able to access resources and data and place orders for approval by the department heads or procurement departments.
- Order requisition: Tech-enabled simplification makes it feasible to keep tap of all the buyer orders is it a single order or multiple shipments.
- Budget monitoring: Automating the MRO product procurements also aids in the efficient management of the requirements and the inventory. It provides access to a list of all open quotes and where they are in the fulfilment pipeline.
- Order tracking: The integration lets buyers to partake a full list of all previous orders. This supports buyers to look at previous prices, and products and download invoices.
- Management Information System (MIS) reporting: Customisation of MIS reports grants buyers to pursue user-level and product-level consumption.
