Managing the risks

LIFT Machines such as this straddle carrier from Combilift form part of the Kanoo Machinery range.
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Heading one of the Gulf’s largest and most diverse industrial groups, Kanoo CEO Freddy Sherman shares his views on the role of finance and technology.

Few people who are in the industry don’t know of the Kanoo group. One of the largest, and longest established Bahraini companies the group’s reach extends to all of the GCC countries and includes banking, shipping, travel and of course machinery.

Spinning all of these plates is the group CEO, a chap named Freddy Sherman who has the role of ensuring the operations across the Gulf run smoothly.

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We managed to corner him just after he made a speech at the conference part of the PMV Show in Jeddah, a task he was well prepared for as he admits to keeping a number of such speeches at hand on his laptop, as he is often needed to give a talk on a number of different subjects at the drop of a hat.

In fact, Sherman is very keen on such events in the Kingdom, as opposed to other places in the Gulf.

“I actually love exhibitions in Saudi Arabia because I think you get so much more ‘bang for the buck’. We’ve had to look seriously at what we spend in places like Dubai on exhibitions because the cost is so enormous, and you are there because you have to be there, rather than you want to be there” he said.

“We come because we want to be here. We welcome contact with a new audience. We like to demonstrate our new products and perhaps show off a little bit. I think we get good value here and so we will continue to support them.”

The ‘new products’ he mentions is a reference to the telemetry systems offered in modern equipment, either as an add-on, or as original fitment.

These devices allow plant managers to view exactly where their equipment is, what times it is operating as well as gaining more advanced data such as the way that the equipment has been used, whether it has been started out of hours and so on. However, the market for such electronics is very new, and many plant managers struggle to see the benefit of the system.

“Dubai is moderately sophisticated [market], but there is still a long, long way to go as it is…,” Sherman pauses. “…I wouldn’t say expensive, but it is a cost. However, the ‘Cranestar’ system that we are implementing for Aramco is actually state of the art. It is well ahead of the simple tracking that we are using in the UAE. I think that it is something that we’ll be able to use to optimise the fleet to keep up with the maintenance and so on.”