Sumitomo Rubber, a Japan-based diversified industrial manufacturer of rubber products such as tires, sport equipment and office automation equipment, has opened its new office at the Dubai Airport Free Zone (DAFZ).

Established in 1996, the Dubai Airport Free Zone is home to 1,425 multinational companies from various sectors. With flexible operations processes that meet client demands.

“Unlike Western and some Asian economies suffering from a general economic downturn, the UAE and the Gulf economies are solid on the feet benefiting from the soaring high oil prices,” said Mohammed Ali bin Suwailem, DAFZ sales director.

“The choice of Dubai Airport Free Zone as the regional office of so many multinational industrial companies from all over the world validates the excellent services and infrastructure that the Free Zone offers,” he remarked.

Masaru Tabata, a representative of Sumitomo Rubber Middle East, said there were lot of benefits of having an office at the Dubai Airport Free Zone.

'The key benefit is that it is possible to establish a company based on 100 per cent share of foreign (Japanese) company. Also the DAFZ's location is quite convenient for us, very close to our customers' office and very convenient for us to drive our customers and colleagues to and from the airport,' he explained.

He said Dubai and the GCC were important markets in terms of current sales turnover and future strategy. 'This applies to all other industries as well as our company and we are highly satisfied with their services and facilities,' he noted.

On his company’s future plans in the Gulf and the wider Middle East region, Masaru said since Japanese domestic and US/European markets have reached the ceiling recently, it had to target the emerging countries such as the Bric and GCC/Middle East countries.

'In the past several years, we have invested much and expanded our operation in those regions actually, and we plan to continue to do the same in the future also,' he added.

He said Sumitomo Rubber expects a high degree of and stable increase of business opportunities and sales and profit figures due to booming economy in this region in future.

In the tire business, Sumitomo Rubber Industries, Ltd. manufactures and markets tires under the Dunlop, Falken, Goodyear, Sumitomo and Ohtsu brands. In addition to overseas subsidiaries in China and Indonesia, the Group carries out tire production and sales in Europe and North America in joint ventures with The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company.

“Time is money and the savings in time and state of the art facilities and services that we offer are a boon to companies located at the Dubai Airport Free Zone,” said bin Suwailem.-TradeArabia News Service