feb-2018c

37 “In the local market,the number of persons who are in the business of importing and selling construction materials is significant,”Gafoor opines.“It’s like that in all themarkets inwhichwe operate.It’s veryeasy to get into and acquirematerials which you can sell,even for amarginal profit.In addition,what we have found is that themarket inwhichwe operate hasmatured– it’s verymuch become like theNorthAmericanmarket, where people are accustomed to having a source of supply for their demands and requirements close to hand.So,maybe four or five years ago,when the num- ber of players in themarket was smaller,peoplewould frequently travel to find us and to shopwith us.That’s not happening anymore.We’ve got competitors across the landscape and customers can findwhat theyneed closer to home. “So,what we’ve decided to do is expand on our operations so that we,ourselves,can be present in various strategicplaces within themarket,more or less geographically,so that customers are able to come to us andwe can present ourself directly to our end user –typically,contractors who do constructionwork for smaller homes,or medium-sized projects like town- houses andmaybe condos-rather than trying to sell a product through an intermediary,like a distributor or a hardware store.