¶ … Ahmed Shihoon, a student of Woodbury University, School of Business, the department of Accounting and Finance. I did my Educational Internship at Safa Co. Ltd. located at Jeddah in the Saudi Arabia, and the internship assisted me to accumulate the accounting and management experiences from the company. The name of my supervisor was Mohammed Bin Shihon, and guided me in all my duties, and my duties were to review the company financial statements, prepare journal entries as well as depositing invoice. My work schedule was approximately 48 hours per week and the internship started on 21 December 2013 and end by 09 January 2014.
Place of Internship
Fig 1: Safa. Co. Organization Chart
As being revealed in the Safa organizational chart, the company is headed by the managing director, who directs the overall company operations. The assistant managing director and general manager assist the managing director in the company operations. Under the general manager and assistant managing director are the accounting manager, branch managers, senior accountant, sales and marketing manager. The accounting staffs assist the accounting manager in the operations of the accounting department. The company also has large number of sales representatives who are under the branch managers and sales and marketing managers.
Major Organizational Activities
Safa Co., Ltd. opened its business activities in 1990 and the company headquarter is located at Jeddah. The company also has branches at Dammam and Riyadh equipped with full facilities such as transportation, warehouses, as well as after-sale services. Each of the company branches is being managed by the general manager and assisted with a full team who helps in the smooth operations of the business throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The company business activities involve importing different type of house wares from different countries globally making the company to become one of the leaders in the house wares business in Saudi Arabia. The company has been able to achieve a leading position in supplying the house wares because its main business philosophy is to maintain quality services for the clients' satisfaction.
Apart from engaging in the warehouse business, the company is also a leader in the hypermarkets and supermarkets business in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the Safa Co. Ltd. is a sister company to the Danube and Bindawood groups. By importing globally, the Safa Co. Ltd. specializes in supplying the following categories of products:
1. Acrylic items.
2. Aluminum cookware.
3. Glassware.
4. Kitchen tools and gadgets.
5. Melamine ware.
6. Plastic products.
7. Porcelain ware
8. Stainless steel products.
9. Wooden products.
Essentially, the company sells wide varieties of product under its current brands. For example, the company imports the Walther Glass from Germany that consists of Glass bowls, Cake Plates, and Glass vases. The Moneta brands are imported from the Italy that includes Aluminum cookware. The company imports the Regent brand from the Hong Kong that consists of stainless steel categories such as salad bowls, food warmers, and tea warmers. However, the company manufactures its product in China under the brand Rissa. The Rissa brand is the gadgets and kitchenware.
Other company brands include Saflon and Safinox imported from Turkey that specializes in Aluminum cookware, and stainless cookware respectively. The company also imports the Smart Cook brand from China that specializes in assorted kitchen product such as kitchenware and utensils. The company also imports product from South Korea under the brand Everin with product specialization in cutting boards and plastic tight containers.
Strategy that the Organization employed to deliver its Products
The Safa Co. Ltd. has accumulated 20 years of business experience in managing the wide range of house wares and kitchen product. The company distributes its products to wide market segments in Saudi Arabia; the company also distributes its products to remote areas in Saudi Arabia. The company delivers its products to three market segments in Saudi Arabia that include:
Western region,
Central region,
Eastern region, and Other part of the country.
At western region, the company supplies its products to consumer at Jeddah, Mecca, and Medina. Moreover, the company supplies its products to buyers at central regions in the main cities of Riyadh, Qaseem, and Karj. In the eastern region, the company delivers its products at the main cities in Dammam, Dahran, and Khobar. The Table 1 reveals the company distribution outlets.
Table 1: Safa Co. Limited Distribution Outlets
Region
Western Region
Eastern Region
Central Region
Other Regions
Total Segments
Household Shops
80
Gift Shops
15
8
10
4
37
Airport Corners
1
1
The company also enjoys market advantages from the gift shops. Contrary to the household shops, the company only records 37 segments for the gift shops. Safa Co., Ltd. also supplies its product to the chain of supermarkets, and the total segments for the supermarkets are 35. The company has been able to enjoy market advantages at the supermarket segments because Safa Co. Ltd. is a sister company to Danube and Bindawood groups, and the strategy has assisted the company to penetrate the Saudi Arabian market. Bin Dawood group is a leader in the chain of hypermarket, and super market business in Saudi Arabia. Bin Dawood group also has numerous department stores in Saudi Arabia with the annual turnover of $500 million. Moreover, the Danube stores, hypermarket and supermarkets are well-known in Riyadh and Jeddah. Partnership with the Bin Dawood and Danude has assisted the Safa Co., Ltd. To penetrate all the regions in the Saudi Arabia, which assisted the company to enjoy the market advantages.
Safa Co. Advertising Strategy
Safa Co., Ltd. uses the online and offline advertising techniques to make people aware of the products offered for sale. The company offline adverting techniques are as follows: First, the company works in conjunction with the traditional wholesalers and modern trade retailers. Typically, the traditional wholesalers have direct contacts with several trade retailers across Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the company has been able to advertise its products through retailers scattered across the country. The company also employs several professional sales teams who assist in marketing the company product across the country. The company is able to reach the potential customers through the sales team and retailers scattered across the country,
More important, the Bin Dawood groups have also assisted the company to reach large number of consumer in Saudi Arabia by providing a large space in the Bin Dawood super market and hypermarket. Typically, Safa Co. is able to enjoy market advantages in the Saudi Arabia because the size of the country population. As of July 2009, the country population is approximately 27.5 million, where the expatriates reach 8 million. Typically, approximately 88% of Saudi population lives in urban areas. The size of the Saudi population contributes to the company market advantages, which assists the company to reach large number of consumer. Moreover, the Saudi citizens are also enjoying high levels of personal and disposable income making the company to enjoy market advantages from large number consumer. The company also advertises its products in the local newspaper, radio and television stations across the country and the advertising strategy makes million of people to be aware of the company product.
The company also uses the online advertising technique to reach large number of people within and outside the Saudi Arabia. For example, the company has website www.safa.com.sa that makes people to be aware of the products that the company offers for sale. The company website has the Home page revealing the major products that the company offers for sale. The Product page reveals different categories of product that the company is selling. The About us page provides the company history and overview of its business operations. The Branches page provides the address of the company headquarter and addresses of other two branches. The company also opens a page in the Facebook.
Despite the company online presence, the company has not yet fully taken the advantages of the internet technology. Contrary to the other house ware distributors in the advanced countries that have taken the advantages of the internet to market their product worldwide, Safa Co., Ltd. has not yet used the internet technology to sell their product. Nevertheless, the company has been able to reach millions of consumers using the traditional offline advertising system.
III: Employment and Training
Reasons for doing the internship with the Safa Co.
Several reasons that make me to sought for the internship opportunities with the Safa Co. The first reason is to learn the application of the accounting principles within the real world business environment. Before the internship, I have not yet learnt all the application of the accounting concepts that I have learnt in the school. The internship assists me to understand the application of the accounting principles that I have learnt in the…
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