Samir And Aly Stationery Houses Co

Started their path together in 1969, Mr.Samir El Maayergy & Mr.Aly Shatla, the founders of Samir & Aly, who never thought their small shop that they started with in the beginning of their twenties would become one day one of the biggest stationery houses chain in Egypt with more than 750 employees. It took them days and nights to build a strong presence in the Egyptian market, they used their intelligence & insistence to become who they are today. The company came into existence when the founders found an old man coming into their small clothes shop and started complaining and blaming them for selling such stuff while their shop place was located right in front of the faculty of engineering (Ain Shams) and from that day it was a sign for them to focus on their future career. They believed taking on technical instruments would be a huge gamble. They worked on the technical instruments and the tracing paper for the engineers, which made Samir & Aly's name related in the market to this type of tools. After this huge effort in the 80's, they were having 4 branches in Cairo's best districts: • One in front of the faculty of engineer Ain Shams (Abbasia branch) • Two branches in Downtown (Sherif Street) it was the second whole sale market in Egypt after Fagalla . • The last branch at that time was Zamalek's branch and it was opened right in front the Faculty of Fine Arts. It made them start to search for what the students need in that field and started the new fine arts sections in their shops. At that time there was a new place they were hearing of in a city called Nasr City, it was a target for them though at that time there were no faculties around this area which was a risk of choosing this place and taking the decision. After that, they opened Nasr City's branch, with a special consideration of being in a residential area & a small number of schools around, which created the third section in Samir& Aly: the school supplies and the writing instruments, yet with a core focus on both previous sections. Samir & Aly had the talent to understand that the business success is centred on its specialization in meeting the customers needs And how to market the product to fulfil the customers satisfaction. They were the first in that career to search for the stationery fairs all over the world . To travel and see what’s new and how do these people think and produce with different techniques. Maybe it took them a lot of time but they really gained much and it was really useful. They made very good relations with the overseas suppliers they were meeting until they took the decision of stopping being just distributors (to be or not to be), they were planning for being a sole agent for the brands they were importing. Their very good reputation in the market and self confidence made them sure that they can really do it. Convincing these companies went smooth & easy, until the day they became the sole agent of the biggest stationery brands in Egypt.