CNH Industrial has boosted its presence in the Gulf with the establishment of a Middle East office in Dubai, UAE, to represent its Case brand in the region.

The move is in line with the leading construction equipment manufacturer’s efforts to increase its focus on the Middle East and comes following the appointment of Mario Gasparri, brand president CNH Construction Equipment, also as the head of the recently created Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

CNH Industrial has already been directly present in the Middle East region through its commercial vehicles subsidiary Iveco and Astra.

The new office is located in the Dubai Airport Free Zone, giving the company excellent connectivity to any major location in the Middle East and beyond. Staffing of the office is in progress, with some people moving from other CNH regional offices and other being recruited locally. “The office will provide commercial, marketing and service support to our dealer network and end-users in the region,” Dragan Krznaric, Middle East business director of CNH CE, told Gulf Construction.

Being based in Dubai gives the company easy access to the entire Middle East region, Krznaric pointed out. “A fully dedicated team with its base in Dubai will be only a short flight away from all major markets, enabling close support in the field,” he said.

CNH focuses on providing its customers all-round support, not only with a full range of quality products but also the services they need to be successful in their businesses; tailored financing programmes as well as parts availability, technical support and planned maintenance programmes to maximise their equipment’s uptime.

CNH Industrial, a new group created from the merger of Fiat Industrial and CNH Global, is a major industrial enterprise, uniting CNH’s agricultural and construction equipment operations with Iveco trucks, commercial and specialty vehicles and FPT Industrial’s broad portfolio of powertrain applications.

CNH Industrial became operational at the end of September 2013. Its organisational structure facilitates a synergy between wholesale, spare parts and service department.

“With the creation of the new CNH Industrial group, the integration across functions and brands is being enhanced to new levels,” he said. “Close co-operation on the industrial side, which has already resulted in exchanging research and development (R&D) and major components such as engines, axles and transmissions across the group, is now being extended further, with closer integration of commercial, marketing and aftermarket systems and tools.”

Apart from sharing the same offices, a more synchronised approach in terms of plans and initiatives in the market is being developed and implemented, according to Alessia D’Angelo, operational marketing executive for AME (Africa and Middle East), CNH CE.

The synergy is also reflected in the approach to the dealers. “We recently launched a partnership programme for 2014 based on four excellence areas – customer excellence, operational excellence, people and lead excellence and financial excellence – which basically serves to guide our dealers with a holistic approach in providing the new level of services and capability today’s customers require. The objective is always to reach customer expectation and be closer to the end-user,” she added.

CNH also constantly endeavours to ensure it has the right machine inventory and parts to further improve its response time to customers’ requirements in the GCC region, said Krznaric.

“Together with dealers, CNH is drawing up plans to ensure it can promptly satisfy the demand for machines and spare parts. The inventory at dealer yards is backed by central stock at CNH factories and parts depots. This is a dynamic process, constantly being adjusted to the changing market trends and environment.

“Moreover in 2014, we will be heavily investing in training our dealers’ salesmen and technicians to give them the knowledge they need to explain the full benefits of our brands’ equipment. A better knowledge of the products means also a better management of the machine and spare parts inventory mix,” he stated.

CNH’s initiatives to increase interaction levels with customers and dealers were successfully supported by events such as Case Eagle Days held last year in the Middle East region.

“These events had good attendance and positive feedback from dealers, customers and media representatives. This has encouraged us to prepare for similar but larger centralised events this year, which will have a more specific objective of raising the image of our brands,” Krznaric said.

“We will also invite our dealers and customers to visits CNH plants and customer centres in Europe in order to provide them with the opportunity of seeing how and where our machines are produced as well as testing them,” he added.

CNH has lined up several new and improved products for launch in 2014 including both its heavy and light range. “Some exciting new models of Case products are coming up,” he promised, without revealing details.

While CNH products have built a reputation for themselves for their modern engineering, build quality, reliability and performance, CNH Industrial will also promote their attributes through well-developed demo campaigns and open houses and showcase how Case machines are helping speed up work on prominent projects throughout the Middle East.