Techitup ME in conversation with Steven Malony, CEO, Belkin International as he shares insights on Belkin’s strategy in the Middle East, how they innovate using consumer insights, their sustainability approach and future vision
Can you tell us about Belkin’s strategic investments in the Middle East & Africa region and what are your growth plans in the region?
Sure. First of all, thank you for speaking to us. Belkin’s been in the Middle East actively since 2010, so we’ve been here for a while now, working to establish our brand and to service the market during that time frame. We’ve been experiencing triple digit growth since we came here, and we see that continuing. The way this market has established itself, the sort of partnerships that we’ve been able to garner, the people and the teams we’ve established are helping us achieve those things. The consumer base in this region values premium quality and design, which Belkin thrives on. Precisely the reason, we see great potential in this market, and we continue to innovate to meet these demands.
Can you elaborate on your key partnerships, channel strategy, and retail approach in the region?
It is an interesting question because how do you bring these things to life? Belkin operates and develops an interesting set of product categories. Everybody wants to have a charged device and a protected device. So how do you bring those things to life? And who can help you achieve those things? The partners!
We’ve made some strong ties in UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and these partnerships are serving us exceptionally to reach the consumer base. In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, we are working very closely with Jarir Bookstore. You will be able to spot our products in Dubai Mall at Etisalat and Virgin stores in the UAE. Our strategy includes both offline and online experiences especially in times where digitization and transformation are at its peak. In fact, we are seeing strong growth in the digital space as well.
As mentioned earlier, consumers today are really aware and sound digitally, and they expect a seamless journey. We are scaling our online presence to meet that demand. Partners like Amazon are also contributing to our growth in certain segments of the region. Ultimately, our channel strategy focuses on meeting consumers where they are, allowing them to experience our products and learn about our solutions in their preferred shopping environment.
How is Belkin innovating in the Middle East region to meet or cater to consumer needs?
The best ideas for Belkin can come from anywhere in the world and a lot of those ideas and trends are coming from right here in the Middle East. The way that we bring those things to life is often through consumer insights, and those consumer insights come to us often from our offices in Los Angeles, California, where we are based.
We are examining consumers, understanding how people are using devices, whether it’s a tablet or a laptop or a mobile phone. We are understanding the gaps that consumers experience between the technology they use every day versus how they want to use it. So, once these insights and gaps are analyzed, our design and engineering teams can create a quick prototype and bring them to life. We can rapidly test them to make sure that they’re going to work as advertised. So that’s our process. It all starts with consumer insights!
Can you share Belkin’s sustainability approach?
For Belkin as a brand our core values are centered around people, products and planet. The first one is around people we care for, the communities that we operate in such as the Middle East. In Los Angeles, we have an on-site campus where we host students to have a chance to work alongside Belkin people to get competency-based learning, about marketing or sales or engineering or design. So, we deeply invest in our communities.
On the product side we care immensely about research and development. Our consumer insights, in-house industrial design labs, and engineering facilities are integral to our DNA.
Finally, we are dedicated to minimizing our environmental impact. We’ve been working for decades to reduce single-use plastic in our packaging. Virtually all our packages are now free of single-use or virgin plastic. We’ve also made significant progress in using post-consumer recycled materials while maintaining our quality and performance standards. We’ve shipped tens of millions of units made with these materials.
As a result of these efforts, we are committed to achieving carbon neutrality in scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by the end of this year. The next challenge is scope 3 emissions, which requires a comprehensive understanding of our entire supply chain. We are using various tools to achieve this, and we expect to be carbon neutral in scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions by 2030. It’s a difficult challenge, but it’s a core principle that drives our decision-making.
It’s an interesting time to be in the Middle East for any brand. What is your future vision for the region, and are there any upcoming launches you can discuss?
Yeah, sure. We expect to see continued growth in our business overall and certainly in the Middle East, in the core categories that we play in, particularly mobile power. The mobile power space is evolving rapidly, and we’ve been involved in shaping standards for years, whether with the Wireless Power Consortium (WPC) for wireless charging or the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF) for USB standards. We anticipate higher wattage wireless charging in the second half of this year, which will unlock new use cases. We expect growth to come from the ongoing transition from wired to wireless charging. Cables will remain a core part of our business, and we expect that to grow as well.
We also see growth potential in audio, where we offer a compelling value proposition with products like our kids’ lineup and Isolate, which features noise cancellation.
Finally, we’re investing in content creation. We recently announced the Auto Tracking Stand Pro, which integrates hardware, firmware, and software and uses Apple’s DockKit technology for facial recognition. This allows users to stay in frame during video calls, classes, or cooking demonstrations. This is just one step in our content creation journey.
We’re backing these initiatives by adding resources in the market to support our resellers and tell our story. We want to ensure people are aware of the opportunities Belkin offers to help them get more out of their technology every day.
