Please tell us about the company in brief.
1- What products does your company offer?

SanDisk designs, develops, manufactures and markets flash storage products for a wide variety of electronic systems and digital devices. With flash memory’s capability for storing large amounts of data in a compact, removable or embedded format, SanDisk’s products have helped drive the exponential growth in sales of digital cameras, multi-function mobile phones, USB flash drives, digital audio/video players, and other digital consumer devices.

SanDisk is the only company that has rights to manufacture and sell every major flash card format, including: CompactFlash® (CF), SD™, miniSD™, microSD™, MultiMediaCard™ (MMC), Memory Stick PRO™ and other Memory Stick™ products, xD-Picture Card™, and USB flash drives. The company receives a majority of its flash storage card product revenues from sales to retailers, with the balance coming from sales to OEMs.

SanDisk is focused primarily on five digital consumer markets: digital cameras, mobile phones, USB flash drives, MP3 players and gaming. Each of these markets is currently experiencing significant growth.

2- What are your biggest markets?

The biggest growth markets for SanDisk in the Middle East are Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and in Africa, Nigeria and Egypt.

3- You entered the Turkish market recently with Telpa Group. How is this new experience so far?

SanDisk has been in the Turkish market since 2001.SanDisk works with four distributors in Turkey and recently signed on the Telpa Group that distributes products through a widespread distribution network of 3,500 dealers and 6,200 retail shops. Telpa focuses on the mobile product market and owns a well-established online B2B platform, one of the strongest in the country.

Our partnership with Telpa has expanded our product reach in Turkey to be more readily available to a wider market through strong distribution networks and market presence.

4- What are your recent products?

The SanDisk 19-nanometer (nm) technology, the most advanced memory process technology node in the world. This latest technology enables SanDisk to produce embedded and removable storage devices with the high capacities and small form factors used in mobile phones, tablet computers and other devices.

The latest milestone is also the SanDisk Extreme® Pro™ CompactFlash® card features 128 gigabytes (GB)1 of storage and up to 100 megabyte per second (MB/sec)2 write speeds. With its Power Core® controller and UDMA-7 interface, the card delivers the performance demanded by high-end DSLR cameras.

SanDisk also offers encryption and online backup features across almost its entire retail USB portfolio. SanDisk® SecureAccess™ software protects files against unauthorized access by creating an encrypted, password-protected folder or ‘vault’ on the USBdrive. The software also includes up to 2 gigabytes (GB) of secure online backup storage. The USB product portfolio is also being expanded with new colors in the Cruzer Edge range and the Cruzer range to meet the needs of a broad set of customers. The SanDisk Ultra® USB flash drive features faster transfer rates and the SanDisk Cruzer® Edge™ USB drive offers easy portability.

5- What are the most important mobile phones and tablets companies you deal with?
Sandisk has partnership and supply agreements with all the major handset and tablet manufacturers

6- Do you have any expansion plans for the future? Are there any markets you are planning to enter into?

SanDisk is constantly investing in marketing and supporting our partners and end users in the region. SanDisk runs promotions and retail campaigns consistently and across markets in the Middle East and Africa to make sure that the products are always in good demand. Sandisk is always looking for creative ideas to reach markets based on regional and country wide nuances to show consumers that we their needs, and ourchannel partners that we support the growth of their business. SanDisk is always looking to expand and enhance markets in the region, which includes the Middle East, the Eastern region of the Mediterranean and Africa. Since we have secured markets in the GCC and Turkey, Lebanon and South Africa, we are now looking to develop closer relations with countries such as Egypt and the entire African continent. In Egypt we have accelerated our market penetration and are now in the process of assigning dedicated resources locally in Egypt.