STATS Group prioritises localisation to break into new markets
Breaking down barriers and enabling businesses to connect with potential customers in new markets, local investment opens doors to a world of opportunities. It’s perhaps one of the most important fundamental principles of international business.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that for STATS Group, localisation has been at the forefront of business strategy in breaking into new energy markets.
Mark Gault, Vice President - Middle East at STATS Group began by describing STATS’ journey into optimising localisation strategies across the Middle East. He said: “STATS Group was originally established in the UAE in 2012 to support the local market and we secured our first workshop in Abu Dhabi a year later. From the outset, we built a strong foundation by working closely with key clients within the country and over time, operations naturally expanded beyond the UAE as demand for STATS’ expertise grew across the wider region.
“In response to growing demand and increased activity across Qatar, we established STATS Pipeline Services LLC in 2014 to reinforce our commitment to clients in the region and broaden our service offerings. Two years later, we opened our first operational facility in Qatar, strengthening our local presence and enhancing our in-country capabilities. As our operations continued to grow, we transitioned to a larger facility in 2018 to support additional projects and further expand our range of services. Most recently, in 2024, we relocated to an even larger 7,700 sqm facility in Mesaieed, Doha, featuring expanded workshop space to better meet the evolving needs of our clients.
“Over the past five years, we’ve taken deliberate steps to strengthen our regional footprint and implement a more comprehensive localisation strategy, starting with the upgrade to a larger, state-of-the-art, 8,300 sqm facility in 2020 in Abu Dhabi to accommodate increased demand while maintaining operational efficiency. What began with a modest team of a few employees in Abu Dhabi has evolved into a truly regional operation with dedicated teams, locally based assets and in-country capabilities that are strategically positioned across the Gulf. Today, our Middle East team consists of 160 employees, reflecting our ongoing investment in regional talent. Each facility serves as an operational workshop, with assembly and test capabilities, and a combination of sales, engineering and project execution capability.
This localisation approach allows us to be more responsive to client’s needs, store and maintain equipment closer to the end user, and deliver projects with greater efficiency and local insight.
“Building on this progress, we’ve successfully continued to expand our footprint by establishing a legal entity in Oman, and securing a 400sqm local workshop in 2021, enabling us to further strengthen our regional partnerships. Additionally, we have completed numerous projects in Kuwait and Iraq, reinforcing our reputation as a trusted service provider and demonstrating our ability to deliver complex projects across the Middle East.”
Mark and his colleagues were consistently provided the same feedback: while they appreciate the expert capabilities at STATS Group, they wanted local presence too.
For example, both the UAE and Oman use the In-Country Value (ICV) metric, which assesses how much a company contributes to the local economy. This includes spending on local suppliers, manufacturing, investment in training and the proportion of local employees within the organisation.
“That’s really the driving force behind our localisation approach: meeting the growing demand across the Gulf for companies to be embedded locally, not just operationally, but legally and culturally as well,” Mark said.
“In STATS, we have a diverse workforce with many nationalities which contributes to a positive culture in the business. Where possible we integrate local nationals into the team to support this, including Emiratis, Saudis and Omani employees which also helps us integrate further with our clients and enhance our responsiveness.”