The Kanoo Group


The Kanoo Group is a large family-owned conglomerate based in UAE and Oman. It is a part of the parent company Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo, founded in Bahrain by Haji Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo which started from a trading and shipping enterprise. From Bahrain, the business spread to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s.

Business overview

The family business first made its name in the shipping industry, challenging the long-established British firms that had come to dominate the Arabian Peninsula. Kanoo Shipping is the first Arab shipping agency in the region in 1911 and one of the founders of S5 Agency World Ltd. At present, Kanoo Shipping is the largest regional shipping agency in the Middle East which operates in 20 countries and all principal ports and offshore tanker loading terminals around the Arabian Peninsula, including Iraq.
Kanoo Shipping handles 20,000 port calls every year through its professional network, which covers all ports in the Suez to Sri Lanka range and East/South Africa and recently has launched operations in India. The new agency office in Mumbai, Kanoo Shipping India, will allow Kanoo Shipping to have complete port coverage in India. In addition to its fully owned offices and joint ventures, the company's regional network operates through established partners in Egypt, Jordon, Lebanon, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Seychelles, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Mauritius.
Similarly, the family's involvement in the travel industry dated back to 1937 when Kanoo Travel began providing refuelling facilities for Imperial Airways, the first British commercial long-haul airline, for flights en route to India and Australia. In 1947, Kanoo Travel became the first IATA agency in the Middle East and the first travel company in the Middle East to receive the ISO certification in 1997.
In the mid-1960s, Kanoo Machinery used to supply construction and material handling equipment in the region. At that time, the UAE was just setting up its oil and gas industry and developing its infrastructure.
Today, the family-run business has diversified business industries from shipping, travel, machinery; to logistics, property, oil & gas, power industrial chemicals, training, joint ventures, retail and commercial activities, and operates extensively throughout Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen and Qatar.

Divisions

Kanoo Shipping

Kanoo Shipping is a regional shipping service provider in the Middle East. With regionally centralised operations, finance and communications, the Kanoo office network, cover an extensive area, including the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and Indian Sub-continent. Kanoo Shipping handles 20,000 port calls every year and has offices in 20 countries.
Kanoo Travel operates a network of IATA locations and travel partners in key market areas in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Egypt, Lebanon, United Kingdom and France. It is one of the largest and oldest travel management companies in the Middle East.
In 1980, Kanoo Travel began to represent American Express in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia solely as its official travel representative. Later in 2003, Kanoo Travel again signed a master franchise agreement with American Express that covered North Africa, the Levant, GCC including Iraq and the CIS countries. Kanoo Travel works with the American Express Travel Service Network throughout the Middle East by identifying and acquiring member agencies into the Kanoo Travel/American Express Middle East Franchise program.
American Express Middle East operates in 16 markets in the Middle East and North Africa region and issues dollar currency credit and charge cards. It also offers a range of local currency-denominated credit cards which are accepted in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Services:
Kanoo Holidays is a specialist division of Kanoo Travel with office networks and dedicated Kanoo Holidays Centers in Riyadh, Jeddah, Al Khobar, Saudi; Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and UAE.

The Travel Attaché

The Travel Attaché represents the Kanoo Travel brand as its inbound Destination Management Company and Luxury Travel Management arm.

Kanoo Machinery

Kanoo Machinery LLC is a construction, materials handling, floor cleaning and agricultural equipment distributor in the UAE. Products from these principals are marketed through product specialist from sales and aftermarket in all its five branches in the UAE.

KANRENT

Kanoo Equipment Rental offers a large fleet of rentable equipment that is supported by a group of full-service workshops and a mobile team of onsite mechanics to keep the rented fleet fully operational at all times.
Stor-Mat Systems was formed in March 1993 and officially became a member of The Kanoo Group in April 2011. Stor-Mat Systems is one of few locally based storage and material handling companies with the in-house expertise to carry out the design of complex storage facilities.
Kanoo Oil & Gas supplies specialist products and services for the oil, gas and petrochemical industries in the Middle East. Its major clients include Saudi Aramco, SABIC, ADNOC, BAPCO, SEWA, DEWA, and PDO.

Power & Industrial Projects

Kanoo Power & Industrial Projects used to operate as a General Trading Division and was changed to P&IP in 1999 to expand its operations and to increase its activities. Kanoo P&IP provides end-to-end industrial products and power and desalination products and services across the Middle East. These services include consultancy, product sales, equipment leasing and servicing. Its customers include Saudi Aramco, Emirates Airlines, GAMCO, ADMA-OPCO, ZADCO, and J.Ray McDermott.
Kanoo Industrial Products
Kanoo Industrial Products, a part of Kanoo P&IP provides end-to-end industrial product solutions across industries. The services offered by KIP include consultancy, site survey for safety, product sales, equipment leasing and equipment servicing.
Strategic Business Units:
Kanoo Rapid Transit provides express deliveries and gulf-wide cargo distribution within the local market and lower Persian Gulf states. It was founded in 1990 and headquartered in UAE, with branches in Qatar and Oman. KRT also expanded its local services to cover Bahrain and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. UAE operations are controlled from Dubai through strategic offices throughout the country.

H.A.K Industrial Chemicals

H.A.K Industrial Chemicals is a supplier of speciality chemicals, equipment and other raw materials for specific industries located in UAE and the region.
Kanoo Freight LLC provides supply chain, freight/logistics and brokerage solutions in the region and around the globe through its GCC network offices in UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Qatar, as well as international partners.
Kanoo Exhibition Services provides special project cargo services as well as several other services from travel to design and construction of exhibition stands. Kanoo Exhibition Services covers all major cities in the Middle East and expanding to cover other markets and regions.
Arabia LLC is a premier leader in reinforcing steel production that offers a complete package for:
The Kanoo Group completed the acquisition of balance shares of former joint venture partner BRC Arabia and became its sole owner on June 6, 2012. BRC has been headquartered in Dubai Industrial City Seih Shuaib 3 since November 2011. BRC Arabia was formerly known as BRC Arabia FZC and operated in Sharjah Airport Free Zone from 1996.

Kanoo Business Centre

Kanoo Business Centre provides startup base for companies seeking to do business in the UAE. Located in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, KBC provides administration, accounting, and secretarial services.

Gemini

GEMINI Software Solutions is owned by Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo. GEMINI is based in Technopark, Trivandrum.

Timeline