EMPA Middle East FZCO, a leading IT distribution company in the Middle East, has announced that it sponsored race driver Alqassim Hamidaddin during the exhibition race that was held to promote the Chevrolet Supercars Middle East Championship 2009-2010. The exhibition race took place on the sidelines of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix that ran from April 24 to 26, 2009 at the Bahrain International Circuit.
Saudi national Hamidaddin, who graduated from the world-famous Jim Russell Racing School, drove a Chevrolet Lumina during the exhibition race. The Chevrolet Supercars Championship runs from November 2009 to April 2010 and will include seven rounds with two races each. EMPA officials explain that sponsoring a race driver will enable the company to relate its products to technology-enabled modern professional racecar driving.
“Associating EMPA with motorsports ensures greater brand visibility and complements our core values and the brands we represent. For example, racing is synonymous with speed and by sponsoring a race driver we are subtly promoting the Intel Core i7 processor, which is regarded as the fastest processor at present. In addition, lot of storage devices are used today in cars to record all kinds of valuable data and also liaise with the chips, hence we find a fit with Toshiba which is a leader in storage technology. Also, NETGEAR provides networking solutions and wireless connectivity which is very useful for the mechanics and engineers to do any kind of online activity. So in terms of brand fit, association with a motor racing event made perfect sense and we are confident that we will reap rich rewards on the long term,” said Rahb Hamidaddin, President, EMPA.
The sponsorship reflects EMPA’s strong support for sports and competitions. The popularity of the Bahrain Grand Prix also provided an opportunity for EMPA to further boost its regional and national visibility. The Bahrain edition of the Formula One Grand Prix was first held in 2004, with the country becoming the first Middle Eastern host of the race. The inaugural Bahrain event was awarded the “Best Organised Grand Prix” by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile.
EMPA’s impressive portfolio of IT vendor partners includes Fujitsu, Kingston, LaCie, Philips, Pleomax, Transcend, NETGEAR, Toshiba, SMC and Tripp Lite. The company has been an authorised regional Intel distributor since 1985 and a Biostar distributor for the past eight years. EMPA recently built a new IT distribution facility with a built-up area of 40,700 sq ft on an 84,000 sq ft plot, one of the largest of its kind in the Middle East.
