Khaled Khalil may have grown up in a family business, but it’s clear that he’s a true entrepreneur. When he became involved in the management of MalhallaTex, his family’s Egyptian textile company, he didn’t want to simply keep the business afloat. Instead he took it in new and exciting directions, leading to a threefold increase in its workforce, the diversification of its products and services, and the establishment of its own retail brand. And he has plans for much more.
Of course, all this progress had its obstacles.
Back when Khaled spent his school holidays at the company learning from his father, MalhallaTex had ten employees. It subcontracted with factories that produced fabrics for trade and for garment production, and also operated a retail clothing store.
“Although I loved the work, I always felt I could add something and make it better,” says Khaled.
A new opportunity arose when a salesman from Egypt’s leading lingerie company stopped by to sell his products. MalhallaTex developed a good relationship with that company and eventually agreed to take over its wholesale distribution operations. Khaled led the new endeavor, carefully involving himself in every aspect. He started to hire salespeople, warehouse workers and accountants to handle expansion. Then, the lingerie company folded.
“It was the most challenging moment in my business journey,” says Khaled. “I learned the hard way that I needed to diversify, and I also made the strategic decision to launch our own lingerie brand, ‘Coquette.’”
Khaled hit the street, and MalhallaTex became the sole distributor for several garment brands and began to attract new clients. In addition to establishing a new brand, he started importing other brands to distribute in Egypt, as well as producing and exporting garments for foreign companies.
“I always believed that the market is the globe,” says Khaled. “Now, my company has 30 employees, and my vision is to have 100 in the next five to ten years.”
In 2007 when Khaled was selected to participate in the Middle East Entrepreneur Training (MEET) program sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Middle East Partnership Initiative, he was facing the challenges that come with company growth. He had already strengthened his base of suppliers and customers and added several new lines of business. Now his small company was trying to gain a stronger foothold in the competitive global market. Khaled was especially concerned with finding and keeping good employees who could share his vision to build the business.
“In the MEET program, I gained some important insights that literally changed the way I used to look at and manage the business,” says Khaled. “I learned how important it is to have a company vision, to operate according to its core values, to plan for the long term and short term, and to make a strategic plan and assess it regularly. All I needed was to prove I could do it.”
When he returned to Egypt after completing the MEET program in San Diego, Khaled spent nearly two months sharing new concepts with colleagues and considering how to best put them into practice. Then, he and his management team defined their vision, identified their goals and set out to accomplish them.
“Now we are all working in the same direction, which creates a lot of enthusiasm,” says Khaled, “but an even more valuable result of MEET has been the network I developed. MEET helped us to build great relationships within American society. I feel I have friends now in all the Arab countries and the U.S., people whom I can trust, people who can help me whenever I need it. We may or may not do business together, but I am sure we will do anything we can to help each other. We simply became one big family.”
At the close of the MEET program, Khaled and his fellow alumni from throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region pledged to keep in touch and maintain the strong relationships they had begun to build. Later that year, Khaled and five other MEET alumni and their families vacationed together in Egypt, and Khaled and his wife and children have also visited alumni in several other MENA countries.
“I am sure we will always maintain this wonderful network,” says Khaled. “It’s remarkable on both a personal and professional level.”
Right now Khaled is busy working toward the company’s short-term goals: to add more customers and suppliers and to increase his team’s performance by instilling the company’s vision and values. In the long term, Khaled sees MalhallaTex as Egypt’s largest distributor of local and imported lingerie brands and the largest Egyptian exporter of ready-made garments, operating from offices in Egypt, Europe and the U.S. He expects this growth to create 70 additional jobs, for a total of 100 employees.
“I consider creating job opportunities the real sign of the company’s success, so I’m proud of what we have done so far. I’m also confident that we are positively contributing to Egypt’s development. I may still be a long way from reaching my goals, but what motivates me every day is the knowledge that my company and many other Egyptian companies are working hard and moving in the right direction, which will lead our country to the relevant standing it deserves.”