Home Essentials President Attributes Early Success in Iraqi Venture To Acquiring On-the Ground Savvy and Finding Good Partners
Chicago, IL, February 19, 2004 – Chris Exline, President of Home Essentials Company, the largest furniture leasing operation outside the US, told a group of entrepreneurs at a New Fields “Rebuilding Iraq” conference in Chicago that “despite what you read in the papers, Iraq is open for business with lots of opportunity for small companies.”
“While the majority of the reconstruction contracts in Iraq are administered by large prime contractors,” Exline explained, “all of them have small business caveats and requirements for local Iraqi content. And that means opportunity for all of us.”
But opportunity does not mean “a sure thing.” Exline added that: “Orders will not be coming automatically from Iraq to your email. You must first develop a baseline knowledge of how business in post-conflict Iraq works -- and that means visiting Iraq firsthand. Once you go there, you will realize that the true opportunity rests beyond USAID and CPA contracts. There is an entire country to rebuild.”
Exline told the audience that he was moved to action after reading about the post-war challenges 10 months ago. “I realized that the scope of work envisioned by the Administration required a skill set absent with the indigenous population. As such, it would require the influx of thousands of expatriates. From previous experience, I knew we at Home Essentials could offer a competitive service that would be a win/win for everyone.”
Without any business inroads or contacts, Exline made his first trip to the Middle East in April, 2003. By September he had set up operations in Dubai. Today, Home Essentials is fulfilling the USAID requisitions for home and office furnishings and meeting the needs of other expatriate workers. Items are ordered and shipped from the facility in Dubai and are 30 to 50 percent below the cost prescribed by the US government.
Home Essentials has also established partnerships with several Iraqi firms to deliver part of its turnkey package for expatriates, including communications, transportation, security and other services.
While the business and political rules in Iraq are still being developed, the situation is not always easy, he admitted. “But the rewards are worth it in order to help a population eager to reverse decades of negative investment and build new lives,” he concluded.
About Home Essentials
Founded in 1997, Home Essentials is the largest furniture rental company outside the US. The company has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Baghdad. Home Essentials provides furniture leasing and sales to meet the furnishing needs of expatriates, landlords, developers and service apartment operators worldwide. In Iraq, Home Essentials also provides a turnkey service for foreign workers, including housing and office facilities, transportation, communications, security, cleaning and other essential services. Its list of clients include British American Tobacco, Citibank, Disney, Ernst & Young, Exxon Mobil, IBM, Intel, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, and USAID as well as several large real estate landlords and developers.