A very interesting fourth company visit we´ve had on Tuesday afternoon, when we had an appointment with Uwe Hohmann (Managing Partner and Founder of Trust Me).
Having focus on the long-term all-around support subsidiaries of medium-sized companies in the UAE, Tust ME includes thorough consulting services and, if requested, guidance to the local management and their employees.
Trust Me is currently looking after 120 companies located in Dubai. One of their biggest and longest customers is – Haribo.
Uwe, who is living in Dubai for almost 20 years, gave us a tremendous view of how Dubai is doing business. So, he e.g. explained how the Free Zones work and what the goal of this business model was/is. If you want to biz out the Free Zones, you need a local as “sponsor” who signing your license. In return, you have to give away 51% of the ownership to your local sponsor. Your license will expire after one year and you again have to extend it.
After answering a lot of questions from the group, Uwe showed us his brother company “Precise Me” which is in trading but also and most famous for their crystal processing. Uwe´s second brother is also a long-time citizen in Dubai and owning his own bike shop: Wolfis Bike Shop.
Some funny cultural story, Uwe told us about the (still) highest building in the world – The Burj Khalifa. Originally, the Burj should have been name “Burj Dubai”, but due to financial problem of Dubai in 2010. The major of Dubai named the Burj after Chalifa bin Zayid Al Nahyan, president of the capital Abu Dhabi and UAE.
Of course, the president didn’t want to see the highest building in the world with his name on it in a bankrupt and no longer interesting city. So, Dubai was back in the game :-).
