Complimentary T-shirts being readied at a local marketing firm. PICTURE: Jayan Orma
By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter

Come December and it’s the time suppliers need to put in that extra effort to ensure the timely delivery of complimentary gifts to their clients.
Every year, especially in December, suppliers deliver complimentary goods worth millions of dollars across the region.
The arrival of new companies and institutions also bring along a lot of new businesses in the supply of complimentary items. Along with giving considerable visibility to the companies, such items also make the public aware of the companies’ presence in the market.
Budgetary spending on complimentary items has shown a big growth in recent years and marketing firms have cashed on this.
Local traders say the business of such items is growing significantly every year even after the global economic downturn since 2008.
Advertising and marketing firms say the supplies of such complimentary items as diaries, table tops, key chains, USBs, T-shirts, time pieces, pens and similar goods have shown remarkable growth in Qatar in the last one decade.
This year, many companies have generated additional businesses on account of such events as World Petroleum Congress (WPC) and Arab Games.
“However, there are few takers these days for wall calendars, which used to be the main item supplied by many companies to their customers,” says Mukul Trivedi, director of merchandise at Gem Advertising, a marketer of complimentary goods to local companies.
Acknowledging the remarkable growth in the supplies of complimentary goods at the local level, Trivedi says many firms have benefited significantly from their growing supplies in the last few years.
According to the official, USBs, almost wholly imported from China, seem to be the most preferred item of many clients.
While echoing similar sentiments, M Hassan, another supplier, says now diaries, desk tops and USBs are the most sought-after items, in particular in the government departments, or at public limited companies.
“Most premium clients now ask for what is new among the compliments before placing orders,” says Hassan.
Most local companies procure diaries made in the UAE, India or Indonesia to be supplied to their clients.
T-shirts, inscribed with logos of clients are in great demand throughout the year and Qatar National Day celebrations on December 18, boost their monthly sales, according to a compliments’ supplier.
Along with flags, stress balls, stickers and scarves are also in great demand among local companies at the National Day celebrations, sources say.
Apart from South American companies, T-shirts made in India too have gone down well with the clients, says a supplier. “It is the poor quality of garments made in some other countries that prompted local clients to patronise T-shirts from India and South American countries in recent years,” says a local company official.
Every year, large quantities of event related complimentary T-shirts are distributed across the country.
Some local officials also informed that deliveries of several complimentary goods usually last until the end of January. “That is because there are many companies that place supply orders in the second and third week of December,” says a spokesperson of a marketing firm.
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