CAIRO: “We don’t have work right now because the companies we do business with don’t have work or aren’t open,” Ahmed Raafat, general manager of Scope advertising company, told Daily News Egypt.
Raafat also added that his company is having problems communicating with other businesses due to their closures, which makes it difficult to get back into a sense of normalcy.
Raafat explained that his ad company, like many others, were affected by the recent uprising in a negative way, but they are trying to deal with the situation as it comes.
“We had to shut down our offices briefly during the protests, but even though we are open now, we don’t have work and the business is suffering,” he said.
Shaheer Farag, media director at Universal Media advertising agency, said “We don’t have a full picture right now, only certain indication.”
Universal Media closed their office during the past couple weeks.
“Indications show that some industries such as the telecommunications and internet service providers will flourish and others such as automotive and real estate will see a drastic decrease,” he added.
Farag also explained that sectors such as food and beverage should remain constant due to being staple items. Banks will stray away from personal loans, he believes, and will rely on only announcement advertising for the time being.
“Tourism and the hospitality industry have no option but to advertise,” Farag said, commenting on impact of the protests in the tourism industry.
“They need to advertise and show Egypt in a positive image once again and invoke people to come back and visit the country; the spirit of Egyptians and culture needs to be highlighted,” he added.
In line with many others, Raafat said his company was also affected financially by the situation.
“We’ve had to reduce salaries because of loss of business and are having to adapt to the situation at hand,” he said, adding that he lost about half his employees due to them returning to their hometowns because of financial and safety reasons.
Being closed for two weeks with no operations obviously caused some financial loss, says Farag, but an estimated figure has yet to be determined.
“We personally haven’t had to lay off any employees or make salary reductions so far at this point, but cost cutting measures will take place in the near future; it is imminent,” he said.
While things currently seem to remain uncertain at this point for all sectors in Egypt, some have an optimistic view about the future.
“Sectors will rebound, but not so much before elections take place in September or October,” stated Farag.
He explained that people are going to be cautious about their investments until elections due to the uncertainty that is occurring.
“Everyone will start planning after there are actual findings and there is consistency with a set president, parliament and government in general,” said Farag.
“I believe things will get better in maybe six months or so after the dust settles and things calm down,” said Raafat.
