ARI restructures in Middle East

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**DFNI Exclusive** Aer Rianta International-Middle East (ARI-ME) has appointed Michael Murphy as general manager for the group, as part of a restructure of the company's operations in the region

The move is effective from May 1. Murphy is currently regional finance director. ARI-ME is also to recruit a purchasing and logistics manager to control the group's regional purchasing and control inventory.

The restructure also involves separating the group's trading arm, headed by Michael Doporto, from the core duty-free operations of the ARI-ME group. ARI-ME managing director John Sutcliffe told DFNI: "We've grown the business from zero to a turnover of $230m in ten years and we now have six major operations in the region, and other ancillary divisions too. We've added new inflight and seaport arms and the new airport business in Oman this year. We needed to restructure the business to cater for this growth and develop an infrastructure to support those operations.

"As general manager, Mike Murphy will concentrate on overseeing the systems, finance, audit, stock control and purchasing at the operations. My main role will be in developing the business and on the operations side. Michael Doporto will focus now on the trading business, selling to third-party operators, the military and to trade beyond our core operations. That's a business worth around $15m a year to us and is growing fast."

Sutcliffe added: "We want to make better use of our size in this region. That means supporting our teams in the field, making ourselves more efficient, gaining more and improved information on our customers and using that data accurately and well. The operations will continue to buy for themselves and we'll continue to develop good relationships with suppliers. This move is about adding new expertise and efficiency to our business as a whole."