In a country the size of Tanzania where the majority of people live in rural areas, ensuring an effective reach to every consumer is absolutely vital to the success of any business dealing in consumer goods.

METL has a basket of products including some 25 of its own brands and more than 100 other products it distributes and sells on behalf of other manufacturers. The logistics involved in delivering this huge range to every selling outlet is a daunting task, but with painstaking attention to detail, METL has developed a distribution system that has no parallel in Tanzania.

Firstly, the company has created a strong centralised sales and marketing division that ensures that products are available consistently through its sales network to consumers across the country.

METL has also developed a wide range of selling mechanisms in order to ensure that its products reach customers effectively. It has an extensive network of 27 branches spread all across the country. These branches are fully equipped with warehouses, sales teams and vehicles; they act as proactive hubs for secondary distribution in urban and proximate rural areas as well as tertiary distribution into the remote hinterlands of the country.

There are 15 Relationship Sales Executives (RSEs) catering to the needs of wholesalers in Dar es Salaam and preferred customers in upcountry locations. Besides, for easier and quicker deliveries, METL has some 40 sales outlets of its own (wholesale and retail) scattered around Dar es Salaam.

In addition the company, under the flagship of the Central Mobile Sales (CMS), has a fleet of 30 vehicles that carry out sales rounds in Dar es Salaam every day of the month. From branch offices, emanate 55 other mobile sales vehicles serving their respective territories.

METL is also one of the very few companies in Tanzania to boast a comprehensive vehicle fleet as large as 450 vehicles, which includes a fully self-sufficient in-house maintenance and servicing facility.

A clear reflection of METL’s massive strength in sales and distribution is the fact the Tanzania’s leading mobile telephony giant, Vodacom, has appointed Zefona Cellines - a METL Group company - as a super-dealer for the distribution and sales of its airtime vouchers and starter packs.

Finally, METL has focused groups of marketing executives in functional areas, eg market research, sales promotion, advertising and merchandising.