In September 2016, ITL’s Group Sales Director, Mustapha Hadj-Ahmed celebrated 20 years at the company with a so what better time to look back at his time here.

Mustapha’s ITL story began in September 1996 after he responded to a newspaper advert, asking for an experienced Salesperson to head up a new Spanish office for an Oldham-based cash handling company that was looking to gain a foothold in continental Europe. Despite having no previous experience in the cash handling industry, Mustapha believed he was ideally suited for the role due to his natural sales ability coupled with his background in electronics.

ITL Spain began life as a small representative office located on Calle Caspe in Barcelona, not far from Plaza España. The office floor space measured approximately 40 sq m and needn’t have been any larger since Mustapha was the only employee at the beginning.  On 27thNovember 1997, ITL Spain became a fully-fledged subsidiary of Innovative Technology under the name of Automated Transactions. Mustapha remained the only Sales representative at the company, however an Administrative Assistant and a Repairs Technician were brought in to support the increase in business.By 1998, ITL Spain had grown to such an extent that a move to larger premises was required. The new office was located on Calle Pedro IV. However, after a couple of years this new office was no longer sufficient and moved into the current office in 2001. In addition to the development of ITL Spain, Mustapha also oversaw the opening of ITL’s first Latin American offices. The brazil office opened in 2000 and the Colombia office followed shortly afterwards in 2002. This was a busy time for the company and an especially busy time for Mustapha, during which he was travelling extensively between the two continents, oftentimes twice a month.

Mustapha recalls that Brazil was regarded as a risky proposition as a new business location “I had heard on multiple occasions that Brazil was a dangerous country and that it was a bad idea to set up an office over there. Based on all the negative reviews, I didn’t have the greatest expectations of the company. On the contrary, I found Brazil to be a very welcoming and friendly place and it became one of our strongest markets. Our move into Brazil was spurred by one of our largest clients that had ordered a large amount of units from us on the condition that we could provide local tech support in Brazil, and this we felt was the perfect opportunity to establish an office over there. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end and the Brazilian government decided to outlaw gaming in 2006, forcing a rethink about how to operate the business.”

In 2006, the decision was made to close the Brazilian office’s commercial operation and instead focus on distribution to Latin American customers. International growth has been one of the key features of Mustapha’s tenure at ITL, which isn’t to say that his influence on the Spanish market has been any less profound. Under Mustapha’s guidance, ITL Spain has increased its market share in the AWP (Amusement with Prizes) sector from 0% to 100%. This is a huge achievement considering that Spain has more bars than the rest of EU members combined – offering huge potential for AWP machines across the country.

Based off his impressive sales record, Mustapha was invited to join the Board of Directors in 2001 and was then made Group Sales Director after the arrival of two more Sales Directors to the board. “Becoming a member of the board was huge point of pride for me and I still remember the day when [ITL Chairman] David Bellis sent me a letter inviting me to become Sales Director. I replied as soon as the letter arrived, of course saying yes. There are still things that I miss about my role before becoming a Director. I really enjoyed meeting and building relationships with clients and that is something that sadly gets left behind as you take a more strategic role in the company. However, there are now many more things that I can look forward to as a Director.”

“It’s great to look back on 20 years at the company and we will celebrate properly with a meal and a small get-together with the Spanish staff but at this point in time, I am much more excited to think about what the future brings. I believe that there is only one direction in which ITL can follow – and that is upwards. We can feasibly expect 15-20% growth each year and now we have a huge opportunity in the Retail sector. We are still increasing our market share in the land-based gaming market even though the sector is declining as a whole. In short, the past 20 years have been great for ITL but I expect the future to be brilliant.”