Team that delivers news at your doorstep

Dubai: You won't find their names printed in the newspaper, but they — the more than 600 distributors of Gulf News — are the ones who literally bring the news right to your doorstep.

These men, who hail from Asian countries, were recognised for their outstanding contribution to making Gulf News the most read newspaper in the UAE, at the Al Bustan Rotana Hotel yesterday.

Duleep George, executive director, marketing and sales, Gulf News, lauded the men for their hard work in ensuring that the newspaper reaches its readers and for making it the most read newspaper in the UAE. "There's no one else to thank but you," he said in a recorded message.

High achiever

An ecstatic crowd cheered as names of the top performers were announced. Leading the pack was Rapelli Gangadhar, 48, from Hyderabad, India. Having worked as a distributor for 23 years, Gangadhar said achieving his target and more was his primary motivation.

"I wanted to come first. That's why I worked harder to achieve the number one [spot]. I went door to door to meet every customer in my area," Gangadhar, who placed third last year in the same category, said.

Despite suffering a severe illness and going on emergency leave last year, Gangadhar still managed to make 100 new subscriptions from the National Paint area in Sharjah. He said he aims to retain the top spot in next year's subscription campaign. He received a cash prize of Dh10,000.

Multiply Gangadhar 30 times and you will get a team of achievers who are under the management of Nipun Mamgain, this year's top area distribution controller, which beat 16 other teams.

"The biggest achievement is not just being number one, but the fact that every distributor in my area has actually achieved 100 per cent [of their target]. We actually made a team effort to ensure that everybody worked towards achieving the target. So for me personally that is the achievement," Mamgain, who was third in the category last year, said.

Despite a lot of competition, distributors in this year's campaign were able to nurture a solid bond between its readers and the newspaper, Susheel Bhat, this year's top area distribution manager, said.

Hard work

"We have a solid interference in terms of field work. Like a field guy would visit [one home] at least 20 times in the span of 17 weeks. Most of the hard work is done by these people. They are the actual stars," Bhat said.

Apart from the individual, team, and area winners, the rest of the distributors who were able to achieve their targets were given a chance to win Dh3,000 each in a grand raffle.

Dh120,000 was the total of raffle prizes awarded to 40 lucky distributors.