For Ugandan entrepreneur Idris Mutebi, Get Quick International started with a simple favour: helping friends and relatives in Uganda buy items from Dubai and get them home.
What began as an informal service has since grown into a Dubai-based logistics company handling shipments across Africa, Europe, Asia and America.
Mutebi, who moved to the United Arab Emirates nearly 15 years ago, says his business journey was shaped by his desire to solve problems and find opportunities in everyday challenges.
His first experience in Dubai was itself a problem to solve.
Mutebi had paid a travel company to process a long-term visa, only to discover after arriving that he had been given a short-term visa instead. The experience exposed him to some of the difficulties foreigners can face when relying on service providers.
At about the same time, friends and relatives back home started asking him to buy products in Dubai and send them to Uganda.
He would purchase the items, keep them in the boot of his car and find travellers heading to Uganda who could carry the packages.
He initially offered the service for free.
“At the beginning, this was not even business. Friends would just call, asking for something and I would gladly find it, store it in the boot of my car, try to find someone going back home and make sure that friends back home receive that package. I was doing this free of charge.”
But the requests kept coming, and word of his service spread through recommendations.
“The more friends I helped, the more people started recommending me until I realised this could actually become a business.”
That realisation led Mutebi to formalise the service and establish Get Quick International.
The company started with small packages but gradually expanded into international logistics, serving customers in several African countries and markets in Europe, Asia and America.
As demand grew, so did the size and complexity of the shipments.
One of the most unusual consignments the company has handled was a yacht shipped from Dubai to South Africa.
“The craziest thing we ever shipped was a brand-new yacht which we shipped from Dubai to South Africa.”
Mutebi later expanded his business interests by launching Get Quick Tours and Travel, adding travel-related services to the company’s logistics operations. Today, running the business involves much more than buying and delivering packages.