Redefining regional logistics: Phillip Khoury

At the old port of Abu Dhabi in the late 1960s, a young man sat in a tea shop with little more than determination and a talent for language. Ships unloaded cargo onto the docks, truck drivers hurried between borders and trade across the Middle East was accelerating.

The drivers, unable to read the English bills of lading that accompanied their cargo, approached the man with a simple question: "Can you translate?"

As it turned out, he was precisely at the right place at the right time. That man was Phillip Khoury Sr, the Founder of ADSO.

"Being a literate man, an educated man, he translated the bill of lading from English to Arabic in a very nice template in a very nice format," recalls Phillip Khoury, now CEO of his grandfather’s company.

"That man left some rupees on the table and pointed the rest of the drivers to come to this man who translates the bill of lading into a customs declaration for ongoing transit purposes."

What began with a rented table inside a tea shop would evolve into ADSO, one of the United Arab Emirates’ most respected freight and logistics specialists. Today, 57 years later, the family-owned business has grown into a powerhouse spanning customs clearance, cross-border transportation and freight forwarding across the Middle East. Yet, despite its scale, the company never loses sight of its incredibly humble start.

"He used to draw up contracts in the sand and do handshake deals," Khoury reveals. "Later, my grandfather established offices in Dubai and his five children have all served time in this entity, put their sweat, blood and tears working with their father to build the company to what it is today.

"And for that we remain grounded. We remain humble as owners and partners."

A family legacy

Raised among conversations that blended family life with strategy sessions, Khoury grew up absorbing the principles that still define the company today.

"Our Friday family get-togethers would involve a big family lunch," he explains. "And they would share ideas and thoughts about business and expansion at the end of the meal. So it would turn into kind of like a boardroom meeting somehow."

The company is divided into two different categories: one focused on civil engineering, marine contracting and oil field services, and the other on freight and logistics, both with the core values of principles, people and progress underpinning everything they do. As the third-generation leader, Khoury runs ADSO’s logistics arm.

"We have a commitment and responsibility, we have trust and integrity and we are people-centric, always serving with humility and progressing through innovation by tradition and sustainability," he explains.

"Our number one goal is to remain trustworthy and continue this legacy to the next generations."

Those values have become particularly important in an industry that has a reputation for being slow to embrace change.

"Freight and logistics, it’s a dinosaur industry. Implementing change in an emerging market is also quite challenging," Khoury reflects. "But with the visions of the country, we try to align on using more eco-friendly, more sustainable practices."

For ADSO, that means embracing everything from digitalization, solar panels and biofuels to electric fleets and autonomous driving technologies.

"We’re trying all the latest technologies and seeing what works, what doesn’t work and what’s available for mass implementation," he says. "It's really trying to go paperless, fuel-less and driverless – that’s our target."

The company is also investing heavily in automation and AI, particularly looking into how decades of operational data can now be transformed into strategic insights.

"For many years, we've been gathering data and have not been able to do anything with it," Khoury says. "But now with the technologies available, this data has become valuable, where it can be understood and analyzed better and incorporated into a strategy that can add value, rather than just having data for the sake of it."

Building the right team

Despite the increasing role of technology, Khoury is a staunch believer in the strength of the human touch.

"I'd rather invest more in people than technology at this stage," he says. "Since it’s a people industry and people play a huge role in getting things done in logistics, we invest heavily in our people training."

That philosophy plays into his leadership style too, which sees culture at the heart of the company structure.

"I think my biggest pride is nurturing a team that I can really call my family," he affirms. "That’s been my best accomplishment, building and empowering a team. It’s the team spirit, the sense of belonging to the company, giving people chances.

"If I take care of my people, my people will take care of my business."

Harboring deep operational expertise and local knowledge, Khoury believes regional specialists like ADSO offer advantages that larger multinational providers struggle to replicate.

"Working with regional local supply chain operators allows you to get the service that you deserve," he enthuses. "The regional companies know how to execute – they're on the ground and are available on call."

It is a strategy that continues to fuel ADSO’s next phase of growth, with plans over the coming years to expand across the Middle East before entering South-East Asia, with Thailand and Singapore on the horizon.

Yet despite these plans, the goal, Khoury emphasizes, will always be on maintaining the culture and the reputation it has carefully garnered over three generations.

"Our brand was not built to be a brand," he concludes. "Our brand became a brand because the market made it a brand."