RAK Ceramics profits drop, plans new facility in Saudi
dubai — RAK Ceramics on Wednesday said its 2018 net profits plunged 28.7 per cent to Dh225.1 million amidst decline in revenues and Dh38.6 million gain from one-off sale of its non-core entities in the previous years.
The company reported total revenues of Dh2.78 billion, a slight decline of 2.8 per cent due to lower non-core revenue contribution, in line with the company’s strategy to divest non-core entities.
Its tableware business continued to show strong growth with revenues reaching Dh264 million, an increase of 11 per cent year-onyear, supported by growth in US, European and Asian markets.
The company announced its intention to invest in a state-ofthe-art production facility in Saudi Arabia that utilises the latest technology in ceramics manufacturing and, in the first phase, will initially add approximately 10 million square metres per annum to RAK Ceramics’ tile total production capacity.
The company is optimistic for growth in Saudi Arabia due to increasing construction and real estate activity and the attractive cost advantages for manufacturing due to competitive energy costs.
In October 2018, RAK Ceramics began commercial production in its recently expanded Indian facility. The Greenfield project for producing slabs began trials production in January 2019 with commercial production expected to commence in Q1 2019.
Abdallah Massaad, Group CEO, RAK Ceramics, said Dh225.1 million net profit is a significant achievement in light of challenging market conditions and continued increases in energy, raw material and freight costs.
“Looking ahead for 2019, there are a number of external macro factors which will continue to affect our business. However, we are focused on enhancing our brand and optimising operations across the group, while continuing to protect our strong market share in the UAE, India, Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia,” he said, adding that “we are also focused on improving the profitability of our Indian and European operations and the growth of our tableware business in the US, European and Asian markets.”