Art of Business
An exclusive interview with Alexander van ‘t Riet, CEO, Mai Dubai
Mai Dubai is an international brand that stands for high quality, high standards, and a grand consumer experience, so there is no compromise when it comes to the effort and investment towards building a best-in-class company. The company name comes from ‘Mai’ which means water in Arabic; and in English when someone hears Mai Dubai they think “my Dubai”. As an entity, Mai Dubai is fully owned by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, which further reinforces the company’s reputation in ensuring the highest standards of quality locally and globally.
Since the launch of Mai Dubai seven years ago, it has become one of the leading bottled drinking water companies and the most often used water brand in the UAE. Today, Mai Dubai is a household name not only in the UAE but in several markets around the world. It has been exporting its products to several countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, and the GCC. Since
2015, the bottled drinking water is the proud water refreshment partner of Emirates Airlines. Here is an excerpt from Magzoid’s conversation with Alexander van ’t Riet, CEO of Mai Dubai.
You have prominently established yourself as a successful executive. How did you start your career in the corporate world?
Well, my career skipped through different stages. I started with the industrial world and after a few years in strategic consulting, the bottled & packaging industry seems to have selected me more than I selected it. I went from large MNCs to being a board member and executive in a billion-plus dollar company. From creative labels to flexible packaging, the experiences trained me to become the GM in large multinationals and private equity companies alike, mainly through sales, marketing, and operational roles. Then, after finding out that I would be really bad at retirement, we came to Dubai and I started a small consulting company, through which I did a project for Mai Dubai. Few years down the line, the former CEO wanted to retire; and, after a very smooth handover and I found myself in the current role in
Mai Dubai.
Please share with us your educational background. What is the impact of your education on your personal and professional growth and your decisionmaking strategies today?
Since I used to travel a bit, I did my education in several countries. I got a business degree and an MBA which set the scene for the business world. But, like how it is with driving a car; you get a license but only learn to drive in the years after, the business degree got me in the door, the professional growth came through experience afterward. I had the fortune of working with both small and large companies which have given me quite a rich proficiency from sales, marketing and operations to general management. I must say that the education made me consistently curious and developed the desire to learn more.
How would you describe your experience at Mai Dubai so far? As part of the Mai Dubai family, what do you enjoy the most?
Definitely the people! There’s no doubt about it! I guess we are getting to be too big to be called a family, we are more of a clan now. But what I enjoy the most is seeing the passion and enthusiasm of the teams for the business, the results, and the overall growth. Mai Dubai creates a nurturing workplace. We have an inspiring work culture, a spirit of unity, and respect for all; those are our values and we live by them. That is what makes it inspiring for me. Work works when it isn’t work!
From the beginning, Mai Dubai has been using renewable energy as part of its operations. Could you elaborate on this and why did the company choose this sustainability path?
It wasn’t quite from the beginning that we had sustainable energy, that came more recently, but we did take our carbon footprint already in the second year of operation. Being responsible towards society and the environment has been part of our DNA from day one.
The shareholder and particularly the Chairman drive this agenda wholeheartedly. In the past, people thought safety and profit were a trade-off, only to find out that it wasn’t. Today, business-savvy people know intuitively that likewise sustainability goes hand in hand with long-term profitability. To me, there is no alternative. Acting responsibly is a prerequisite for doing business these days. Mai Dubai has the second largest solar rooftop installation in the world, and installed capacity of 18.1 MW generated by about 52,056 solar panels. We are committed to doing whatever we can in a responsible way and that works.
What challenges did the company face during the planning and execution phases of this state-of-the-art facility?
For us, the challenge was multiple. First, the logistics system we have is completely new for the region. This meant the people executing the project had to learn quickly; and even the regulator was challenged, as some building specifications did not fit the usual models. Secondly, the project was
on a tight timeline, and given our explosive growth, we needed it fast. Executing big projects fast is never easy. The last and the trickiest challenge was that we were building a factory while operating a bottled water company. Imagine being at sea, sailing, while building a boat in parallel, bigger than the one you are on, one that had never been built before. That’s what the team did.
What steps have been taken to ensure your readiness to meet future demands?
With our fast expansion, we constantly obsess about the future and growth. More trucks, more people, more locations, more, well, everything. Meanwhile, as we grow, the processes and systems we have need to become more robust, tested, and sized for the future. It means more investment in security, the quality of the product, more IT, more training for the employees, more attention to safety, health, etc. A brand-new bottling machine has just been installed. The machine can produce 86,000 bottles an hour, that’s about 23 bottles every second. That is phenomenal. But looking ahead with our growth, in the future we might need even more.
Paper and plastic use greatly affect the environment. How does Mai Dubai handle its plastic waste?
Thank you for asking, as this is one of my pet subjects, pun intended! PET is an amazing product and I have grown to have a passion for it. The key of course is that we, and the consumer, manage it correctly. The good news is that the plastic bottles are perfectly recyclable. In our factory, any waste is segregated and goes to recyclers. We work with our partner DGrade, a company that recycles PET bottles. They turn the recycled bottles into flakes and yarn, to produce clothing items such as shirts. From the market, we collect the large 16-liter bottles from our customers if they want us to, and about 25% of our customers use this free service. For transportation of liquids like bottled water, there is no safer, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly solution than PET. Additionally, from a product design perspective, we continuously find ways to reduce the amount of plastic in the bottles without degrading the product quality, hygiene, or safety. But the key aspect is being responsible and recycling that plastic.
With complete automation, a big challenge comes when there is a mechanical breakdown. How do you handle such a scenario?
I am happy to report that the systems we have invested in are world-class. The impact of a breakdown is high, but, just like with airplanes and buildings, we ensure the frequency of failure is near zero. We also have redundancy built into the system. The factory is designed not to be overly dependent on a single item. For instance, even for our warehouse with inventory, the products are scattered over the warehouse. So, should one crane break down, another crane can always get to that specific product. Currently, we are also installing equipment that predict if something might go wrong. So on top of preventive maintenance, but we are now installing technology which allows for predictive maintenance.
What cybersecurity protocols have been implemented in your automated facility?
First of all, most of the systems are on-premise, meaning they are not open to the outside world. Of course, our partners are granted access through tight protocols to work with us remotely at times.
Like many companies, we have been exposed to the typical cyber-attacks you’d expect, be it destructive or interruptive, such as ransomware, virus, or other. We take cybersecurity seriously, and work with MORO, a sister company of DEWA that specializes in hosting services and IT security to ensure we are well protected. Till date, we never had issues jeopardizing our ability to deliver our quality products to the market.
How cost-effective is technology for the company?
Plant automation means the ability to track and trace, and to the lower dependency on people for repetitive non-value added tasks. This brings financial benefits. As for the solar panels, the payback is between 5-10 years. The current installation means that for the last two years, the electricity bill has been practically zero; in fact, we supply electricity back into the grid making Mai Dubai a net-zero energy consumer. The rooftop solar panel installations produced more than 30 million kWh of power in
Since the establishment of the brand in December 2012, with quality, innovation and safety as core values, Mai Dubai has grown to become the second biggest bottled water brand in the UAE.
The operations of the facility are fully automated, eliminating to a greater extent the need for human intervention. From the arrival of raw material up to the loading of the final product onto the trucks for dispatch, every single operation is performed by machines, with minimal human intervention.
2020, while it consumed only 26 million kWh. A surplus of 4,1 million kWh of energy was sent back to DEWA’s power grid.
Briefly describe the impact of this move in terms of efficiency, speed, quality control, and most importantly, power and fuel consumption?
The most obvious change of having everything automated and transported via a 1.1 km monorail and 44 carts is the absence of forklifts. That has multiple benefits, fewer chances for error, less operational cost, fewer safety risks. In some parts, artificial intelligence is even helping to optimize, saving space and time. Given the machines call-off the product from raw material stocks and fill the Finished Goods warehouse without any human touch or intervention, you can imagine that the quality control is unsurpassed. Power-wise we rely 100% on solar. Mai Dubai is the only bottled water plant of our size that I know of in the world that is fully operating on solar.
The factory and its adjacent office building run fully on solar energy, abating 15,000MTs of carbon emissions annually.
What is your opinion on the UAE’s efforts to build a sustainable future?
Anyone who is aware of the state of our environment knows sustainability is key. It is not just environmental sustainability; sustainability comes in many forms. What is amazing in the UAE is that the leadership is willing not only to say it is important, but to act upon it. When you have clear forwardthinking leadership, it creates a certain amount of clarity and alignment to make it happen.
Do you have any plans to generate or harvest water from other sources with the help of technology? If so, please briefly discuss your plans.
We are watching that domain very carefully. We have studied, reviewed, and tested different options. Think alternative filtration systems for water through nanotechnology, air-to-water systems, etc. To date, none of these are to the point we believe viable for use in high volume FMCG. It needs to be commercially valuable. Remember we supply over 20% of the UAE retail market with bottled water. With the average person in the UAE consuming over 1 liter per day per year, that’s lots of water. Our Future Product Development team consciously looks for opportunities, and there is no doubt that something great will come out of that in the not-toodistant future.
What message do you have for our readers?
Drink water. Lots of it. Preferably Mai Dubai. I also invite people to choose wisely and be knowledgeable about the use of plastic. As we deal with the impacts of climate change, it is our responsibility to adopt sustainable practices to ensure a clean environment and adequate resources for our future generations. That is why we reiterate the call to practice the 3R’s- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. And to finish off- Stay Healthy and Stay Hydrated.