Khater Massaad, Partner & CEO, Al Forsan Global Industrial Complex • Interview
By innovating to develop new product sizes and anti-bacterial coatings, Al Forsan Global Industrial Complex not only expects to succeed locally, but boost exports as well.
Could you give us an overview of Al Forsan Global Industrial Complex’s latest achievements?
For the last two years, we have been concentrating on being specified and approved for projects in Saudi Arabia. Now, there are many projects going on. We were awarded several important contracts, one of which is supplying 5,800 villas for the National Guard. We are also supplying projects for the Ministry of Housing and the Ministry of Interior’s south border housing projects. We are classified as a technical factory. We have focused on being approved by engineering consultants, contractors, and ministries, and now we are considered a serious partner for any of those. Even during COVID-19, we did not halt our business; we continued to supply our clients and worked on our projects. We are pleased with our progress to date. More specifically, we have established new products. Our most important product today is outdoor wall cladding. We have tiles that can be fixed on outdoor facades with mechanical fixing that would normally be used to fix granite and marble. We have started getting many projects using these tiles, especially the mall on King Abdulaziz Road and other projects in Mecca and Riyadh. We also have 40cm x 80cm tiles that can be used in place of marble and granite. In addition, we have established an antibacterial glaze for our tiles, which is good for schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and so on. We are the only company producing that type of tile, which is done through a special formula that we produced independently. At present, we are developing new models for export to the UK. We saw positive exports in 2016-2018, and we have renewed those contracts to develop a new series for the UK in the same sanitary segment.
Do you have other export targets, and what kind of projects are you involved in through your partners?
We currently export to about 16 countries. Since COVID-19, we have not been able to export, but before it was about 75% local and 25% exports. The UK is our largest export market, followed by Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, Yemen, and Italy. We are renewing our contracts in Italy for sanitary ware. In 2021, we expect to see about 50% of our products being exported. We currently supply Aramco and Emaar. We supplied material for the housing projects of the Royal Commission and the Ministry of Defense. With all of our partners, we supply housing projects, in addition to several hotels we have provided for in Mecca and Medina, mainly porcelain tiles and sanitary ware.
What are your short-term goals for the year?
We plan to increase production and install a faucet factory. We want to build water taps since there is no such factory in the area and are currently looking for partnerships. I hope 2021 will be a better year than 2020. However, no matter what, the world will not stop turning. In 20082010, everyone was so sure the banking system would collapse, and there would be a new world order. However, by 2012 everything was back to normal again, and business was booming. Generally speaking, our market will continue to grow even if there is no oil because we expect 30 million tourists to Mecca and Medina. There is little risk. Moreover, there is a great deal of wealth available in the world. It may change hands, but it will not reduce. Someone else will invest. I do not think the future will be bleak, and it will not be worse. Behind every valley is a mountain—after all the problems in the Middle East are resolved, it will need to rebuild. War cannot last forever, and people want to live. Since there are problems everywhere around us, we see that it will only get better in the coming years.