Boushehri ... expansion plans.
Hassan Abul plans major expansion
01 June 2005
Kuwait-based Hassan Abul Company, which has recently opened up new branches in the fast-growing construction markets of Doha and Dubai, is looking at expanding its marble factory to keep up with the increased demand.
“The expansion of our marble business has been necessitated by the growing demand for marble and associated products,” says Mohammed Boushehri, manager, projects.
“The marble business is becoming strong in Kuwait primarily because of the increasing popularity of this beautiful natural stone, which reflects artistic taste and nobility.
“As part of the expansion plan, the company will construct a new marble plant to meet the growth in demand. The new factory will be opened in the fourth quarter of 2005. It has also installed high-tech machines that will help the company to offer higher quality and better finishes for its products, while at the same time help it raise its production figures from the current 5,700 sq m per month to about 14,000 sq m per month. All this has been done with the aim of achieving high levels of customer satisfaction, he says.
The company procures its raw materials in slabs or cut-to-size from around the world including from quarries in the Middle East, India, Tunisia, Turkey, Portugal and Italy. These products are used for various applications including flooring, cladding of walls and columns.
The marble factory is equipped with sophisticated machinery including:
• Laser-guided cutting mac-hines from Pedrini of Italy, which cut marble and granite from slabs to produce tiles;
• Manual cutting machines from Freeze Machine of Italy, which manually cut marble and granite from slabs to produce tiles;
• Fine cutting water jet machine from Italy to cut marble/granite into ornate designs based on AutoCad drawings;
• Edge shaping machines from Comandully Speedy of Italy to provide a fine finish to exposed edges of marble and granite; as well as Comandulli Edilux for edge polishing, bevelled and chamfered edges and mitre joints for marble and granite.
• Numerical-controlled workstation (CNC machine) from Italy which produces three-dimensional images in marble or granite. It is used to produce curved panels for curved wall and column cladding and balustrades;
• Multi-purpose workstation from Thibuat of France, which provides a high degree of polishing/brushing to marble and granite surfaces. It is used for fine polishing to the edges of counter-tops and any curved as well as plain surfaces; and
• Numerical controlled workstation (lathe machine) from Omag of Italy, which produces solid columns and balustrades in marble or granite.
Among the various projects it is currently supplying to are the Messilah Beach Hotel (35,000 sq m of stone for external and internal applications); Al Deira Commercial Tower (20,000 sq m of external limestone cladding); and Al Bahar mixed-use complex (7,000 sq m of marble for interiors).
The company has recently completed a number of major projects including the Al Awadi Commercial and Residential Tower (8,500 sq m of internal marble works); Kout Mall at Fahaheel Waterfront (12,000 sq m of internal and external stoneworks); electricity and Water Training Institute for the Public Authority for Applied Education (2,000 sq m of internal stoneworks); Kuwait Oil Sector Complex (25,000 sq m of external stonework and 8,000 sq m of internal marble works); Al Aseer Tower – Burgan Bank (3,500 sq m of marble and granite works); and several luxury villas.
The marble factory is just one aspect of this multi-faceted enterprise. Hassan Abul Company’s business is divided under two divisions – the first being a trading operation dealing in sanitary ware, toilet accessories, ceramic tiles, glass blocks, and kitchens appliances. The second division deals with high-end products and also includes aluminium, wood, ceramic and coatings factories in addition the marble plant. While most of the company’s output is distributed in the local market, Hassan Abul Company also exports a part of its production to its branches in Dubai, and Qatar.
“A specialist supplier of a range of internal building materials that include ceramic, marble, kitchen accessories and sanitary ware, the company has diversified into external building materials with the introduction of aluminium, wood, glass, and coating products last year.
Hassan Abul Company was established in 1959 with the opening of a small showroom in the Al-Sief Street in Kuwait City. Today, it boasts a 1,500-employee strong workforce that helps achieve an average annual turnover of $75 million. Over the decades, the firm has increased its presence in Kuwait through the establishment of five additional outlets situated at Hawalli (main showroom); Al Shuweikh (two showrooms); A1 Rai (showroom at Ghazali Street) and a new special high-end product showroom at Al Rai which is under construction, Boushehri says.
In addition, the firm has recently spread its reach overseas through the opening of two branches in the Gulf area – one in Dubai and the other in Doha, Qatar.
The firm, which has been working towards achieving greater customer satisfaction through improving the quality of its products and services, sources of its materials from around the world, and primarily from the European markets.
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