Jomha ... at the helm.
Univest sets sights on GCC paint crown
In a career spanning 22 years, Dr Ahmad Jomha has seen the transformation of the region’s paint industry. Gulf Construction speaks to him about the challenges faced at the helm of Univest.
01 April 2008
Over the past decade or so, Sipco Paints has transformed from a small player with a limited product range to a technology and market-driven regional paint major that is quick to respond to trends and has the business acumen to optimise on all of its resources.
A milestone in its history has been its recent merger with Dyrup Paints creating Univest – a company that aims to capitalise on the synergetic strengths of both entities.
Spearheading Univest’s growth is its general manager Dr Ahmad Jomha, who – backed by 22 years of experience in the paint industry and a doctorate in chemical engineering – is pursuing the company's vision of becoming the leading paint manufacturer in the region.
Dr Jomha looks back on a career that began with chemistry and today sees him at the helm of one of the most significant players in the region's paint industry. At the age of 47, he is acknowledged as one of the most technically-competent industry leaders in Saudi Arabia with a proven track record of commercial success in terms of both business management and managing change.
Born in Lebanon in 1960, Dr Jomha’s early years were spent in Lebanon where he attained a BSc in Chemistry in 1982. “I then went to the UK where I obtained my Masters and PhD in Chemical Engineering at the University of Bradford,” he says. “I stayed on as a lecturer at the University from 1987 to 1990 whilst acting as a consultant with ICI Paints in the UK.”
In 1990, Dr Jomha joined Courtaulds Coatings (now known as Akzo-Nobel) where he became research manager prior to moving to Saudi Arabia in 1994 when he took up the post of lecturer at the Technical College in Riyadh. In 1995, he joined Sipco Paints as technical director, a post which he held until 2001.
“When I joined Sipco in 1995, the company was a small player with a limited product range,” says Dr Jomha. “The challenge was to build it into a competitive paint major by expanding the product range and obtaining certification.”
Over the next six years, Dr Jomha took on responsibility for research and development, quality control, technical service and purchasing. He established a fully-fledged technical department with 35 staff, including chemists, technicians and painting specialists. Within 12 months, he had helped create the widest range of decorative products in the Middle East and in 1997 he set about upgrading the company's industrial products, adopting new technologies to address environmental issues. This was vitally important in terms of Saudi oil and petrochemical industry’s requirements relating to the environment. “Our market strategy at that time was to internationalise the company and so in 1997, we achieved a major landmark in this process when we achieved ISO 9001 certification,” says Dr Jomha, who personally oversaw the development and re-engineering of over 200 products for Sipco.
In 2001, Jomha was appointed deputy general manager for the company with responsibilities for operations, protective coating sales, industrial coatings sales and export sales to Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq and Iran. By October 2003, he was appointed general manager for Sipco Paints, giving him the opportunity to show his unique management capabilities.
“In 2004, the main challenge was to further develop from a technically-driven to a market-oriented company and I was aware of the need to build a marketing department as well as to revamp the distribution network,” he says. “Sipco needed to be seen in the media and so with my team, we worked on enhancing our brand name through aggressive and innovative above and below-the-line activities.”
Dr Jomha’s plan also included a review of internal costs and controls. He reduced the total number of staff required, by improving productivity and reduced overhead costs by 18 per cent. He also established a complete distribution network, which resulted in the company attracting new dealers.
“Distributors started to approach us, with some shifting from multinationals," says Dr Jomha. “We also began to expand out markets, placing an emphasis on export activities in the Middle East.”
As a result of Jomha’s strategy, Sipco has achieved annual double-digit growth year-on-year since 2004 with a significant increase in exports. Through marketing campaigns, seminar programmes and exhibitions, Dr Jomha gradually turned the company into a market-driven entity focusing on market segmentation. “As part of the plan, the consumer has been very important as latest research shows that 70 to 75 per cent of the paint market is retail,” he comments. “This is where you need a presence to be counted as a serious player and where you can brand your products, sharing the risk with your distributor.”
In 2006, Dr Jomha was faced with perhaps his biggest challenge when the decision was made to merge Sipco Paints with Dyrup Paints to form a significant new force in the industry – Univest.
The plan to merge stemmed from three main arguments, according to Dr Jomha. “Firstly, with the advent of WTO, the owners wanted to establish a more robust entity; secondly, the shareholders traditionally were strong in any sector of business in which they were involved. Finally, there was no mistaking the excellent synergy that was to be found in the two companies,” says Dr Jomha, pointing out that Sipco has a strong industrial business-to-business base whilst Dyrup had a strong retail presence. In addition, Sipco was geographically strong in the east and south of the Kingdom whereas Dyrup was better established in the central and western provinces.
Following the merger of the two companies in February 2006, Dr Jomha – as the newly-appointed general manager of the new entity – set about consolidating the company’s joint resources. “I had to initially unify the two companies which meant a unification of vastly different cultures,” he says. “I began by consolidating marketing, production, finance and technical functions across both companies and, with the full support of the team, have made great progress.”
Through a process of optimisation of various resources, Dr Jomha was able to successfully bring the two companies together despite major challenges. “We were able to optimise the manufacturing process by moving all decorative paint manufacture to Riyadh and all heavy-duty paints and coatings to our Dammam facility,” he points out. “However, the merger did coincide with the highly-sensitive Danish boycott issue, which eroded 70 per cent of our market share for Dyrup in 2006.”
Despite what was considered a catastrophic situation, Dr Jomha and his team fought back over the next 18 months, regaining 65 per cent of the lost market in 2007. “Despite the fact that both companies were and are 100 per cent Saudi owned, we were badly affected by the Danish crisis and so, we have still not realised the true value of the merger, which should have placed us in the top position in the region,” he says, adding however, “what has been gratifying is that our competitors have been amazed at how we have recovered.”
Looking ahead, Dr Jomha is confident that the new company will emerge even stronger, despite new political tensions caused by the continued controversy in Denmark. “Our vision is to be the leading paint company in the GCC for both industrial and decorative products,” he says. “To achieve this, I am building the leadership within our company, which will help us achieve our objective, and placing more emphasis on marketing.”
For 2008, Dr Jomha is concentrating on his domestic market plus the export markets of Bahrain, Yemen and Kuwait. He is also looking particularly at Syria. “I have four major objectives going forward,” says Dr Jomha. “First, I want to build our brands. Second, I want to launch new innovative products. Third, I will revamp and enhance our image through our dealers and finally, I intend to introduce loyalty programmes into the market.”
There is no doubt that Dr Jomha's commitment to the development of Univest is total. His commitment to the industry in general is also apparent as he holds a number of positions in industry-related committees and associations including vice president of the National Paint Manufacturers Committee in Saudi Arabia and president of Paints Technical Committee for the Saudi Arabian Standard Organisation (Saso). He is also an associate member of the Institute of Chemical Engineers in the UK, and a member of the Protective Coatings Society of the US, the National Association of Corrosion Engineers in the US and the Institute of Engineers in Lebanon.
Dr Jomha’s educational background and career to-date must place him at the top of his profession. His ability as a manager together with his technical knowledge of the paint industry puts Univest in a strong position to develop its brands to become the market leader in the region.
