Jamal Al Ghurair Group ventures into porcelain tiles factory with Porcellan

Scheduled to be commissioned by mid 2008, Porcellan, the latest venture of Jamal Al Ghurair Group, will produce 18 million sqm. of glazed, polished, unpolished and technical porcelain tiles per year, which will be doubled in 2 years after the commissioning.

The group, which operates Al Khaleej Sugar, one of the world's largest sugar refineries is also making another factory, Gypsemna side by side with Porcellan for the production of 50 million sqm of gypsum plasterboards per year, the first of its kind in the region.

"The group's strategy is to focus on areas, which are strategically important for the growth of the region and create success. The success of Al Khaleej Sugar is a great example of this strategy and we want to leverage this success into a number of other ventures," says Nagi Beshara, Deputy General Manager, Sales & Marketing of Porcellan.

"Today, Middle East imports more building materials than any other regions in the world. According to reports, Dubai itself imported building materials worth $60bn last year. While the demand for building materials is increasing, the region is also facing hurdle due to price differences and delay in the delivery time, which is affecting the entire construction industry. We want to help the region to make it less depend on importing building materials," continues Mr. Beshara while explaining the rationale behind the group's foray into building material industry.

"Porcellan plant is equipped with modern machineries, mostly Italian including several high-tonnage presses, advanced kilns, Croma technology from LB and other supporting machineries such as Creta print, Cimes, Keda, to name a few. All this will help Porcellan to produce technologically superior products with high aesthetic standards and quality in different sizes," says Eng. Jayarao, Technical General Manager of the plant.

"Porcellan will introduce latest in the Porcelain tile designs, which we are sure that the architects, specifiers and consumers will welcome as the market demands innovative technical porcelain tiles. Today in tile industry the trend is mainly glazed and technical porcelain tiles mainly due to the fact that we can create a variety of designs especially replica of stones and marbles on it. The possibility of making large sizes and other superior technical features of porcelain tiles also play a major role in this. Our Porcellan Research Lab with the assistance of a world famous Italian design house has already developed the right product portfolio to cater to the market demands," says Mr. Beshara.

Porcellan will produce sizes ranging from 40x40 cm to 120x120 cm. Initially while focusing on the entire Middle East and other strategic markets such as, UK, Germany, France, Belgium, Greece, Austria, Russia & other CIS countries, Australia and US, the sales and marketing strategy of Porcellan is to go global and make Porcellan a global brand.