Business Review Europe Magazine - December 2015

D e c e mb e r 2015

w w w.b u s in e s s reviewe u ro p e.e u

Leadership

How resilient is your supply chain?

FLYING HIGH Saudi Arabian Airlines’ ambitious plans for growth

SPECIAL FEATURE Investing in new technology

Finance

What type of CFO are you?

EDITOR’S COMMENT

Technology transformations W E L C O M E T O T H E F I N A L issue of

Business Review Europe and Middle East for 2015. As the year ends, we’re featuring an impressive selection of articles covering the role of technology within some of the leading companies in Europe and the Middle East. This includes an exclusive interview with Saudi Arabian Airlines’ CIO. We’re also looking at the importance of data to create a resilient supply chain and how businesses can ensure they’re investing in future-proof technology.

Another highlight this issue is our interview with the team responsible for bringing Camp Bastion, the British armed forces base in Afghanistan, back to the UK: an enormous and fascinating logistics challenge.

We do hope you enjoy the issue, please send us your feedback on Twitter: @BizReviewEurope and @BusinessRevME

Lucy Dixon Managing Editor EMEA lucy.dixon@wdmgroup.com 3

Bosgraaf Group offers a total package

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CONTENTS

Features

FINANCE Breaking tradition

20 LEADERSHIP How resilient is your supply chain?

14

8

TECHNOLOGY Looking forward 5

CONTENTS

26

Saudi Arabian Airlines

Company Profiles TECHNOLOGY

FOOD

26 Saudi Arabian Airlines

180 Confectionary Holding

46 Kasto

188 Rich Sauces

SUPPLY CHAIN

ENERGY

58 Costa

198 GCC Interconnection Authority

74 Rakha Al-Khaleej Int’l LLC 88 Liberty Global 110 MOD

214 Karam Fedics Services 222 ADC Energy Systems

122 First Bahrain

MINING

134 Dusseldorf Airport Cargo DUS

234 British Flurospar

HEALTHCARE 144 Zulekha Hospital

MANUFACTURING 156 manroland web systems 166 Philips Lighting

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December 2015

RETAIL 246 Jannah Hotels

CONSTRUCTION 254 KBR 288 Strukton

88 Liberty Global

58 COSTA

Kasto

46

166 Philips Lighting

122

First Bahrain

198

222

CC Interconnection G Authority

246 Jannah Hotels

ADC Energy Systems

234

ritish B Flurospar

FINANCE

BREAKING TRADITION What type of CFO are you? Martin Hill reports on why the CFO stereotypes need a refresh

A u t h o r : M a r t i n H i l l i s V P, M a r k e t i n g EMEA at EPICOR Software Corporation

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FINANCE STRICT, NUMBER-CRUNCHING AND process-driven. These are just some of the phrases that spring to mind when we think about a stereotypical CFO. But in today’s fast-paced business world, the CFO working style is in fact varied and fascinating. This is a stereotype that’s long overdue a refresh. Let’s take a typical scenario as an example.

Imagine a CFO sat at his desk, squinting at the computer screen as he concentrates on financial performance for one quarter, and cross-references it carefully with planning for the next quarter. Someone comes into his office and says he’s found a great new business proposition – an opening in a new market – and he thinks the business will grow rapidly if it invests. The CFO, who’s just finalised his planning, looks up from his work to consider the proposition.

At this point in the story, the working style of the CFO - stereotypical or not - affects whether the business explores this new opportunity.

To keep a business moving, CFOs are required to provide other members of the C-suite with vital insight at the drop of a hat. Their systems have the potential to facilitate (or hold back) 10

December 2015

plans, allow (or slow down) the analysis of business data, and arm their peers with the information they need to make the right business decisions (or not).

The CFO’s working style dramatically affects the speed, flexibility and insight with which the business is able to do this.

Question time We recently commissioned Redshift Research to question around 1,500 financial decision makers from across the globe about how they work. We discovered six groups of financial decision makers[i]: over a quarter of CFOs were classed as politicians (27 percent), a fifth were revolutionaries (20 percent), 18 percent were carers, 17 per cent were conductors and one in ten (9 percent) were classed as visionaries.

An additional one in ten (9 percent) CFOs were categorised as traditionalists.

Research shows these CFOs are strong when working within existing agreed systems and processes but can be bureaucratic. They are also the least likely CFOs to

BREAKING TRADITION

‘The opposite of the traditional stereotype are the revolutionary CFOs who are charismatic by nature and not afraid to think outside the box’

acknowledge any need for change – only 14 percent believe their systems should be updated compared to the average of 32 per cent. It perhaps comes as no surprise then, that in the same research these CFOs were found to be less likely to experience profit growth than their more innovative, less traditional counterparts (56 percent compared to the average of 64 percent of their peers). In our scenario, these CFOs would slow down the business’s ability to explore the new proposition; sending his colleague out of the door.

The opposite of the traditional stereotype are the revolutionary CFOs who are charismatic by nature and not afraid to think outside the box. In our scenario, if the CFO is a revolutionary, they will be happy to take a less structured approach and work outside of formal systems and processes to make the new business opportunity 11

FINANCE possible. These CFOs are risk-takers – 58 percent of revolutionaries will make decisions based on instinct if they don’t have the empirical data they need.

Their drive and innovative attitude make the revolutionary the most likely CFO group to facilitate business growth in our research nearly three-quarters of revolutionary CFOs (72 percent) had experienced profit increase.

Decision making Although revolutionaries are powerful working styles, in our survey, CFOs most commonly fall under the

category of politician (27 percent).

These are more cautious leaders, with a methodical team-based approach.

They like to consult widely and build consensus before making important decisions. In fact, 27 percent of these CFOs believe collaboration is a challenge that needs addressing.

By contrast, conductor CFOs have a tendency to make decisions alone. They are strong defenders of corporate culture but are more likely than average (54 percent compared to 46 percent of their peers) to make decisions based on gut-feel rather than

Some CFOs take a methodical, team-based approach to working

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December 2015

BREAKING TRADITION

‘No matter which working style a CFO adopts, their ability to provide other members of the C-suite with relevant empirical information, at the right time, can help their business make better, informed decisions’ hard data. In our scenario, this could easily lead to fast-paced work but the potential of mistakes is increased.

Carers on the other hand might miss the new business opportunity all together – they are cautious CFOs and 52 percent of them worry about a lack of accurate data when making decisions.

Visionaries however, are unlike their carer colleagues. These creative CFOs gloss over details when exploring a new business proposition – perhaps because a quarter of them (23 percent) are worried about not having the time or resources to produce meaningful insight.

Considering the CFO stereotype, we can be forgiven for expecting just one, rather traditional, rather rigid, outcome to our scenario. However, our research demonstrates that the outcome might in fact vary considerably depending

on the working style of the CFO in question. No matter which working style a CFO adopts, their ability to provide other members of the C-suite with relevant empirical information, at the right time, can help their business make better, informed decisions.

By using intelligent technology to streamline day-to-day financial tasks, ascenario now - with accurate insight, traditionalists might be more prepared for change, revolutionary risk-takers might need to base less on instinct, and, carers might spend less time stuck in intricate detail.

The age-old image of a processdriven, strict CFO might be somewhat engrained in our psyche, but it’s long overdue a refresh. With the right technology delivering the right information, a CFO has the power to help businesses be more strategic, more flexible and adapt to change.

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LEADERSHIP

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December 2015

How resilient is your supply chain?

Supply chain resiliency is based on good decisions and sound data W R I T T E N BY: PH I LI P J O H N S O N , V I C E P R E S I D E N T – O P E R AT I O N S M A N A G E R , L O N D O N O P E R AT I O N S AT F M G L O B A L

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LEADERSHIP

A video overview of the FM Global Resilience Index EUROPEAN COMPANIES ARE becoming increasingly dependent on the emerging economies for production, new facilities and customers. According to McKinsey Global Institute, by 2025, nearly half of the Fortune Global 500 companies are likely to be based in developing countries – up from only five percent in 1990 and 26 percent in 2013.

It is this migration to developing countries that makes supply chain management increasingly important for multinational companies today.

Emerging markets Supply chain risk is a major threat to 16

December 2015

business continuity. Disruption can reduce a company’s revenue, cut into market share, inflate costs, or threaten production and distribution.

With this in mind, European companies should follow these three steps to supply chain resiliency: 1. Identifying suppliers Identifying critical suppliers is the first step towards understanding your exposure to supply chain risk.

Your company may have only a few suppliers or - like some companies - hundreds or even thousands. Your company may also be the supplier in another company’s supply chain. How

H O W R E S I L I E N T I S Y O U R S U P P LY C H A I N ?

will a disruption downstream impact the profitability of your business?

2. Identify the risks shared by your company and your suppliers Once you’ve identified your key suppliers, the next step is to conduct an accurate risk assessment. The following risks apply to many companies today:

• Social/Political/Economical factors.

There have been no shortage of issues relating to these factors recently, as witnessed by terrorist attacks, political turmoil and the economic impact of increasingly complex supply chains.

• Market influence. Is your supplier resilient to financial volatility? If not, disturbances to the supply of

• Natural catastrophes. Emerging markets may have distinct cost advantages, but they are often areas that are vulnerable to natural catastrophes. They can be located near major fault lines and flood zones, and exposed to risks such as tsunamis, hurricanes and earthquakes.

‘Is your supplier resilient to financial volatility?

If not, disturbances to the supply of product within your supply chain could have a devastating impact on your bottom line’ Philip Johnson 17

LEADERSHIP product within your supply chain could have a devastating impact on your bottom line. And what do your suppliers know about the market resilience of their suppliers? Their exposure could be your exposure.

• Business practices. The supplier’s financial and management stability, as well as its internal processes and corporate governance practices, should be understood for the risk they represent. For instance, disruptions to a supplier’s internal operations can easily ripple through to your organisation if not mitigated properly.

• Physical plant. Loss prevention measures are as critical to your supplier’s facilities as they are to your own. The difference is, you don’t manage your supplier’s facilities.

3. Loss prevention Once you know who your suppliers are, how do you mitigate the risk they bring? This requires a deeper understanding of the suppliers’ business operations and its ability to recover from a major disruption.

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December 2015

The FM GLOBAL RESILI the resilience of 130 cou executives evaluate and m There are several ways to mitigate supply chain risk, through risk improvement efforts, switching to suppliers with less exposure, or by spreading the financial impact across multiple suppliers. Cultivating alternative sourcing arrangements is typically the best way. Do you have a plan C for when plan B goes wrong? Increasing your inventory levels (of raw materials or finished

H O W R E S I L I E N T I S Y O U R S U P P LY C H A I N ?

‘The FM Global Resilience Index, and other tools like it, will help businesses across Europe understand exactly where they are susceptible to loss’

IENCE INDEX is the first data-driven tool and repository that ranks untries and territories to supply chain disruption. It is designed to help manage unknown risk potentially inherent in the countries they rely upon. goods); creating business continuity planning requirements for all suppliers; planning for substitute products and service or redesigning products to allow for greater supplier flexibility are among viable options to create a strong risk management plan.

Using data to identify and prioritise risk As well as following the three steps

above, using data and technology is crucial to identify and prioritise the risks facing your supply chain.

Back in 2013 we created the FM Global Resilience Index, an interactive, publicly available tool that ranks the supply chain resilience of 130 countries and territories, aggregating nine drivers of resilience into three factors – economic, risk quality and supply chain.

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LOOKING F

When investing in new technology, how can bus

TECHNOLOGY

FORWARD

sinesses ensure they’re not backing a Betamax?

Written by: Mike Weston, CEO of data science consultancy Profusion

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TECHNOLOGY THE INTERNET OF Things (IoT) is made up of a lot of … er, things. Sometimes it’s worth stating the inanely obvious because it’s necessary to consider what the words actually means. A lot of ‘things’, in this context, means a lot of connected devices. Which implies a lot of manufacturers. This creates a lot of designs, processes and standards.

In the olden days (i.e. last year), it

obviously didn’t matter that your kettle couldn’t talk to your toaster, or that the thermostat in your house didn’t automatically turn down when you came home from the gym. But in late 2015, for a growing minority, these types of things (apparently) do matter.

Eventually, the IoT will enable many more people and do far more useful things. In this golden space between the advent of the technology and

A set of sewable electronic modules–including a small programmable computer called a LilyPad Arduino–can be stitched together with conductive thread to create interactive garments and accessories.

See more at www.lilypadarduino.org

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December 2015

LOOKING FORWARD

its mass adoption, there is a great opportunity for manufacturers, tech companies and suppliers to work together to standardise the IoT and avoid ‘specification wars’, rapid obsolescence, security flaws and ethical issues. Sadly, history suggests they probably won’t.

Consider the recent history of new devices and formats. There have been recurring format wars (consider Betamax and VHS, Minidisk and MP3, and in the past few years, HD DVD and Blu-ray). As with all wars, there were losers, casualties and a lot of money wasted. On one hand, there were the manufacturers and suppliers that threw their lot in on the wrong side. For some that was the end of the road, for others it precipitated a painful pivot. Even the winners had incurred plenty of additional costs in marketing and lobbying distributors.

On the other hand, there was the annoyed consumer who forked out a lot of cash on devices and their favourite songs or movies in their chosen format, only to find out they had to spend it all over again.

These are just a few examples of costly straight shoot-outs between designs. Consumer tech products

“Obviously, failure is a key part of the innovation process and we will never live in a world where every company designs and launches useful products that have longevity” – Mike Weston, CEO of data science consultancy Profusionlead, financial services, IBM Interactive Experience are also littered with evolutionary dead ends – LaserDisc anyone?

Obviously, failure is a key part of the innovation process and we will never live in a world where every company designs and launches useful products that have longevity.

However, IoT presents an opportunity for a different approach by the tech industry to get it right first time.

Previously, each type of consumer product could exist happily in its own world, ‘smart’ devices need to interact 23

TECHNOLOGY

“Tech companies need to decide what the rules of the game should be in relation to what data these devices capture, how it is stored securely and what is done with it” – Mike Weston, CEO of data science consultancy Profusion 24

December 2015

with their owner and other devices.

Truly ‘smart’ consumers will need to deck their houses out with a lot of new kit and spend a lot of money. They are not going to be happy to find out that a year down the track their lights don’t turn on in the morning because the smart lightbulb is obsolete – or that the new dishwasher they bought ignores their microwave because it’s built using a different type of ‘smart’ format.

They will be even more annoyed if the new smartphone they buy or smart control panel installed in their home no longer controls half their products.

On a more serious note, it’s also worth considering that smart devices are fuelled by data. With a world covered in these devices, personal information is going to be flying backwards and forwards via a multitude of companies. Tech companies need to decide what the rules of the game should be in relation to what data these devices capture, how it is stored securely and what is done with it. Failing on any of these fronts opens the door to a consumer backlash and a loss of trust that impacts the whole industry.

The sooner manufacturers and tech companies can work together

LOOKING FORWARD

on agreeing the rules of the game, both relating to the basic technical specifications that underpin IoT, and in the ethical and security standards that companies should follow, the better and faster the industry will progress – and the greater the consumer benefit. Fans of the free market will be quick to point out that

the invisible hand will play a big role in making all of this happen. However, as I’ve noted above, many of the current applications of IoT are at best superfluous and at worst laughable. It will take time before full potential and value of IoT is realised. It is therefore essential to maintain consumer trust, faith and patience in the interim.

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Flying high Written by: Lucy Dixon Produced by: Craig Daniels

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SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

HQ in Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabian Airlines’ ambitious plans for growth would not be possible without an innovative approach to technology

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December 2015

S

tarting out with a single airliner back in 1945, Saudi Arabian Airlines has grown to one of the world’s leading airlines, with over 30 million guests served by 45,000 employees in 5,000 locations across 100 destinations. And unlike many other airlines, the national carrier operates around the clock.

Codenamed SV2020, the airline has a fiveyear strategic plan that aims to double the fleet size by 2020, grow the airlines’ market share, re-invent its products and services and increase its margins. The strategy was formulated and introduced by Director General Engineer Saleh

TECHNOLOGY

bin Naser Al Jasser - who joined the airlines in late 2014- to transform the company in every sense and to further secure its competitive positon regionally and globally as well. Eng. Al Jasser has started a corporate wide transformation program aimed at turning it from a legacy carrier to a competitive travel provider with second to none products and services.

Pivotal to its place on the global stage is the role of information technology. Muhammad Ali Albakri, the company’s CFO and CIO, has been in charge of an enormous overhaul of its IT

Saudi Arabian Airlines aims to double the fleet size by 2020

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SUPPLIER PROFILE

EMC

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SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

TECHNOLOGY

‘While we put in the new systems, we needed to maintain the old technology, the old network and the old applications, to continue supporting our business. So it was more like changing the wheel or the tire on a Formula 1 car while it’s still racing’

division, as he explains: “We have undertaken a huge programme called the IT Masterplan for Saudia, which lasted from 2007 until 2013.

During that time we spent in excess of $1 billion upgrading our entire network inside the Kingdom and internationally. We’ve put in a complete new infrastructure in terms of telecommunications, connecting all our offices around the world to our upgraded data centre, our partners’ data centers, and created a disaster recovery centre as well on the other side of the country. We have created a modern IT base and implemented a converged network for data, voice and video, serving all the locations, all the offices, all our operations for the airlines and the other sister companies in Saudia Group as well.”

And while all this was taking place it was, of w w w. s a u d i a i r l i n e s . c o m

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Sabre Airline Solutions Gives You The Freedom To Fly The Way You Want Sabre is proud to be a leading technology partner for Saudi Arabian Airlines, with many years of successful partnership. Sabre’s technology is powering the business of Saudia in Sabre Airline Solutions and the Sabre Airline Solutions logo are trademarks and / or service marks of an affiliate of Sabre.Š2015 Sabre Inc. All rights reserved. 10140 0915

commercial and operational areas and is helping Saudia better market and sell its products, provide superior service to its customers and stakeholders and conduct its operations in the most effective way. We look forward to continuing to serve the needs of Saudia and support its continued growth and success as a leading carrier in the Middle East and the world.

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

TECHNOLOGY

course, paramount that Saudia’s customers received the same fantastic service they were used to. Albakri says: “We replaced about 480 different enterprize application systems and while we put in the new platforms, we needed to maintain the old technology, the old network and the old applications, to continue supporting our business. So it was more like changing the wheel or the tyre on a Formula 1 car while it’s still racing!”

It was a particularly complex undertaking never tried on that scale before in the aviation industry as the airline doesn’t have any down time, unlike European and American airlines which have night curfews. “We operate 24/7, which is a unique business model in aviation.

Because of the diversity and the size of the Kingdom, and the amount of guests that we

The new luxurious interior of the Boeing 777 for optimum guest convenience

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SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

‘Innovation requires time, investment and patience.

You cannot consider it as a project; you’ve got to let these people have their own time’

carry and the extent of our domestic networks, we have to carry on operating around the clock to be able to meet the demand.”

Time wasn’t the only challenge for Albakri’s team in implementing such an ambitious upgrade.

At the same time as integrating all the new platforms, Saudia also decided to restructure the entire IT division. He explains: “We set it up as a shared service provider for Saudia Group, so we reorganised and restructured the entire organisation. We acquired all the niche technical skills and competencies we needed to have this division really perform its activity as a shared service provider based on servicelevel agreements with the various business units. So by transforming IT, not only from a Saleh bin Naser Al Jasser, Director General Engineer

TECHNOLOGY

Loyalty lounge for business and first class guests

technology point of view but also the business model, we managed to set the division up to become a commercial provider for the group.”

But technology does not sit still, Albakri acknowledges, so the transformation within the IT division is ongoing. “In our business we finish one cycle and then have to start another one,” he laughs. “Technology changes and trends change. And making ends meet in an airline is really very challenging so we can’t afford to have IT be a major cost contributor to the operating costs, so we continuously look for ways to improve our efficiency and improve our costs and deliver better products, and advanced products to enhance our guests experiences, improve our products and services, increase our revenues, optimize our operating costs

$$$ Saudia spent hundreds of millions of dollars upgrading its entire IT infrastructure

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SITA IS THE WORLD’S LEADING SPECIALIST IN AIR TRANSPORT COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY Airlines, airports, aircraft, ground handlers, governments, air cargo, aerospace, air navigation service providers and international organizations all use our information and communication technology (ICT) solutions, relying on SITA’s expertise to keep the wheels of the industry in motion.

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SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

TECHNOLOGY

and add true business values to the airlines.”

And employing the right staff is a big part of delivering this, from attracting bright young minds to providing the appropriate training. Albakri says: “First of all, you have to create the ecosystem for it, you have to acquire the young educated minds, inspire them and create the environment so they could really come up with innovative solutions.” This is assisted by partnerships with our strategic technology partners so that Saudia can take the latest and greatest technological breakthroughs (i.e disruptive technologies) and see how could they be applied to the business.

“Innovation requires time, investment and patience. You cannot consider it as a project; you’ve got to let these people have their own time. You have to let them think. So we attract

Muhammad Ali Albakri - CIO and CFO

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Over 750 professionals of culturally aware workforce

Successfully delivering complex and large scale IT projects to over 150 enterprises

2nd largest IT Services and Solutions company in the Saudi Market

6 offices and a network of various channel partners covering the rest of the region

EJADA is a leading IT services & solutions provider in the Middle East & North Africa enabling enterprises in banking and finance, telecommunication, transportation, health, government and oil and gas sectors to maintain their competitive edge in today’s dynamic market.

Tel +966 (11) 4722277 | Fax +966 (11) 4724772 info@ejada.com | www.ejada.com Head Office, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, P.O. Box 55471, Riyadh 11534

SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

STUEPCPHL N Y OCLHOAGI N Y

the best and the brightest from universities from within and outside the Kingdom and we put them through very generous training programmes, some of them extend to two to three years, and we provide them with the necessarily environment to be able to produce and be contributing members of the Saudi Arabian Airlines Group.”

And these opportunities are not restricted to male employees, as Albakri explains: “We made the decision about eight or nine years ago really to introduce more and more women into our workforce in IT. For instance, our SAP Centre of Excellence is half staffed by young Saudi ladies who have been trained and certified to work with SAP technologies, our entire IT helpdesk is now run by women. And we are expanding our team for mobile and tablet development, with a large number of female staff.” The brightest staff – men and women – are recruited and retained by this impressive approach to staff development, says Albakri.

“The benefits that we offer, the continuous training, the challenges and exciting types of programmes or projects that they are involved on really makes the job very attractive for them to

‘We made the decision about eight or nine years ago to introduce more and more women into our workforce in IT’

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AIRPORT TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATORS FOR THE 21st CENTURY OUR SERVICES

ABOUT US ICAD is the leading provider of airport integration services in the Middle East. Our areas of expertise include: Information and Communication Technology Systems, Passenger Processing Systems, Air Traffic Control Systems, Security and Safety Systems, Special and Ancillary Systems, Building Controls and Automation Systems, Lighting Systems, and Passenger Boarding Systems.

With our highly expertise team we are proficient of delivering the even most complex multiple-system and multiple-vendor installations with the best competitive edge technology requirements to a highest level of standars and expectations starting from engineering, design, installation, commissioning, operation and including maintenance. With our sophisticated in house testing and pre-staging facilities before on site installation and integration, we maintain our reputation by completing the projects on schedule.

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Amadeus is a world-class technology company dedicated to the global travel industry

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Our ambition is to facilitate the entire travel journey from door-to-door and in the process improve the travel experience for hundreds of millions of people every year.

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December 2015

© 2015 Amadeus IT Group SA

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TECHNOLOGY

stay on, and we of course do everything possible in our ability to make the job more like a career choice, to nurture their skills, and satisfies their personal development goals thereby securing a more productive and stable workforce..”

A talented and committed workforce means that Saudia is well positioned to achieve its plans for growth. And to kick things off, the airline has acquired 50 additional new aircrafts to strengthen its domestic and regional capabilities and added more wide body aircrafts for the long haul routes (i.e. Boeing 777-300 & Boeing 787-9). Saudia will be taking its first delivery of the Dreamliner in January 2016 at the same time as celebrating its 70th anniversary.

Albakri says: “The aviation business is continuously changing and the Dreamliner is a very sophisticated aircraft. We call it a flying data centre actually by itself as it has more technology embedded into that aircraft than any other aircraft made by mankind.” So, naturally, the role of IT has extended to accommodate such an aircraft, in order to take full advantage of it and ensure proper operation, maintenance and support of the aircraft and its guests. He continues: “The Dreamliner is continuously connected to ground based systems, it’s continuously communicating the status of the engine, the status of the various components of the aircraft, to the ground systems to monitor and advise crews with information to help operate the aircraft more safely and with added conveniences to its guests. And then it

The interior of the Boeing 777

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SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES

Saudia Guests Services Center (CTO)

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December 2015

is providing additional services that couldn’t be provided before, to guests, such as continuous connectivity to the internet, continuous ability to use their own devices and favourite content.

There is a lot of sophisticated technology that this type of fleet is bringing with it, and we have upgraded our capabilities to work with it aiming to enhance our guests’ experiences .”

The Dreamliner will be used on Saudia’s long haul routes, to Europe and Canada, and some of the Far East destinations will be supported as

TECHNOLOGY

well. And it is just one of 110 new aircraft that will be integrated into operations totally by 2020 - 28 of those new aircraft will be received in one year – 2016. Such growth is needed for the airline to reach the 50 million guest goal by 2020. Albakri says: “The region where we exist and we operate is the fastest growing region so far as aviation is concerned, the largest number of ordered aircraft worldwide is coming from the region, the largest percentage growth of airlines in the world is happening in the region, the largest travel hubs exist in the region such as King Khalid International Airport (KKIA) and King Abdulaziz International Airport (KAIA) both of which are going through massive upgrades by adding new terminals to KKIA and totally rebuilding KAIA. So we exist in a very blessed region in terms of the business, in terms of growth, but also it comes with a very heated competition. So we have to continuously renew and advance our products and services and make sure that we stay as close as possible to our guest expectations, to be able to grow and capture our market share.”

And none of this would be possible without the right infrastructure, as Albakri concludes: “Nothing would be possible really without having the right intelligence systems to be able to turn the company around very fast and enable it to absorb that many new aircraft and doubling the number of guests in a short period of time. It just would not be possible without the right technology in place.”

‘The region where we exist and we operate is the fastest growing region so far as aviation is concerned’

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Production with passio Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by Danielle Harris

on

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KASTO

We speak to Kasto’s Ernst Wagner about how the German manufacturing company handles difficult metals and elusive markets

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F

ounded in south-west Germany in 1844 by Karl Stolzer (whence the company name), Kasto manufactured its first metal cutting saw in 1947 and its first bar storage and retrieval system in 1972. The company still confines itself to the first two stages in the manufacturing process, storage and sawing, and is led by Armin Stolzer and members of his family, the sixth generation.

Kasto’s UK Managing Director Ernst Wagner has had his base in the UK since he started his career as a toolmaker in his native Austria 40 years ago, and has led Kasto’s operations here since 2003, through the acquisition of its long-term agent Rivers Machinery and the establishment of Kasto Ltd in Milton Keynes. Throughout this time he has been a tireless advocate and lobbyist on behalf of engineering and manufacturing.

The last decade has been frustrating for him, not so far as Kasto is concerned, for the company has done well as we shall see, but in terms of the UK’s short term approach to manufacturing and its failure to promote apprenticeships.

To call Kasto a company that makes saws is a bit misleading, though it is very proud to lead this vital niche. The top end machines it makes today are sophisticated and versatile machine tools controlled by automation software and combining storage and handling with precision cutting – though it still lists simple machine shop saws among its products. It still manufactures all its products in Germany, has more than 140,000 sawing machines in the market and over 1,700

TECHNOLOGY

The fact that the saw cuts from the bottom upwards ensures a considerably improved chip flow and reduces wear on the saw band

installed storage systems, in 50 countries.

Kasto’s patented control software is another benefit that he’s keen to stress. “As well as feeding back key parameters from the machine during sawing, the machines can be programmed to run at maximum output in the certain knowledge that work will be slowed or stopped automatically in response to altered circumstances such as blade wear or damage, or a hard spot in the material.”

The UK market has absorbed 1,300 sawing machines, of which three-quarters are more than ten years old, a fact that at once testifies to the quality and durability of the saws and some reluctance of UK engineering companies to invest in the latest technology. “However good the old machine is, a new one will always

700 Number of jobs created by Kasto

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KASTO

The second robot deburrs the cut piece secured in the clamping station

be more productive because it incorporates our innovations,” Wagner points out.

There are signs that Kasto’s UK customers are getting the message. The last five years has seen more companies buying the highly automated Kastotec carbide designed machines. “The only way to stay competitive is through automation.

Paring raw material costs will only get you so far: it’s the overhead that is the problem.”

Kastotec is up to three times higher priced than its own KASTOwin and competitors’ standard production saws, and yet has outsold these 50

December 2015

TECHNOLOGY

here in the UK because it reduces cost and increases output. “We do the cost analyses for the customer. We prove it to them, show them, reassure them that the machine will pay for itself in six to twelve months only and increase productivity for many years after that.”

These machines are adept at handling the hard and awkward alloys that so many UK workshops that machine components for customers in aerospace, energy or automotive excel in. In these sectors, specialised tooling technology is needed to bring manufacturing times down.

“At Kasto we are focused on cost rather than on price. In everything we do we will find a costsaving solution because we know the price can be offset against saving in man-hours.”

However the best way to save on overheads is to introduce robots to feed the automated machine and sort and handle the product after sawing, and here the UK is dragging its feet, he says. “We want to sell a machine with a robot or two as we are doing in Central Europe or America and other markets. I haven’t sold one robot in the UK yet, whereas 50 percent of our sales in Europe are with automation, including robots. There’s still that difference!”

Intelligent sorting, processing and palletising via KASTOsort is just as cost effective with relatively small batches as with series production quantities, he emphasises, because there is no need for operator attendance when a new order is instigated, he adds. A single robot can service

Key Personnel

Ernst Wagner Managing Director

“When people say they need to expand and build out we say don’t! Put in an automated warehouse” - E rnst Wagner, Managing Director

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KASTO

Kasto UK office

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more than one sawing machine, leading to greater efficiency and a faster return on investment.

When British firms stop fixating on price and consider longer term cost implications, they see the sense of Kasto’s systems. Nissan embraced automation at Sunderland to become one of the most productive plants in the world. Third tier suppliers would do well to follow their example, Ernst Wagner believes.

Again, though the UK market is far from adventurous, it’s beginning to take notice of

TECHNOLOGY

“Nobody is producing volumes to stock in these days of justin-time and lean manufacturing, so the emphasis is on fast turnaround times and changeovers” Kasto’s other product line, automated storage.

“I have around 30 storage systems installed, of which eight are top end, fully automatic warehouses, and now I am selling two of these each year.” This is, he says, a virgin market that has started to react. Indeed one customer has installed five systems in the last eight years.

Another, Hanson Springs of Rochdale which makes specialised products for the energy sector installed two 25 metre tall Kasto storage towers to house the bar from which the springs

Hanson 2 towers w w w. k a s t o . c o m

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KASTO

Unicompact, Uniportal, Unibloc and Unitower storage systems represent pure profit through productivity and logistic gains

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December 2015

are made. “Whereas it used to take us up to three hours to find material buried at the bottom of conventional racking,” said director John Hanson, “bar is now available from the tower within three and a half minutes of calling it up on the computer control screen.”

On the input side, time to unload a 23 ton truck was reduced from around three hours to just 40 minutes – and enough space was freed up for an extra production machine. Space is at a premium in the UK, and automatic storage will reduce the floor space requirement by up to 75 percent versus conventional racking, Wagner continues. “When people say they need to expand and build out we say don’t! Put in an automated warehouse. It is generally three times faster, safer, and there’s no material loss because you have total inventory control at the push of a button.”

The 1,700 storage systems sold globally have gone to just a third that many customers, he points out, proof that once you have one you want another! It will take a couple of years or so to pay back the investment but from then on Kasto Unicompact, Uniportal, Unibloc and Unitower storage systems represent pure profit through productivity and logistic gains, he says.

His enthusiasm for engineering is infectious, and his has been one of the loudest voices calling on the government to bring back the apprenticeships that all but disappeared in the late 1970s. Again Kasto is a good benchmark, with twelve percent of its 700 employees on

TECHNOLOGY

At the beginning of this year alone, 15 trainees were given permanent positions as electronics engineers, mechatronics engineers, industrial mechanics and product designers after successfully completing their training at Kasto

apprenticeships – in a company where 45 percent of the workforce have never worked for another employer. At the beginning of this year alone, 15 trainees were given permanent positions as electronics engineers, mechatronics engineers, industrial mechanics and product designers after successfully completing their training at Kasto.

But that was in Germany. “Apprenticeships are so important to manufacturing that we need to shout about it in this country. We really must convince young people that it’s a respectable profession!” He recalls attending, with 200 other industry leaders, an event in the House of Commons in 2012. “How many of you have children who are going into engineering, he asked them. Just two hands went up. “I am afraid we’ll

“I have around 30 storage systems installed, of which eight are top end, fully automatic warehouses, and now I am selling two of these each year” - E rnst Wagner, Managing Director

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Kasto exhibition stand 2015

While reducing vibration, that allows our machines to deliver such high levels of productivity 56

December 2015

have lost two generations before we get young people back into manufacturing,” he laments.

In the outlook period, Kasto continues to innovate, five percent of its annual €120 million turnover being spent on R&D – it holds more than 160 patents. A continuing challenge is the integration of automation to the production of smaller batch numbers. “Nobody is producing volumes to stock in these days of just-in-time and lean manufacturing, so the emphasis is on fast turnaround times and changeovers.”

However there’s plenty of room for more innovation in the service of quality and speed.

The most recent new product launch, KASTOwin Tube A 5.0, is a bandsaw that Ernst Wagner describes as revolutionary. “Traditionally horizontal bandsaws cut from the top down, however

TECHNOLOGY

many of Kasto’s customers are cutting tube and pipe stock for hydraulic applications, and top down cutting is not ideal as the swarf collects at the bottom, damaging the blade, increasing cutting time and affecting the accuracy and finish.” The new saws cut from the bottom up, 2.5 times faster and with corresponding benefits both in product quality and tool life, he says.

One of the factors that has kept Kasto in the front of the market is its success in eliminating the number one impediment to effective sawing – vibration. “It’s a combination of the technology that goes into our sawing machines, aimed at increasing feeds and speeds while reducing vibration, that allows our machines to deliver such high levels of productivity and extended blade life. Vibration is the one big negative for quality, tool life and output!”

In the short term UK manufacturing is under pressure, blamed in part for the disappointing third quarter 0.5 percent growth rate. The response required is a little tenacity, a little vision and a measure of courage on the part of the engineering sector, investors and the government. British engineering is second to none in its ability to meet the demands of next generation industries, Ernst Wagner insists, and factors that are seen as limiting it, like energy and commodity prices, overseas demand and the like, are by nature cyclical. Kasto’s own history of innovation and adaptation down the generations is rather a good example for them to follow, and a great partner in more ways than one.

Company Information INDUSTRY

Technology HEADQUARTERS

Milton Keynes, UK FOUNDED

1844 EMPLOYEES

700 REVENUE

€120 million PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Saws, storage and more

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Growing globally Written by Nye Longman Produced by Richard Durrant

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C O S TA

The UK’s favourite coffee shop has just posted very promising growth results, backed up by an innovative, long-term supply chain strategy

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osta (part of the larger Whitbread group) has accrued a number of enviable accolades over the years and can boast equally impressive growth figures to boot. The coffee shop chain recently posted a massive 28.4 percent growth in underlying operating profits, from £52.4 million to £67.3 million. It has set itself the target of achieving £2.5 billion system sales by 2020; we examine how the company will expand globally and deliver a number of strategic initiatives.

Key Personnel

S U P P LY C H A I N

Jan Jakubowski Head of International Supply Chain

Operations Costa’s position as the UK’s favourite coffee shop is supported by a large network of outlets, backed up by a rigorously well-organised supply chain. In the past 12 months, it has continued to grow its UK store portfolio taking the total to 1,999 coffee shops and has a further 1,168 spread across the 30 countries; its vending machines (known as ‘Costa Express’) have grown by 416 new units, taking the total to over 4,700 globally with the company hoping to roll-

Jan joined Costa in 2013 taking on the task of establishing an efficient supply chain supporting Costa Coffee’s international business. He established foundations for growth through process development and improvement and team expansion. He manages operations as well as supply chain strategy development.

Prior to working for Costa Jan was managing the customer supply chain function for Coca-Cola.

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Office Branch Profile

We deliver as promised.

Our Food Services aim is to deliver industry leading standards, through an invested network and committed teams, to our current customer base of Whitbread, Premier Inn, Costa Coffee, Greene King Pubs and Kerry Foods, and to our future customer base.

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S U P P LY C H A I N

out another 7-800 machines in the next year.

To get an idea of just how strong its position in the UK market is, you only need look at the number of people using its ‘Coffee Club Card’ which now make up 42 percent of all transactions across its stores – now that’s loyalty! What is more impressive is the fact that as many as 2.7 million people hold one of these cards – just under one in 20 people in the entire UK. A major part of Costa’s future growth will come from its international operations. Backing up these extensive, high-value operations is a combined operational and supply chain strategy. The supply chain component is headed up by Jan Jakubowski (Head Of International Supply Chain) and his centrally located team.

He said: “To understand the complex environment in which we operate, it is important to understand our structure of supply chain operations. We manage three main formats and several key categories such as hot and cold drinks, consumable

A major part of Costa’s future growth will come from its international operations w w w. c o s t a . c o . u k

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Costa express franchised machine

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items and sweet range products. The first format is the international franchise business - we have a group of franchise partners with which we cooperate and they are essentially our customer.

“Because we are not contractually empowered to impose solutions, relationship management plays a crucial part. We have developed over the years a mutual respect and our Partners believe in the quality of service that we provide.

“The second group is composed of countries in which Costa Coffee shops are operated by entities in which Whitbread PLC has an equity stake. These are our stores in Poland, France and Singapore; they are still perceived a customer to supply chain but the level of engagement is different compared to a franchise partner. We have, in this instance, greater impact on what choices are made and what specific solutions implemented.

“The third format is through joint ventures which we predominantly have in China. This is an essential requirement to growing a successful business over there. We have two JVs in China.

This business is supported by DHL, a leader in supply chain/ logistics services in the region who manages for us warehousing and distribution.

The international supply chain team supports them with strategic directions as well as providing key products from the UK supply base.

The company’s operations in China are certainly cause for much celebration, since it can now boast over 350 stores (the most

S U P P LY C H A I N

of any country outside of the UK) which have been formed using JVs and an ambitious goal of reaching 900 coffee shops by 2020; Strategic supply chain Jakubowski was proud to acknowledge that this growing global network of quality coffee shops would not have been able to reach this scale and popularity without the support of his team.

He said: “We are growing at an incredibly fast pace. We are not only concentrating on expanding businesses in existing countries but also working constantly to bring Costa into new territories; to be able to make sure that the business growth is supported we have to have a very well-functioning, future proof supply chain. Supply chain is and will continue to be a key enabler of Costa’s international growth.”

Costa has made the Times Top 25 Big Companies to Work For

Supply chain is and will continue to be a key enabler of Costa’s international growth

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C O S TA

Connect. Create. Enjoy.

CSM Bakery Solutions is an international leader in the baking industry, producing one of the broadest ranges of products for customers in more than 100 countries. Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, CSM is dedicated to developing and providing solutions that drive customer growth and success.

(+44) 151 343 1600 www.csmbakerysolutions.com info@csmbakerysolutions.com 66

December 2015 Copyright Š 2015 CSM Bakery Solutions LLC. All Rights Reserved.

C O S TA

S U P P LY C H A I N

“Our ambition is to establish an end-toend supply chain into which new business partners will be able to easily plug in and out.

Flexibility and adaptability will be important in an ever accelerating business environment.”

“We build our supply chain with the elaborate mixed model and growth in mind and because of this we have particular focus on understanding cost. We need to understand what the cost of serving each country is, and then for each individual franchise or equity partner operating in them. Our model promotes flexibility and is developed to make it a competitive advantage for Costa.”

“Structural solutions enable good cost management but also a focus on continuous improvement. The lean mind-set is in everything we do, from planning headcount, projects, and travel to administration. We make sure that we develop a great service but when it comes to well defined systems (such as 6-sigma) we don’t use them in a structured and holistic way. We do, however make sure that they are used across our key service providers.”

He explained that, in order to reach so many locations with its branded coffee, while simultaneously delivering fresh, locally relevant cuisine, he and the international supply chain team used strategic partners and w w w. c o s t a . c o . u k

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C O S TA

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C O S TA

S U P P LY C H A I N

were also working to form a global 3rd party logistics (3PL) network. These aspects back up the company’s commitment to customer centricity; covering its end-consumers, its franchise and joint venture partners.

Jakubowski said: “We have a broad range of partnerships in the logistics area ranging from global companies such as Kuehne+Nagel, HAVI or DHL to specialised freight forwarders which have proved themselves in the last years of dynamic growth.

Those relationships were key during the initial years of Costa’s international developments.

Transcargo, for example, has provided us with great freighting services and has a strong understanding of how important collaboration and customer centricity is, two notions at the heart of Costa’s international supply chain.”

“Partnerships are important throughout the entire supply base covering all categories and types of operations. Bells of Lazonby is a good example of collaboration in a category and has supported our ambition to have a strong supply base with great coverage that will enable us to support Costa Coffee shops around the world.

“Bells were able to support us very swiftly in developing or adapting products for foreign markets. With such support we were able to bring the great proposition of the Costa sweet range to all corners of the world.

“Monin, the world famous flavoured syrup provider is a prime example of a great

“Another key focus for us is understanding our cost to serve. We need to understand what the cost of serving each country is, and then for each individual franchise or equity partner operating in them. Our model promotes flexibility and is developed to make it a competitive advantage for Costa” – Jan Jakubowski, Head of International Supply Chain

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C O S TA

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December 2015

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C O S TA

S U P P LY C H A I N

understanding of local legal requirements and what needs to happen to deliver products to remote countries at speed.

This is very often fundamental for the successful launch of our campaign drinks. “We also are appreciative of partnerships with suppliers who share our ambition and are ready to support us with services that reach out of their core competency. A great example is CSM, the baking company who, through its excellent understanding of local markets internationally, can support us with insights and quick product adaptations. “We emphasise the need for collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment. We have partners that understand the international Bells were able to support Costa very swiftly in developing products for foreign markets

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C O S TA

“We emphasise the need for collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment.

We have partners that understand the international environment and are able to deliver a great service in the nuanced world of global trade” – Jan Jakubowski, Head of International Supply Chain

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December 2015

environment and are able to deliver a great service in the nuanced world of global trade.”

Talent management Since Costa is quickly becoming a globally recognisable brand, it is stepping up its efforts to ensure that its employees are enthused with this sense of pride and direction. Its efforts to this end have received a variety of awards in recent years which Jakubowski was keen to recognise: “In Costa international supply chain we have implemented an innovation panel managed by the Project Manager which identifies opportunities to innovate in our field and bring our operations ahead of the curve. We look at innovations constantly”.

S U P P LY C H A I N

Furthermore, the company has recently been commended in the press for raising its employee’s pay ahead of the UK National Living Wage; this has been backed up by a commitment of between £15 and £20 million to ensure that it is correctly executed. It has also made the Times Top 25 Big Companies to Work For. Additionally, Costa is looking to employ 2,000 additional apprentices across its stores, offering them an invaluable experience, by 2020.

Having developed a solid, three-pronged business model, Costa has proved time and time and again that it is possible to retain local relevance while having global scope; the culmination of this has been its healthy financial and territorial growth. w w w. c o s t a . c o . u k

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Global Vision Written by Sheree Hanna Produced by Dennis Morales

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RAKHA AL-KHALEEJ INT’L LLC

Rakha Al Khaleej International (RAI) is a leading polymer distribution and chemical trading company based in the UAE and has grown from just serving the GCC region and Yemen to become an international player 76

December 2015

R

akha Al Khaleej International (RAI) is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with plans to further expand its geographic reach across the globe becoming an even bigger and better business than it is today.

The company primarily distributes polymers and trades chemical and petrochemical products and has grown exponentially since it was first established in 1990 to supply the GCC region and Yemen.

Just 10 years later, its first international subsidiary was created in Jebel Ali, Dubai, and in less than a decade RAI

S U P P LY C H A I N

Various stocking points globally ensure speedy supply of polymer resins

International had established subsidiaries in almost all polymer hubs worldwide.

Today, the company has operations in Europe, USA, Africa, the Far East and Latin America, but according to CEO Henry Roth, initiatives are afoot to broaden the company’s footprint.

He says: “We are a progressively growing this privately-owned company located in Dubai.

“Our owner has taken an interesting business approach over the years. He acquired shares in other distribution firms internationally and so we have become a network of companies that are either fully- or majority-owned.”

11 number of territories RAI International operates in

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RAKHA AL-KHALEEJ INT’L LLC

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December 2015

S U P P LY C H A I N

Around the globe RAI International boasts 14 locations in 11 territories worldwide. Earlier this year, it formalised a partnership with a group of businessmen from Saudi Arabia to establish a company to distribute product across the Saudi market.

Roth says: “We hope over time that this partnership will help us establish a link to interact with Saudi producers and facilitate exports out of Saudi Arabia to our various sales outlets across the world.”

In India, RAI International operates from two locations, a distribution centre in the South and an office in Mumbai, while there is also an office in Pakistan.

There is also a fully-owned distribution

Said Al Naqeeb, Founder and Chairman Rakha Al-Khaleej Int’l LLC

Expansion across Europe is on the cards for RAI International

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R A K H A A L - K H A L E E J I N T E R N AT I O N A L L L C

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S U P P LY C H A I N

“I believe a lot of the product from the US Gulf coast region will eventually find its way to Latin America, therefore, we hope to reactivate our presence there” - Henry Roth, CEO

company in Turkey which imports products from various suppliers and locations. It also sources product from Asia and the Gulf.

“We have our eye on Iran because it has reentered the global scene. Historically, before trade embargoes were implemented, Dubai was a major business hub for Iran and it has maintained those relationships,” says Roth.

Widening the network RAI International currently has a representative office in New York, USA, but Roth says it is intended to eventually create a fully w w w. r a i - u a e . c o m

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RAKHA AL-KHALEEJ INT’L LLC

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registered company in either Houston or around the US Gulf of Mexico area.

“We would very much like to tap into the stream of product that is coming on line as a result of the boom in shale gas and oil,” he says.

“We have been hesitant to create a legal presence in the US, one of the reasons we haven’t is because of the situation with Iran, but now it is becoming acceptable again and I think the embargo will eventually be lifted.”

Expansion across Europe is also on the cards for RAI International, which already operates from three locations – the UK, Spain and the Benelux.

In England, a majority-owned affiliate company called Polydist UK is probably the largest, independent polymer distributor in the UK. It operates subsidiaries in Spain and Amsterdam.

“In Europe, we have strong growth ambitions. We hope that before year end we could have legal representation and commercial activities in both Germany and France, so we could well go from three to five locations very soon,” says Roth.

Reinstate operations The company also has representative offices in Jordan, China and Korea and before economic difficulties hit South America had a distribution operation in Brazil.

“We continue to sell in Brazil and along the West coast of Latin America,” says

‘RAI International has around 40 employees at its Dubai headquarters and within its global network a further 100 staff members.

It also operates a warehouse and small compound facility in Jebel Ali’

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RAKHA AL-KHALEEJ INT’L LLC

A trade fair

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December 2015

Roth. “That is another reason why we are keen to establish a legal presence in the US. I believe a lot of the product from the US Gulf coast region will eventually find its way to Latin America, therefore, we hope to reactivate our presence there.”

RAI International has around 40 employees at its Dubai headquarters and within its global network a further 100 staff members. It also operates a warehouse and small compound facility in Jebel Ali. The diverse and expert staff, experienced management, optimised logistics and comprehensive financial services allows RAI International to be able to guarantee consistency and excellence of execution for customers and suppliers alike.

“We do look after the training requirements

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The team at a recent trade fair

of our staff, but generally we rely on outsourced training tools for this purpose,” explains Roth. “If for example we have an accountant that needs training we will go to a specialised provider to fill the skills gap.”

Product is distributed normally via land and sea and in a bid to strengthen the supply chain, RAI International has recently chartered an ocean going vessel and may well expand its use of such means if the business warrants it.

Bonded facilities Customers can also take advantage of RAI International’s bonded warehouse facilities located in Turkey and China. Roth says: “This is primarily for customers who wish to reexport or polymers for off-shore production.

40 The number of staff employed

by Rakha AlKhaleej Int’l LLC

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RAI HQ Building

“Where we operate bonded operations it means that you don’t localise the product and it stays in a duty free state until it is exported again.

“So, for example, a polymer could be used at an extrusion facility where our customer is maybe exporting suitcases or plastic bags out of China to the US. The focus is exporting the product and not acting for the China market.”

With regard to the company’s geographical initiatives, it is always looking to diversify its product streams and network of suppliers that feed its polymer chain.

“We have commodity and speciality grades and there is also growth dictated by market needs, which is why we are introducing some ‘green’ chemistry in the polymer sector,” said Roth.

Green initiative RAI International has secured the rights to an oxo-biodegradable additive which when added to a polymer conversion makes the product fully decompose and biodegrade within a selected time span at the end of the product life cycle.

“We have found this state-of-the-art technology in Japan and have secured the rights. We will try to establish market position and penetration for this speciality additive we believe fits with the evolving demand for environmentally-friendly products,” adds Roth.

Having 25 years of experience under its belt has helped RAI International to become the

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The Polydist team at a recent ceremony

strong and forward-looking company it is today.

This year’s anticipated annual group turnover is expected to be in excess of $500 million.

“As we grow and diversify both product wise and geographically, we will continue to expand our IT capabilities to synergise and to reduce cost by common practices and approaches,” says Roth.

“We have been around for 25 years and we hope to still be around in another 25 as a much larger and even more successful company.” w w w. r a i - u a e . c o m

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In the business

s of broadband Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Richard Durrant

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Liberty Global may not be immediately recognised by the man in the street, but the chances are that he has a close relationship with the biggest international cable company on the planet, with operations in 14 countries, 12 of them in Europe and two in Latin America

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iberty Global was founded in 2005 and operates through brands that will be much better known however, brands like Virgin Media in the UK and Ireland, UPC in Poland, Ziggo in the Netherlands, Unitymedia in Germany and many more. In ten of its European markets, including the UK and Ireland, Liberty Global is the largest cable operator. But despite its growth and success, it remains very much an insurgent, challenging the incumbent telcos in each of its markets. It is predominantly a triple play operator, providing broadband as its core offering, adding fixed line voice and TV, and in some markets venturing into quad play as a mobile operator. Mobile for example is a strong part of the Virgin Media business.

A group that has been formed out of existing companies invariably has to face issues around synergy and disparity. Each constituent company

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Key Personnel has its own suite of equipment, its own processes and its own structures, and all that presents an interesting challenge in the sphere of supply chain management. Steve Rounsley and Willem Vesters are challenged to deal with this situation and turning it to the advantage of the business. As they see it, logistics optimisation is one of the biggest vehicles through which Liberty Global can keep its cost down and deliver the service that its customers expect. It’s a road paved with opportunities.

Rounsley is Vice President for VP Global Logistics and Vesters for Global Supply Chain Planning. The former looks after the warehousing and movement of goods while the latter leads the planning, streamlining and restructuring of these processes: needless to say they work very closely

Steven Rounsley VP Global Logistics

Willem Vesters VP Global Supply Chain Planning

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$18bn The amount of revenue generated by Liberty Global

together. The hardware in the chain falls into two broad categories, says Rounsley, customerpremised equipment or CPE, and network equipment, which covers everything required to lay fibre optic cables and connect them to the end user. “CPE includes set top boxes, broadband routers, and of course mobile phones.

The logistics function we manage supports all twelve European countries in the consumer and B2B market. It includes all product categories, fixed line to broadband, TV and mobile, in all countries, in all consumer and B2B markets.

E pluribus unum On the planning side, Vesters explains, it is essential to work with vendors on future requirements: “Lead times vary from a couple of weeks to 16 or 18 weeks so the planning function works out what we will need, where we need it and when.” Gathering all of this equipment into distribution centres and dispersing it to the national businesses based on customer and consumer demand calls for liaison with the sales and marketing departments on campaign activity, he adds. “We do this on both the CPE and the network equipment side of things.” Each of these has its own particular set of problems.

Both Steve and Willem are looking after a large number of different countries which have their own legacy systems in place, all at different stages of development. For example, he says, network planning in the UK is somewhat ahead

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of the other European markets. “The challenge is to get them all to the same level so that we can talk at a holistic level to our vendors to assure the supply of material across the board.”

Beyond the exacting job of stitching together twelve separate supply chains across Europe Liberty Global has stepped up to the challenge of extending the fibre network in a number of European economies. In the UK for example this is the first time major step in the 20 years since the UK government fudged the roll-out of a national cable network in the 1990s. An investment of £3 billion announced by Liberty Global in February will redraw the competition map in the UK where Liberty Global’s brand Virgin Media faces competition notably from BT. The investment marketed as Project Lightning will bring ultrafast broadband to a total of 17 million homes by 2020, reaching four million more

“The challenge is to get them all to the same level so that we can talk at a holistic level to our vendors to assure the supply of material across the board” – Willem Vesters, VP Global Supply Chain Planning

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Regional Depot

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Pioneers in Set Top Box Test Technology and Refurbishment The founding principal of our Home Entertainment Business is focused on delivering what our customers need to deliver to their customers both now and in the future. We take the view this means developing objective and automated processes that deliver fantastic products and services to the market at optimised capital and operational cost.

Why Customers Choose Regenersis...

Continuous Improvement Part of our DNA Proven track record Focused On Customer Needs Product quality Operational cost Flexibility Business Practices Integrity Open relationships Honesty Financial stability

Experience More than 10 years, 20 million units UK, Europe, USA Average customer relationship - 8 years OEM Relationships Cisco - 8 years Pace - 10 years Samsung - 6 years Vision (Short, Medium, Long Term) Service - keep the box in the home Operational cost – asset utilization, process costs, materials consumption

+44 (0) 1592 774 704 | stuart.williams@regenersis.com

Company Information Founded 1979

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Employees 4,200 Sectors Home Entertainment Information Technology Mobile Communications Industrial Electronics Locations

Our Key Deliverables • Automated Test Systems • Real Time Data Integrity/Reporting • Perfect Product Quality • Supply Chain Efficiency • CSR (Environmental Benefit)

UK Germany (2) Czech Republic Poland (3) Spain Netherlands Belgium USA (3) Mexico Argentina Russia South Africa (2) India

• Asset Utilisation & Recovery • Logistics Integration

www.regenersis.com

SUPPLIER PROFILE

Regenersis is a global provider of diagnostics, repair and data erasure services to the consumer electronics industry, helping our clients and their customers successfully, protect, maintain, and retire technology.

Our international network of facilities provides product diagnostics, repair, refurbishment for mobile, home entertainment and B2B products. Our technically-advanced diagnostic are regarded best in class, combining service excellence with continuous gains in cost efficiency.

Our industry-leading fault diagnostics and issue resolution technologies include the In-home Tester for set-top boxes, and our SmartChk applications suite for smartphones. These advanced diagnostic platforms improve consumer satisfaction with their devices and support our returns avoidance strategy Partnering with leading insurers, our Digital Care operations deliver innovative insurance and extended warranty programmes for our clients, protecting customers’ investments in mobile products.

Blancco is the global leader in data erasure management. Blancco software provides comprehensive data erasure for every type of electronic storage media, ranging from flash drives to solid state drives, virtual drives and cloud storage. Blancco is a vital part of any organisation’s security infrastructure, underpinning data retention policies and ensuring compliance with international regulations.

Tel: +44 (0) 1592 774 704 Stuart.williams@regenersis.com www.regenersis.com

LIBERTY GLOBAL

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than at present. Virgin Media also calculates the project will generate 6,000 jobs and 1,000 apprenticeships, with an overall benefit to the economy of £8 billion. Not surprisingly this commitment goes down well at government level, with UK Prime Minister David Cameron commenting: “Together with this government’s rollout of superfast broadband which has now reached more than two million UK homes and businesses, this additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses, further boosting our digital economy and helping secure a brighter future for Britain.”

The investment illustrates a change in Liberty Global’s strategy as it matures from rapid M&A driven growth to a more sustainable, organic model, and doing this will demand different approaches to supply chain management.

“Much of what Willem and I are doing is looking at the opportunity of synergy and consolidation,” says Rounsley, “but we are also creating a planning and logistics infrastructure to support significant new network build in several European countries. That is an exciting and I’d even say unique part of what we are doing.”

“This additional private investment will create more opportunities for people and businesses, further boosting our digital economy and helping secure a brighter future for Britain” – David Cameron w w w. l i b e r t y g l o b a l . c o m

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Making your customers smile is our primary goal

www.teleplan.com

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33 years of supply chain and after-market service experience for connected devices, home entertainment equipment and networking devices

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Leading edge automated objective test solutions delivering consistent results

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Unrivalled test scripting capabilities

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Embedded lean culture and mind set resulting in high customer service program efficiencies

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Strong CSR commitment helping our customers to achieve their environmental impact and carbon footprint objectives

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Our innovative test solutions adapt as your business requirements evolve

LIBERTY GLOBAL

“We are also creating a planning and logistics infrastructure to support significant new network build in several European countries” – Steve Rounsley, VP Global Logistics

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Less is more, in the supply chain Consolidating the supply chain model around best-of-breed partners will be essential to this vision. “We are evolving onto a journey that sees us partnering with genuine global logistics providers and repair partners,” he continues. This will bring in us the scale and the level of innovation that we need to look after our existing business, and we are designing physical infrastructure to support the new opportunities like Operation Lightning.”

For Willem Vesters this means stretching the planning perspective progressively. “It’s

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meeting the challenge of Liberty Global’s transition from a company that buys and sells operating companies go to one that commits to being in the communications space for much. The UK is the most concrete and tangible example right now, however our wider ambition is to extend superfast broadband to 10 million homes throughout Europe.”

So instead of focusing on the company wide requirements for the next quarter he needs to be planning at least two years ahead.

“My ambition is to arrive at a ROI conversation and operationally manage that before we invest w w w. l i b e r t y g l o b a l . c o m

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Vi s i t o u r w e b s i t e : w w w. t e l e p l a n . co m Email: marketing@teleplan.com

Teleplan International N.V. is an industry leader in lifecycle care for aftermarket service, operating in the areas of Computers, Communications and Consumer Electronics. Focussing on Customer Care, Reverse Logistics, Parts Management, Screening & Testing, Repair/Refurbish and Resell/Recycle, Teleplan 33 years of proven performance providing value propositions throughout the supply chain from the point of purchase to the end of life. Teleplan innovate to consistently keep up with the advances in interactive connectivity and communication and our Telemade approach tailors to each individual customer’s needs.

Headquartered in Amsterdam/Schiphol, the Netherlands, Teleplan’s service centers have a global reach of over 95 countries and employ over 5000 people.

Our philosophy is simple – create the most optimized solution designed around our customers. Every solution design starts with a series of comprehensive discussions with the customer to understand their business drivers, strategy and learn what works well and has proven to work less effectively from their after sales experiences so far.

This process is led by our team of solutions architects who specialize in selecting the right approach to get the necessary insights which will help our customers the most. We understand that different customers have different needs, which is why at Teleplan, no two solutions are ever exactly the same.

We are proud to play a vital role in managing the environmental and social impacts of the computer, communications and consumer electronics industries. Our business is the provisionof repair services and, in the instance when a repair cannot be made, the recovery, reuse, recycling or safe disposal of products. The efficient and effective delivery of our services, enables our customers to manage faulty, damaged and waste products in order to reduce waste and prolong the life of the product.

Our engineers at our Innovation Center in Tallinn, Estonia lead the development of next generation technical solutions.

They also leverage and coordinate our global engineering community on key projects. Teleplan has introduced many test solutions to support our customers with their lifecycle care needs in radio access networks, smartphones, tablets, notebooks, cameras, HDDs and set-top- boxes to name a few.

We recently opened our first Customer Experience Centre in Roseville, California, USA, offering a new way for customers, prospects and business partners to engage with and understand Teleplan better a notable industry. The customer experience center will help visualize Teleplan’s range of end to end innovative supply chain capabilities, from product return to end-of life recycling, in a single location and will unlock new business opportunities. The center showcases many of the innovative and value added services Teleplan provides, including: Revolution, the after-market service industry’s first fully automated multi-brand smartphone tester; 3D printing for hard to source parts; and demonstrations of the way Teleplan’s first class reverse logistics capabilities have been used to support some of the world’s largest sporting events.

We are passionate about delivering great service

Sky Italia is synonymous with quality and customer satisfaction and to guarantee we deliver on our promise we are constantly looking for innovation. By introducing test automation and well controlled repair and refurbishment operating processes, Teleplan is instrumental in ensuring that every set-top box we deliver back to our customers has the highest standards. Matteo Pecci, Head of Supply Chain & After Sales, Sky Italia

Teleplan International N.V. World Trade Center, Schiphol Boulevard 201, 1118 BG Schiphol, The Netherlands

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in specific European areas. Return on investment should be factored in at the very earliest point, as we begin to extend our horizon and work with a larger project funnel, and a wider innovation funnel.” In order to develop this kind of capability we use knowledge partners like EY to get there.

A leaner logistics operation will play its part here, suggests Steve Rounsley. “Our vision is to become intensively partnering so that a small team of Liberty Global people will set the tone and direction, and manage the relationships with a small number of key strategic outsourcing partners.” He does not need to run warehousing, product customisation or transportation, things better done by specialist logistics service providers, distributors and repair partners.

There are two concurrent dynamics at work

27m Number of customers subscribing to Liberty Global’s communication network

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Virgin Media’s logistics operation means handling anything from smart-phones to set-top boxes. With cabling, consumables and critical parts in the logistics mix – Kuehne + Nagel provide everything required to ensure Virgin Media roll-out their next generation optical fibre network.

From our 500,000 sq. ft. NDC in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire – Kuehne + Nagel are proud to serve 3,800 Virgin Media technicians and a field-store network of over 50 locations across the UK with 24-hour access to critical parts.

ABOUT KUEHNE + NAGEL With over 66,000 employees at more than 1000 locations in over 100 countries, the Kuehne + Nagel Group is one of the world’s leading logistics companies. Its strong market position lies in the seafreight, airfreight, contract logistics and overland businesses, with a clear focus on providing IT-based integrated logistics solutions.

www.kuehne–nagel.com

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EUROPE

here, he points out. “On the one hand we are consolidating and using our skill to work with a smaller number of suppliers to advance the strategic goals of the business. On the other, there’s convergence within the supply chain itself; the number of true global or EU scale logistics providers is shrinking. As their clients we will pick the best global players to achieve the economics of scale.” And to work with a global company such as Liberty Global it is no longer enough to have a wide but patchy presence – they need to be strong in all territories.

The consumer the final judge Perhaps its most important benefit is that the evolving model helps maintain focus on the

“On the one hand we are consolidating and using our skill to work with a smaller number of suppliers to advance the strategic goals of the business. On the other, there’s convergence within the supply chain itself; the number of true global or EU scale logistics providers is shrinking. As their clients we will pick the best global players to achieve the economics of scale.”

– Steve Rounsley, VP Global Logistics

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XPO Logistics team is proud

to support

Liberty Global with added-value

solutions

in Europe

Liberty Global relies on XPO Logistics’s proven e-commerce expertise, flexibility and capability to deliver high level supply chain services with the aim to bring satisfaction to the end-customer at European level.

Order preparation, next-day delivery, reverse logistics, our teams develop and manage tailor-made solutions supporting the expansion of Liberty Global’s activities in Europe.

CONTACT US: info.log.nl@xpo.com nl.xpo.com

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#1

in e-commerce logistics in Europe

Added value services:

Co-packing, automation, returns management, reverse logistics, control quality

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customer, whose expectations and desires are higher than ever. Over-the-top content must be delivered seamlessly, wherever, whenever and on whatever device the customer chooses. “Everything we do must be reliable and predictable, especially in the mobile arena: people’s mobiles are their best friend! Our job is to ensure their equipment and devices, can be upgraded or changed, kept going and repaired.”

Liberty Global’s ‘halo product’ is broadband, he says, just as important to the household as gas or electricity. Ensuring the network is up and running is a minimum expectation.

Another expectation is that they can choose the level of service they are comfortable with.

Across Liberty Global customers are able to choose single to quad-play services. Increasingly,

SUPPLIER PROFILE

XPO LOGISTICS

XPO Logistics is a top ten global provider of cutting-edge supply chain solutions to the most successful companies in the world. The company provides services for less-than-truckload transportation, truckload brokerage and transportation, last mile logistics, engineered supply chain solutions, high-value-add warehousing and distribution, ground and air expedite, intermodal, drayage, global forwarding and managed transportation. XPO serves more than 50,000 customers with a highly integrated network of over 84,000 employees and 1,469 locations in 32 countries.

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the self-install model is being chosen, people receiving equipment like modems and set top boxes through the post (to the home, a pick-up point a Liberty Global store, or to a workplace) and installing it themselves by following simple instruction. Others prefer to have them installed by a professional. All the complexity is at the back end. “We have to be able to cater for all those different needs. The days of ‘one size fits all’ belong in the past!” The final expectation is that the product (or service) will be delivered fast, and that it will work.

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While developing a more standardised product suite is inevitable, and can be achieved as equipment is replaced, with post production customisation addressing local variants, to call in everything in a single operation would be a mistake, even if that would simplify the supply chain. “We are in the happy position that our technology is continuously evolving to keep up with technology that evolves according to Moore’s Law!” Willem Vesters concludes. “Today’s high speed broadband is tomorrow’s low speed, and speed is the lever that moves the market on to the next generation of products. Legacy thinking can be an existential threat these days, however great the legacy offering,” he says.

It’s easy for a company growing this fast to overlook its societal impact but Liberty Global is too dependent on its communities for that. Apart from its headline mission of Promoting A Digital Society, which can be seen as part of the day job, and which it fulfils by supporting initiatives like the European Commission’s Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, it puts sustainability at the heart of it operations, not least the supply chain. “Take just one example,” says Rounsley. “The recovery, reuse and disposal cycle used to be a cost to the business. Now we work with innovative partners to extract value at every stage. The programme has not only become self-funding, it is a revenue stream for the business – and we have achieved zero landfill in the UK. I am very proud of that.”

“Today’s high speed broadband is tomorrow’s low speed, and speed is the lever that moves the market on to the next generation of products” – Willem Vesters, VP Planning and Supply Chain

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Bringing home Bastion Written by Lucy Dixon Produced by Richard Durrant

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Building and then deconstructing the largest operational UK military base since the Second World War was an immense logistical challenge

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ou’ll have heard of Camp Bastion. The British Armed Forces base in Afghanistan became synonymous with the fight against the Taliban. But what you might not know is what was involved in creating a town the size of Reading in a land-locked country, while under attack from a pretty determined enemy. And unlike most towns, Camp Bastion needed the ability to evolve and fully support the troops there with everything they would need from vehicle maintenance to a hot meal. And then, of course, it would need to be dismantled and taken back to the UK again at the end.

The camp started as just a few tents back in 2005, but as the need for a logistics hub in Afghanistan became apparent, its importance grew, as Senior Infrastructure Office for the British Armed Forces in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Laurence Quinn, explains:

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“Initially we thought of Kandahar, but it was just a bit too far away to provide a forward hub of logistics, so that was the genesis of Camp Bastion. One of the key drivers was to place a hospital within easy reach of the guys engaged in combat on the ground. A metric we have is one hour between being a casualty on the battlefield and going in to surgery in the hospital, so the siting of the hospital was a key factor.”

The location of Camp Bastion was also central to where they thought the operation would be conducted, but out of easy rocket range, to learn lessons from Iraq and avoid indirect fire.

And another point in Camp Bastion’s favour was its location on top of an aquifer, which meant the team could drill down deep enough to get water.

But, as Quinn points out, Camp Bastion was only ever designed to be a small

FACTS 50 aircraft were packed up and brought back to bases across the UK 3,400 vehicles were checked and cleaned before redeploying back to the UK 26km2 size of built up area at Camp Bastion 3,5000m length of the camp’s runway in 2011 10-14k military personnel and contractors lived at Bastion between 2011 and 2012

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It’s not a military secret

KBR work behind the scenes for the Armed Forces As the Chinook climbs into a sky almost white with heat, soldiers prepare to patrol against an enemy hidden in the dust of the barren desert. This classic image of the British Army at war in the 21st century paints a powerful picture. But it only tells half the story of how the Armed Forces operated on the frontline in Afghanistan.

From the hub of Bastion to the outposts of Shawqat and Naridullah, deep into Helmand Province, a support force stood side-by-side with soldiers every step of the way; unseen, unheralded, but fuelling their fight, civilian defence contractors ensured troops could focus on what they do best.

The organisation which was backed by the Ministry of Defence to support the British military in greater numbers than any other on the frontline was KBR. It was the first in, and often last out of the conflict zones.

A

ndy Nixon was on site at what became the military metropolis of Camp Bastion when it was still just two tents and a vast expanse of nothingness. Richard Card, Peter Bunting and Nixon were the first three KBR UK employees of near to a peak of 4,000 in Afghanistan, dedicated to supporting military operations behind the scenes. Together, they helped the military create cities out of sand, sustain homes from home for British troops and create a better life for all. For KBR, it became a vast scale operation providing 65 different services at 28 locations, spanning two fronts, in

the most demanding of environments. “The military call it ‘life support’ – and that seems pretty apt,” said Andrew Pringle. The President of KBR’s defence business, and a former Major General in the British Army, he said the past decade has been an era “when contractor support to military operations came of age”…“In the context of the ever decreasing size of our uniformed Armed Forces, the use of contractors by the military became accepted as normal, and then graduated into becoming essential.

I hope that this decade, of which KBR has been a fundamental part, sets the benchmark for what can be done.”

In a fog of moving parts and dust in Afghanistan, the one thing that stayed constant was perhaps most important: KBR was the only permanent presence. With such deep experience and knowledge it became the glue that bound together the inner workings of camps and campaigns, set against the regular turnover of personnel on six month military tours. “Continuity was one of our great strengths,” said Pringle.

“I presented to our staff the official Accumulated Campaign Service Medals, which is the military award for every two years of operational duty. Our people have got two or three bars on theirs because

they have been supporting operations solidly for eight or nine years. It’s a remarkable achievement – the equivalent of a soldier doing 18 operational tours back-to-back”.

From the moment troops arrived in-theatre to the moment they left, life was sustained at the hands of KBR’s often unseen army of support. They handled their cargo from the plane, delivered the tents they slept in, the food they ate, the water they drunk, laundered the clothes they wore; presented every day a working shower, a clean and functioning toilet, an emptied bin; transported troops where they needed in shuttle coaches or white fleet vehicles; washed down their military vehicles, maintained the roads they drove on, even the running track they jogged on. Last but not least, KBR serviced the air conditioners and

In the context of the ever decreasing size of our uniformed Armed Forces, the use of contractors by the military became accepted as normal, and then graduated into becoming essential. I hope that this decade, of which KBR has been a fundamental part, sets the benchmark for what can be done.�

Andrew Pringle, President, KBR Government Services

maintained the generators that gave them relief from the heat, warmth from the cold, power and light.

For all the different moving parts, there was a simple and powerful thread running through this work: it was to

create a better life for troops on the frontline; to allow them to focus on their job; to keep the mission moving forward. www.kbruk.co.uk

SUPPLIER PROFILE

From the barracks of Aldershot and Salisbury Plain to the camps of Afghanistan and Iraq, KBR is a trusted long term partner to the British military. We are world leaders in programme management, services, logistics and training, supporting the Armed Forces at home and abroad.

We have forged a trusted partnership with the Ministry of Defence over a quarter of a century – trusted partnerships and joint-working form the backbone of our culture. To deliver the most efficient and effective solution requires a fully integrated and joined-up approach and KBR prides itself on thinking differently and building upon lessons learned from across different sectors. We believe KBR’s leadership of complex, large-scale, global energy programmes provides experiences directly relevant to the UK defence environment as the military rethinks the way it does business. www.kbruk.co.uk

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base, a logistics hub, with a hospital. But over time, this changed. “We thought actually we need to invest in Bastion,” says Quinn. The runway wasn’t big enough to airlift, so it an expansion was invested in. And then a maintenance facility was built in Bastion, to avoid having to fly helicopters to Kandahar for essential work. So, bit by bit, Camp Bastion grew. It even built its own bottling plant for bottled water. “When we asked a logistics question, the answer always turned out to be to invest in Camp Bastion,” says Quinn.

Eventually, it had the same footprint as the English town of Reading. Although Quinn prefers describing it as more similar to Aldershot – with Gatwick Airport attached. Because during the peak of Camp Bastion’s operations, it had one of the busiest UK airports in at that time.

Building and sustaining such a base was an immense task – as was closing it down. Major Charlie Perkins, was the Adjutant of the Theatre Logistics Group, a role which involved overseeing

“When we asked a logistics question, the answer always turned out to be to invest in Camp Bastion” – Laurence Quinn, Senior Infrastructure Officer

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“The Theatre Logistics Group was responsible for taking all the kit and equipment, triaging it, deciding how it was going to be disposed of and what was going to be returned to the UK” – Major Charlie Perkins

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the breakdown of the camp. Perkins says: “The Theatre Logistics Group was responsible for taking all the kit and equipment, triaging it, deciding how it was going to be disposed of and what was going to be returned to the UK. The first unit deployed in March 2014 and we were all out by December of that year.”

Just nine months does not seem like a huge amount of time for such as challenge, and Quinn says that every single item was assessed to decide what was cost-effective to return to the UK and what could be disposed of or handed over to the Afghan National Army. He adds: “Then, the question is, how do we get the stuff back? This process works by first designing the last 90 days or so in the camp, working out what our footprint on the ground would be and what we would need and then working back from there.”

Perkins was involved in this from right at the start, as she explains: “I was in central Helmand back in 2012, decommissioning check points and patrol bases, so I saw the very start of the process. But we had something to collapse into – Camp Bastion. We had to think about how we were going to go through the same process with Camp Bastion itself.”

By the time the First Logisitcs Support Regiment turned up at Camp Bastion in March 2014, the big strategic thinking had happened. “We knew what our timeframe and deadlines were, so it was a case of rolling

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“Even if logistics wasn’t your day job – it touched everybody to some extent” – Laurence Quinn, Senior Infrastructure Officer

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on from what the previous Theatre Logistics Group had already started. And what we did find was that we managed to speed things up, which was great,” says Perkins.

The Theatre Logistics Group, at its absolute peak, consisted of around 800 people, with that number constantly reducing as the December deadline approached. But a far higher number of people were involved in the close down of Camp Bastion, as Laurence Quinn says: “It’s a lot more than you imagine and it depends on when you stop counting them! As well as those involved in Afghanistan on the ground, there was a large number of UK-based people too. Even if logistics wasn’t your day job – it touched everybody to some extent. And then the other hidden number is contractors, we had thousands of contractors involved.”

The closure of bases came under the acronym of BRAC-T - which is bases realignment and

S U P P LY C H A I N

closure (transition) – and there was a policy on how it was conducted, including the condition kit and equipment was sent back in. Generally, says Perkins, as much as possible was done in Camp Bastion so a minimum of intervention was needed when it arrived back in the UK. Quinn adds: “A large amount of kit went by sea because flying wasn’t always cost effective, so it would fly out to marry up with sea transport. We did try some land movement but it took a long time and could only do with low risk items such as tented camps.”

And all this had to be done while not compromising the troops on the ground. Quinn says: “To the time we handed it over to the ANA, Camp Bastion was evolving. Stuff was still being built two months before it closed – because it was needed for our capabilities.

Everything we did was for our capabilities. Camp Bastion was an incredible achievement.”

Every single item was assessed to see if it was cost-effective to bring back to the UK

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El Mercado Janabiya neighbourhood market

A real esta

ate success story Written by Sheree Hanna and Produced by Dennis Morales

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FIRST BAHRAIN

A Bahrain and Kuwait-based development company has its eye on expansion into new territories

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irst Bahrain Real Estate Development Company is celebrating its success with plans to share its expertise and establish partnerships in opportunity-rich markets such as neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The real estate development company, which operates out of Bahrain and Kuwait, is riding on the crest of a wave after the completion of its inaugural project last year and the 2014 announcement that it had made its first profit for four years.

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Chief Executive Officer Amin Al Arrayed says: “Our partnership agreement with Kuwaitbased Mazaya Holdings is a clear example of how we have engaged and leveraged our footprint in Bahrain to support a GCC company. Now I want to do the same in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia where I would be interested in investing to develop with partners that could provide First Bahrain with that access.

“Real estate is a local business and really it’s not possible to manage effectively across borders. You need to have a presence or engage in a partnership that brings you close to your tenants. We have successfully convinced others that we are the right partners and we hope to continue doing that.”

COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENTS The Majaal Warehouse Co, First Bahrain’s subsidiary, was appointed by Mazaya Holding Co to guide development of its $20 million industrial facility, located at Bahrain Investment Wharf (BIW) in the Salman Industrial City, and also act as facilities and leasing managers.

Majaal is a flexible-use industrial facility now operating at full occupancy and providing a base for some 30 businesses representing a range of activities from FMCG distribution to small manufacturers.

BIW is strategically located close to Bahrain International Airport and has easy access via the King Fahd causeway to Saudi Arabia. “Majaal

215,899

KD

The amount of Revenue generated by First Bahrain in 2014 “Real estate is a local business and really it’s not possible to manage effectively across borders. You need to have a presence or engage in a partnership that brings you close to your tenants” – Amin Al Arrayed, CEO

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FIRST BAHRAIN

P.O. Box 22964, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain Tel: +973 1729 6922, Fax: +973 1729 6933 E mail: info@sanadengineering.com

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Key Personnel

Amin Al Arrayed Chief Executive Officer

is heavily dependent on the trade between Bahrain and Saudi an increasingly important dynamic for Bahrain,” explains Al Arrayed.

“The Saudi market is huge and we are keen to understand this new realignment in the GCC, and vast opportunities the Saudi market has to offer.”

First Bahrain was founded in 2005 in Kuwait and 2007 in Bahrain, and in December 2014 reported its first profit, KD 215,899 representing its largest gain since the collapse of the regional retail market in 2007/2008.

RETAIL MARKET First Bahrain is also behind the construction of a new retail centre and residential project in Janabiya covering an 86,000 square foot

Amin Al Arrayed has skillfully provided wise and stable leadership to the Company throughout a period of tremendous market volatility over the past six years. He brings an in-depth knowledge of banking, financial services and real estate developed over an 18 year career.

He holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University, Chicago, USA; and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Redlands, California, USA.

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Key Personnel

Daniel Taylor Chief Financial Officer An entrepreneur, with a diverse career spanning 26 years, Daniel Taylor has a wealth of operational and management experience.

At First Bahrain, he leads the Operations and Finance teams, overseeing the planning and execution of the Company’s activities; contributing directly to the achievement of the Company’s strategic objectives.

Prior to joining First Bahrain, he was General Manager of New York Coffee, and General Manager of Mariner Technologies, where he was the chief architect of the GCC business news portal, TradeArabia.com.

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plot to provide a new supermarket, three restaurants and 23 shop. Building work has commenced and the centre is due to open in the second quarter of 2016.

Kuwait Finance House is providing funding for the $30 million project, which also includes a plot for residential development. It is being designed by Sanad Engineering and contractors Almoayyed Construction Group has been appointed to carry out building works.

“The development is situated in a very nice area of Bahrain and the name El Mercado was chosen to reflect the Spanishstyle architecture,” says Al Arrayed.

Also under study is a $150 million scheme, located in the heart of Bahrain’s Seef

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District comprising a 13,000 square metre mixed use residential development.

COMPANY ETHOS First Bahrain’s success has undoubtedly been built on strong foundations relating to its core values of integrity, innovation, partnership and prosperity.

As a Sharia-compliant business, the company operates a transparency policy and in the same way it would send new contracts to lawyers for approval also sends information to a Sharia board for review. “Our shareholders have chosen to invest in us because we are Sharia compliant therefore we have to ensure our compliance and maintain codes of conduct

Key Personnel

Yasser Abu-Lughod Chief Development Officer Yasser Abu-Lughod brings over 29 years of international project management and engineering experience to the team at First Bahrain where he serves as the Head of Development, leading the Company’s development efforts from concept to construction to commissioning and beyond.

He holds a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee; USA. He is a Charted Professional Engineer and a member of the Institution of Engineers in Australia and a holder of the Project Management Professional certification (PMP).

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FIRST BAHRAIN in keeping with Sharia,” says Al Arrayed.

The company has a small core staff of 13 based at its offices in Bahrain and Kuwait and outsources services such as marketing and legal thus allowing it to select providers who are best in market, ensuing high level of quality in terms of the people it deals with.

Al Arrayed says: “Internally we have a very flat structure so there is not a lot of bureaucracy and we are able to make quick decisions. We have the ability to do a bespoke deal which has been instrumental to our success.”

While many companies outsource to leasing agencies, this is one aspect of the business First Bahrain keeps in house.

It means it can offer prospective

“Our shareholders have chosen to invest in us because we are Sharia compliant therefore we have to ensure our compliance and maintain codes of conduct in keeping with Sharia” – Amin Al Arrayed, CEO

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tenants a greater degree of flexibility during negotiations as it is not governed by working from a rate sheet. “There is nothing between the decision maker and the tenants and in this market that has made all the difference,” he adds.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY When it comes to hiring and retaining staff, First Bahrain looks first at skill sets and aims to motivate employees by ensuring everyone is kept up to speed with company business and is involved in the decision-making process.

“Our individuals are very much part of our strategy and I think it is huge motivator once you have your staff reacting as fans of your organisation because they are empowered and aware of the ongoing projects,” he says. “We don’t silo people and everyone, including the junior staff, is made aware of what is going on and that is really creating the culture we want.”

Al Arrayed is on the board of the University of Bahrain’s Business College and Bahrain Polytechnic Logistics Management programme.

The company has good relationships with government bodies offering training opportunities and regularly places interns who provide new energy and a prospective pool of talent for future employment.

He says: “We run bonus schemes and if we hit our targets we reward our staff. We also provide clear career trajectory planning so employees can see how in the future they can

13 The number of core staff located in its Bahrain and Kuwait offices

First Bahrain looks first at skill sets and aims to motivate employees by ensuring everyone is kept up to speed with company business

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FIRST BAHRAIN

assume senior posts. This is, I believe, the reason many people have stayed with us.”

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SUSTAINABILE EFFORTS First Bahrain has strong corporate responsibility culture and takes the issue of sustainability extremely seriously.

In December 2013, 3BL Associates Consultancy was appointed as Corporate Sustainability Consultant for its industrial facilities projects with the aim of providing key recommendations to improve Majaal’s operational efficiency through a corporate sustainability framework.

Al Arrayed says: “An example is when

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we advanced the project in Janabiya we got a positive response from the local community because they know what kind of developer we are. If you look at the rendering on the project it is very green and complements the local environment. “There is a lot of innovative thinking. In our industrial facilities, we have installed sky lights for energy efficient ambient lighting and used insulated panelling for temperature control. We have also invested in landscaping on our warehousing project, which is unheard of. We want to beautify our projects and make people happy.�

In First Bahrain’s industrial facilities, it has installed sky lights for energy-efficient ambient lighting

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Serving the PHARMA MARKET Written by Nye Longman Produced by Richard Durrant

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DUSSELDORF AIRPORT CARGO

DUS Cargo is 100 percent owned by Düsseldorf Airport

Situated in a major economic growth area at the heart of Europe, DUS Cargo is exploiting opportunities to offer its clients an even wider range of services 136

December 2015

D

usseldorf Airport Cargo annually handles >114,000 tons of cargo and has invested €3 million in a new temperature-controlled warehouse facility to meet the ever-growing demands of the pharmaceutical industry.

The company, which is owned 100 percent by Düsseldorf Airport, is also set to become one of the first cargo companies to attain IATA’s (International Air Transport Association) accreditation for the specialised handling of pharma products, a goal it hopes to achieve by early 2016.

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190 Thomas Schürmann, Head of Sales and Marketing at Düsseldorf Airport Cargo says: “We currently handle 25 airlines most of which are for full handling contracts and therefore we try to offer a wide range of services to airline clients to enable them to ship all kinds of commodities in and out of the airport.

“A very big project has been establishing the DUS Pharma Centre which has been equipped with special temperature controlled storage facilities. We have built 23 individual cells where

Number of jobs to be supported

by Dusseldorf Airport Cargo

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DUSSELDORF AIRPORT CARGO

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Dusseldorf Airport Cargo team

and the escalating pharmaceuticals business.

In 2014, pharma exports were worth a total of €5.5 billion to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in which Düsseldorf is located. Imports to the state amounted to €4.7 billion representing 12 percent of the pharma trade in Germany.

“In the past few years we have seen huge growth in pharma imports with products mainly coming from the US, but also exports too, and we wanted to be in a position to offer our clients the biggest range of commodities hence the investment in DUS Pharma Centre,” he says.

The main countries for pharmaceuticals exports from North Rhine-Westphalia are the US (12.5 percent of all goods); UK (7.7 percent); China (7.1 percent); Japan (five percent) while on the imports side some of the biggest countries sending goods are the US (9.5 percent); China (2.8 percent); and India (two percent).

“In 2013, it was rebranded Dusseldorf Airport Cargo to enable it to be more easily recognised as being part of the airport” – Thomas Schürmann, DUS Sales and Marketing Director

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DUSSELDORF AIRPORT CARGO temperatures can be set at a range of between two and 25ºC in order to safeguard pharma products.”

Düsseldorf is ranked among the top 10 of the world’s largest economic regions

Growth region Situated at the centre of Europe, the region around Düsseldorf is ranked among the top 10 of the world’s largest economic regions. More than 18 million people live within a radius of 100 kilometres.

It is also the heartland for numerous major international companies along with a wealth of medium-sized enterprises thus making its airport a major hub for the export and import of goods.

DUS offers a total of 12,650 square metres of storage facilities and has the capability to handle a wide range of cargo including

Sektion / section 1 2 x 26 m2 3 x 13 m2 5 Kühlzellen/ cooling cells 2° - 25° C/ 35,6° - 77° F

Your future is digital.

And just a wing beat away.

Boost your business with ELWIS – the complete, modular IT solution that covers all of your current and future needs in air cargo handling.

Now also available as a cloud solution.

www.lufthansa-industry-solutions.com

S U P P LY C H A I N

segregated areas for dangerous goods, which are divided into three areas.

There are also two dangerous goods areas and a third one for radioactive material. “The only thing we are unable to handle is live animals because there are no facilities at the airport and no approval from the Veterinary Association,” says Schürmann.

Exports and imports Because of its proximity to such a vibrant economic area where there is a lot of manufacturing, DUS Cargo handles a wide variety of goods including textiles, electronics and foodstuffs, but its three largest product areas are automotive parts for car manufacturers, machinery

DUS Pharma Center

“We currently handle 25 airlines most of which are for full handling contracts and therefore we try to offer a wide range of services to airline clients to enable them to ship all kinds of commodities in and out of the airport” – Thomas Schürmann, DUS Sales and Marketing Director

Sektion / section 3 10 x 13 m2 10 Kühlzellen / cooling cells

Sektion / section 2 8 x 13 m2

2° - 25° C/ 35,6° - 77° F

8 Kühlzellen/ cooling cells 2° - 25° C/ 35,6° - 77° F

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DUSSELDORF AIRPORT CARGO

16m Euro The amount of revenue generated by Dusseldorf Airport Cargo

Component of success The automotive parts business has grown from out of the success of German car manufacturers such as Volkswagen, BMW, Audi and Porsche.

“Most of the major car manufacturers are in the South but we have a lot of local suppliers located near Düsseldorf and they send spare parts equipment and components all over the world,” says Schürmann.

Established in 2001 following the German government’s privatisation process of Düsseldorf Airport, the cargo company was originally named Düsseldorf Cargo Logistics. In 2013, it was rebranded Dusseldorf Airport Cargo to enable it to be more easily recognised as being part of the airport.

Today, DUS Cargo serves 25 airlines including Emirates, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Airlines, and Turkish Airlines, Air Berlin, Etihad and Mahn Air. Exacting standards Training and retaining the company’s 190 staff is an important part of its operations and keeping employees up to date with the latest

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industry standards is regarded as paramount.

“When we talk about dangerous goods, for example, management and staff are trained to meet regulations issued by IATA,” explains Schürmann. “As with the new certification for pharma products we decided to go-ahead with it while many airports are still just in the early discussion stages.

“We decided to go for it because we strongly believe that in the future it will become an industry standard.”

Whatever is happening in the global economy impacts DUS Cargo’s business and it has little control over what the markets are doing, nonetheless the company constantly endeavours to stay at the top of its game.

“It has been a challenging year and we are facing volatile volumes in the industry particularly with China’s decline in growth. However, trade is getting a bit better now,” concludes Schürmann.

DUS Cargo serves 25 airlines including Emirates, Lufthansa, American Airlines, Airlines, and Turkish Airlines, Air Berlin, Etihad, Mahn Air

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Providing accessible, high-quality care Written by Nye Longman Produced by Heykel Ouni

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Z U L E K H A H O S P I TA L

The UAE-based hospital group is growing its business in order to deliver its inspirational founder’s vision to the Emirates and beyond

O

ff the back of its strong business and operational capacity, the Zulekha Group is expanding its capabilities in the UAE, as well as further afield. This expansion shows that the group’s vision to be the ‘most efficient, competent and courteous providers of comprehensive healthcare in the world’ is not only backed up by ambition, but also passionate business sense.

The Zulekha Hospitals group takes its name (as well as its spirit of determined passion) from its inspirational founder and Chairperson, Doctor Zulekha Daud, who moved from her native India and established the first Zulekha Hospital in Zulekha Hospitals Group’s Sharjah facility

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Sharjah to the North-East of Dubai in 1992.

Operations Daud established the Sharjah hospital as a small, 30-bed hospital with a limited amount of capabilities but the group’s facilities have expanded over the years to include a multidisciplinary hospital in Dubai, and a greatly expanded operation in Sharjah, as well as a diagnostic centre and several health centres and pharmacies.

The Zulekha Hospital in Sharjah has evolved from its relatively humble origins into an extensive, well-equipped facility and diagnostic centre with both out-patient and in-patient needs catered for. It has now 120 in-patient beds, covering an area of 240,000 square feet. Zulekha’s Hospital in Dubai was established in 2004 and has 79 beds as well as in-patient and out-patient care covering a wide range of medical and surgical disciplines.

Between its two hospital facilities, Zulekha offers a comprehensive range of hospital services which include nephrology, obstetrics, paediatrics and a variety of supporting laboratory services. These facilities are supported by 1,700 staff, 250 of which are fully qualified doctors.

Both main hospitals are specialised in cardiac catheterisation, intensive care (including neo-natal), dialysis and advanced radiology.

Supported by state-of-the-art operating theatres, the hospitals also specialise in bariatric and joint replacement surgeries.

“As a responsible healthcare service provider in the UAE we have always taken utmost care and attention to implement sustainability and help our society prosper through a series of initiatives.”

– Mr.Taher Shams, Managing Director

1,700 The number of staff working at the Zulekha Hospital

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H E A LT H C A R E

Key Personnel

Zulekha Daud Chairperson

Hospital waiting room

Building on its already solid foundations, Zulekha Hospital is embarking on an AED 250 million centre for advanced specialised oncology treatment expansion plan corollary to its founding vision. It is working on expanding its capacity in Dubai to provide a state-of-theart cancer unit. The new facility will include an additional 100-bed inpatient room, ICU rooms, dialysis service and a sleep lab.

This is scheduled for completion in 2017.

Strategic management In a statement, Daud revealed the core principles that motivated her and all of the staff at her facilities, she said: “Zulekha Hospital is guided by our core values: honesty and integrity,

Dr. Zulekha Daud moved to the UAE from Nagpur, India in 1964 to pursue her dream of serving people in need and to offer affordable medical facilities to all.

From a young age, her parents were her most influential role models, constantly encouraging her to take up new challenges, eventually leading her to receive a medical degree from Government Medical College in Nagpur.

She is the first female Indian medical professional and entrepreneur in the UAE who diligently worked for the welfare of UAE nationals and expats at a time when healthcare access was very limited.

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Key Personnel

Zanubia Shams Co-chairperson Zanubia Shams is the daughter of Zulekha Daud. She graduated from the United States of America specialising in Business Administration. A prolific entrepreneur and sincere healthcare ambassador, Shams took over operational responsibilities of the Zulekha Healthcare Group from her mother in 2005.

She has inherited her mother’s passion and charisma; she exudes an air of confidence that is clearly reflected in the way the Zulekha Healthcare Group is run.

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State-of-the-art cancer unit at Zulekha Hospital

planning and implementation, privilege and responsibility, quality service and continuous improvement, courtesy and compassion.”

Perhaps the best example of how these values have been embodied across the group is its dedication to a culture of gender equality across its operations; as a female-owned business this philosophy is one that is truly led from the very top.

Recognising that fostering gender equality across the company is a holistic process, management approaches it as such, using a variety of initiatives across the board. The group’s ‘gender planning’ strategy is therefore

H E A LT H C A R E

100k The number of patients predicted to attend Alexis Hospital during an average year present at the following levels: leadership, accountability and corporate culture, as well as in strategies focused on how staff themselves can foster a gender-balanced workplace.

Responsible development The group’s efforts with regard to its social responsibilities are both diverse and extensive, and are focused both operationally and externally, in line with Daud’s vision which she outlined in a statement: “We are here to create value and operate our business according to strategies and practices that are sustainable.”

The group is supporting the ongoing

‘Zulekha Hospital is embarking on an AED 250 million centre for advanced specialised oncology treatment’

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Z U L E K H A H O S P I TA L OUR VISION

Tel +971 (4) 2098300 Fax +971 (4) 2227435 Green Tower, Office # 702, Al Maktoum Road / Al Deira P.O. Box 21554, Dubai, United Arab Emirates www.naghimedical.com

To bring the most innovative state of the art medical technology and solutions to our market.

Experience Excellence

We envision, We equip, We empower..

“Enhancement, Commitment & Delivery; Our Today and Tomorrow” We conduct business through the expertise of our dedicated, hardworking and highly qualified professionals composed of more than 450 Engineers, Business Unit Managers, Sales and Marketing executives, Warehouse and Administrative staff, IT and Accounts staff, technicians, doctors, pharmacists and dentists.

Dubai Office: Emitac Healthcare Solutions P.O.Box 8391 Emitac Building Suite No. 201 Opp. Al Tayar Motors Garhoud Area Dubai, UAE Phone +971 4 6058250 Fax +971 4 6058251

Abu Dhabi Office: Emitac Healthcare Solutions PO Box 2711 Das Tower, 1st Floor Sultan Bin Zayed Street (32nd Street), Khalidia Abu Dhabi, UAE Phone +971 2 441 8808 Fax +971 2 441 8805

www.emitachealthcare.com | www.etqanhealthcare.com

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“We aspire to be the leading Medical & Educational solutions provider in the GCC” www. almazrouimedical.ae

Tel +971- 4- 2661272 Fax +971 -4 2690612 almaz@almaz.net.ae Al Mazroui Medical & Chemical Supplies LLC PO Box 6196, Dubai, UAE

Z U L E K H A H O S P I TA L

H E A LT H C A R E

construction of a tertiary care centre in Daud’s home country of India, supported by the main part of a $24 million funding from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Once completed, Alexis Hospital facility in Nagpur will contain 200 beds and will offer patients both secondary and tertiary care; it is predicted that over 100,000 patients will walk through its doors each year. The centre will specialise in oncology, cardiology, orthopaedics and neurology and is set to stimulate healthcare in the broader region by acting as a state of the art hub.

The remaining $3 million of the IFC package has been used to fund energy-efficiency measures at Zulekha Hospitals Group’s Sharjah facility, although this expenditure is part of a much greater commitment to protecting the environment.

Operationally speaking, the group ensures that its procurement and the care that it gives are both delivered efficiently and with environmental impact taken into serious consideration.

Across the organisation, the group has endeavoured to use environmentally friendly building products. Recognising the impact that IT usage can have on energy usage, its department has switched to using energysaving products where possible. At a broader staff level, employees have implemented recycling initiatives on a large scale.

A statement from the company shows that its efforts have been well recognised, both at home and internationally, it said: “It is because of

Key Personnel

Taher Shams Managing Director Mr. Taher Shams began his career with Zulekha Healthcare Group after achieving a degree in Marketing and Finance.

He heads the expansion projects of the group in UAE and India to bring applied dedication for quality healthcare in the region with suitable environmentsensitive solutions.

His responsibilities include forging innovative IT solutions to strengthen the healthcare framework and leading all healthcare projects for Zulekha Healthcare Group in UAE, as well as projects for healthcare and education in India.

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‘The group is supporting the ongoing construction of a tertiary care centre in Daud’s home country of India, supported by the main part of a $24 million loan from the International Finance Corporation’ 154

December 2015

250 of the 1,700 staff are fully qualified doctors

our commitment to excellent service and social responsibility, and our aim for excellence in quality service and patient care that we at Zulekha Hospital first decided to raise our standard of care and business process to the international mark.”

Zulekha’s Hospitals in Dubai and Sharjah were recognised by the Joint Commission International (JCI) which is the largest awarding body in the United States for its high quality healthcare services. Furthermore, the group has won Dubai Quality Appreciation programme (DQAP) and Dubai Quality Award (DQA) several times and has been recognised for having the Best sustainable hospital at the Hospital Build

H E A LT H C A R E

& Infrastructure Awards, and has received the Dubai Chamber of Commerce CSR label award for sustainable business practices.

Zulekha Hospital Dubai & Sharjah are also awarded with CAP (College of American Pathologists) for its high standards and operational excellence, putting it in league with the best 7,000 labs in the world.

In short, the vision as embodied by Dr. Zulekha Daud when she opened her first hospital in Sharjah has come to fruition and the breed of ethical, sustainable private healthcare has grown and will continue to do for the foreseeable future. w w w. z u l e k h a h o s p i t a l s . c o m

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Fastest to the finishing line Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Alex Neagu

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manroland web systems

Will digital printing sound the knell for web offset? Not in our time, says Daniel Raffler, EVP of communications, HR, legal and business development and Dieter Betzmeier EVP for technology & projects at manroland web systems, which is positioning itself for the media demands of customers facing new financial, technological and social challenges

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2011

was the commercial printing industry’s annus horribilis. Look at some figures: in 2006 the global market for offset printing equipment was about €2.2 billion. In 2011, following the collapse of the financial market this plummeted to €700 million (subsequently losing a further 20 percent each year). Large publishing and printing houses stopped buying new equipment. The drop was too sharp for the machine manufacturers, and forced one of the best respected of them all, Augsburg-based manroland AG, formerly known as MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG, into receivership.

The company had been part of the MAN group until 2006, when the Munich truck-maker sold its controlling interest to the Allianz private equity group which rebranded it as manroland AG. Following the winding up of the company in November 2011, however, it was quickly restructured. The sheet fed business unit was sold separately, while the web offset division was purchased by the diversified Possehl Group and relaunched as manroland web systems GmbH. “Since then we have followed the route of continuous adjustment to the market environment and have been very successful in that environment,” Daniel Raffler avers.

In the contracted but still competitive environment the company is definitely doing well, commanding a market share in excess of 40 percent of the global market for web offset

M A N U FA C T U R I N G

printing press equipment as of November 2015.

Significantly, every single deal that manroland had on its order book at liquidation was reratified by the customers when the new company was formed. “We think we have the broadest product portfolio, whether for newspaper printing presses or commercial processes like magazines, directories and advertising materials,� he explains.

In the restructuring manroland web systems became a much leaner and tightly focused organisation. Upper management tiers were reduced drastically, and the workforce rationalised. Last year, a satellite office at Plauen in Saxony was integrated with the Augsburg site which now employs around 1,100 people, with a further 150 in sales and service offices round the world.

1,250 Number of staff employed by manroland web systems

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INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY

MANROLAND WEB

LEADER S YWE S TARE EM S IN TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION BRINGING THE FUTURE TODAY

ELETTRA is a leading international manufacturer on the graphic industry field since more than 20 years. ELETTRA aims is to open its products portfolio “using” all the technical knowledge, the R&D efforts and its organization to support your Company in the selection of the best product when approaching the market for any requirements. Thanks

to its experience and resources we can quickly develop specific system solutions to suit the market and meet market expectations to the highest level. These are among the motivations that have carried Customers, OEMs and some of the most important and relevant International Groups to decide in favor of the ELETTRA systems.

ELETTRA has successfully developed efficient and environmentally friendly cleaning solutions based on plant oil-based fatty alcohols and fatty acids in place of the traditional mineral based solvents. The experience and the technology applied to develop these products has enabled us to gain specific skills in the processes of microemulsions formation. We are able to design and develop equipment for

the production of microemulsions starting from water and plant based oils (sunflower oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, etc.) with excellent results of efficiency and reliability even in the most difficult applications normally used in the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics industry as well as in the food sector. Important results have also been reached in turbines for cogeneration

MAIN PRODUCTS: CLEANING SYSTEMS Design and implementation of cleaning systems in the graphic industry (Offset and Flexo), and specific automatic cleaning systems applicable in many other fields; SOLVENTS Design and manufacture of solvents based upon plant based oils that can be used both for the graphic industry as well as in other sectors; EQUIPMENT FOR THE FORMATION OF MICROEMULTIONS Design and development of equipment for the formation of microemulsions for the pharmaceutical, cosmetics and food industry; WATER PURIFICATION SYSTEMS USING DAF TECHNOLOGY (DISSOLVED AIR FLOTATION) Design and development of water purification systems using DAF technology (Dissolved air Flotation). A proven and effective physical/chemical technology for treating a variety of industrial wastewater.

MECHANICAL HIGH-PRESSURE HOMOGENIZER Design and manufacture of mechanical high-pressure homogenizer. An effective and efficient technology for homogenizing and mixing mixtures of powders/liquids, sludge, oils, water etc etc. Possible applications are : mixing for the production of nano-materials, paints & pigments, food & beverage, cosmetics, chemicals and fuels.

E-mail Website www.elettra.lc.it 1 6elettra.commerciale@elettra.lc.it 0 December 2015 ELETTRA S.r.l.,Via De Gasperi, 2 – 23887 Olgiate Molgora (LC) – Italy

manroland web systems

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Anticipating that the global market will stabilise at around €350 million, production capacity has been configured to meet manroland web systems’ share of that market. “This is a technology driven market,” says Dieter Betzmeier.

“All our innovations are directed towards cost saving and productivity gain for our customer – speed, uptime and production flexibility. For example newspaper presses used to run at night but today the machine must run round the clock, printing many products of which the daily newspaper is just one, with just minutes to change the setup and plates for the next job.

Our success in the market is due to our guiding philosophy at manroland web systems. We are a business partner to our customers and we listen to what they need to make them profitable.”

manroland is a business partner to its customers

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manroland web systems There’s a tendency these days to regard web offset printing as old technology, basically unchanged since Gutenberg ran off his first poem at Mainz in 1450. It is true that the challenge of online publishing will have to be taken seriously. “There is a big trend among publishers to invest in the new media channels, although most of them get their money and profits from printed papers and magazines.” And printed paper is getting smarter by the year.

Hybrid solutions from technology partners like Kodak, whose Prosper S30 imprinting systems is mounted on Axel Springer’s manroland COLORMAN offset presses

Increase your profit delta.line – the complete solution

• delta.d/sd

dampening solution circulation

• delta.spray

spray dampening systems

• delta.f

dampening solution crossflow filtration

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central ink supply systems

technology and services technotrans AG Robert-Linnemann-Straße 17 48336 Sassenberg

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Phone +49(0)2583-301-1000 info@technotrans.com www.technotrans.com

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to imprint variable components such as consecutive lottery numbers, variable QR codes, and changing artwork at full production speed, are just one example.

This kind of technology is of greater practical use to manroland web systems customers than ‘pure’ digital printing systems being developed by inkjet printing firms. Inkjet printing is limited in speed, and so far can only manage three or four metres a second. The S30 head has a print width of 10.6cm and a printing speed of up to 900 metres per minute. That’s 15 metres per second (m/s), keeping up with manroland presses that get through a 3.5 tonne roll of paper in 12 minutes at up to 17 m/s. There’s a big gap for the digital printers to bridge the cost per copy delta, says Betzmeier, “but they will probably do it one day!”

Offset can reach higher speeds because it relies on ink transfer while digital methods rely on droplets being ‘fired’ at the paper – the higher the speed the greater the droplet disturbance. As a result, conventional offset fulfils the requirements for volume production, digital printing provides

“All our innovations are directed towards cost saving and productivity gain for our customer – speed, uptime and production flexibility” – Dieter Betzmeier, Executive Vice President Technology & Projects

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the answer for more individualised and personalised products and hybrid solutions by manroland web systems combine both worlds.

But speed is just one parameter. Once printed most jobs have to be folded, and this is the number one differentiator in manroland’s IP portfolio according to Daniel Raffler. “Nobody else addresses integrated workflow to the same extent: to run a newspaper line at 55,000 copies per hour is one thing, to fold the finished product at that speed is another!”

Digital printers have not addressed the question of in-line folding, and it is a big gap in a new market, one that manroland web systems is now filling. “Some customers want to print straight from digital files, and now they can do that, but they want the same finished end product, he explains. “We have been developing new products over the last three

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years, successfully I am happy to say. Up to now we have sold some 20 folding lines that can be integrated with a digital printing press using our core competence in folding knowhow.”

The multivariable FoldLine for the production of digital newspapers, books and any type of commercial product and the FormerLine for book production are compatible with any manufacturer’s equipment, he adds.

While manroland web systems returned a profit in 2012 and 2013, the radical restricting of 2014 resulted in a small loss, however this year it’s heading for EBT in the region of €4 million and the order book is full.

The dual strategy, says Daniel Raffler, is to guard the company’s number one slot in newspaper and commercial web offset while continuing to penetrate the new digital printing market.

manroland’s office building

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Achieving global scale Written by: Nye Longman Produced by: Alexandru-Daniel Neagu

with local relevance 167

PHILIPS LIGHTING

By adopting segmented business streams, the company is set remain a key player in home luminaires

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hilips Home Luminaires is part of the larger Royal Philips NV, which is a diversified health and well-being company, focused on improving people’s lives through meaningful innovation in the areas of healthcare, consumer lifestyle and lighting. The company is a leader in cardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, energy-efficient lighting solutions and new lighting applications, as well as male shaving and grooming and oral healthcare.

Philips Lighting is addressing an attractive global market that is valued in excess of EUR65 billion. There are many dynamics affecting the market, the most prominent being the movement from the use of replacement light bulbs (both conventional, and LED) to an embedded LED light source, where the luminaire consists of a light source that does need to be replaced.

Further impetus comes as a result of LED making more innovative designs possible, and the additional capabilities offered by connected light, where the user can control their own environment, including the ability to change brightness and colour, as well as being able to turn lights on or off from their smart phone, even when outside the home.

By keeping abreast of these latest trends in both technology, and consumer demand, the Home Luminaires business is seeking to expand over the coming years. However, it can only do this profitably by producing products that are relevant to local tastes whilst

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Philips combines LED and IoT connected technologies

leveraging its scale as a global manufacturer.

Technology as the driving force Philips is keen to see the next generation of technology implemented across its verticals, which will not only enhance its competitive profile but will also help to provide its customers, and society at large, with long term solutions to ever-pressing energy issues.

By simultaneously implementing LED and IoT connected technologies the company has been able to design and produce luminaires which combine both; these are

“Obsolescence, particularly in the form of write downs or write offs has traditionally been a big issue for Philips.

Philips is diverting a significant percentage of its consumer luminaires manufacturing operations away from China in order to reduce these costs, as well as to reduce its time to market� – Mika Salomaa, Vice President of Operations

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Production & Assembly The company was established in 1970. Has over 45 years of experience in labor intensive precision assembly of various SDA and electro-mechanical appliances.

Is certified with ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 14001:2004, also with AEO. Key strengths are: • • • • • • • • • •

High quality assembly at competitive cost Proximity to european markets Wide supply chain Flexibility in volume production enabling to follow demand changes Quick industrialization and effective process engineering Rapidity and time-bound implementation Advanced just-in-time inbound and outbound logistics Cooperate in many different business models Deliver tangible, measurable business results Biazet - SMART partner

ul. Gen. Wl. Andersa 44 15-113 Bialystok, Poland T +48 85 67 84 701 F +48 85 73 36 734 biazet@biazet.pl • www.biazet.pl

PHILIPS LIGHTING

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the next generation of lighting solutions.

Mika Salomaa, Vice President of Operations for Philips Lighting’s Home lighting business comments on this decision: “We see lighting as the cornerstone of the Internet of Things.

People are thinking more and more about how they are consuming their energy, especially associated with lighting, and if you think especially about integrated LEDs, the uses and benefits are very broad.”

For Philips, LEDs came into the company’s product offerings slowly at first, as a replacement bulb, but then snowballed into a standalone set of products as the quality of light that the technology was able to deliver improved, and as the cost of production began to fall.

Neil Adams, Head of Operations Strategy &

Mika Salomaa, Philips’ Vice President of Operations

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Philips Lighting Solutions’ production facility

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Manufacturing, says: “We are helping people make the transition from using conventional light bulbs to fully adopting LEDs. These also provide a basis for IoT connected operation, which then provides a degree of control which may be the ability to switch the light on remotely, change its colour, or adjust intensity.

“Lighting has gone from lightbulbs that are replaced every six months, to something that is essentially a lock and leave. The whole luminaire space is going towards atmosphere, and user-control; it is an important part of the connected home trend.

“As a result, we are setting ourselves up to grow our business in new and dynamic ways. We see a mega trend that’s driving people to replace their old technology with new, and to focus more on light as a feature in the home. In terms of market growth, the market for home luminaires is set to grow significantly more than GDP.”

€21.39 billion

Philips Lighting Solutions revenue in 2014

Segmented business streams Obsolescence, particularly in the form of write downs or write offs has traditionally been a big issue for Philips, not to mention a major drain on its profitability. Salomaa explained that the company was diverting a significant percentage of its consumer luminaire manufacturing operations away from China in order to reduce these costs, as well as to reduce its time to market.

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Overhead costs are lower because Philips has fewer people planning components

has been key to securing product relevancy across the board; using the skills and facilities of Biazet, Poland’s largest producer of small domestic appliances is one such example of this. Working with established manufacturers in this way has enabled Philips to seamlessly deploy its regional manufacturing strategy.

Another key supplier in this territory has been parts manufacturer PNE. Adams says: “Regional manufacturing and segmented business streams are both cornerstones. Regional manufacturing is there because of the diversity of the product portfolio, and the ability to reduce lead times/ dependence on long term forecasts.

Your Partner in your DRIVE towards QUALITY AND EXCELLENCE ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING SERVICES (EMS) EMERGENCY LIGHTING SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE DESIGNING FOR ELECTRONIC CONTROLLERS SALES OF ELECTRONICS

Dharma General Manager PNE Group of Company T +607-354 4999 F +607-351 8695 M +6012-737 0010 dharma@pne.com.sg www.pne.com.sg

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It’s a design driven business and the unit levels are low, so predictability is low; if you include obsolescence cost, then it’s more cost effective to produce in region.”

“It really is a case of understanding the fundamental dynamics of the business and understanding what’s driving costs, and then looking at smart ways of to mitigate these costs. The resulting approach has fundamental implications for not only our physical infrastructure but also how we plan, and make products, as well as how we design products, and what we offer in terms of service to our customers.”

Order fulfilment is achieved through a

“It really is a case of understanding the fundamental dynamics of the business and understanding what’s driving costs, and then looking at smart ways of to mitigate these costs” – Mika Salomaa, Vice President of Operations

Philips is able to utilise mass customisation, giving customers the opportunity to have some design input on the luminaires

PHILIPS LIGHTING

“Segmented business streams offer us the opportunity to engage the best supply model for a given product/ customer combination.

Wherever possible, we either make, or configure to order” – Mika Salomaa, Vice President of Operations

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portfolio of supply models, underpinned by a lean operating system which provides for a standard way of working across all locations per supply model. Although still in pilot mode, additive manufacturing is being introduced as a key enabler to late stage configuration, and also as a way of producing low volume components on demand.

Adams says: “Segmented business streams offer us the opportunity to engage the best supply model for a given product/ customer combination. Wherever possible, we either make, or configure to order’’.

“The lean operating system is our attempt to standardise how we operate these supply modes, Regional manufacturing is achieved through a portfolio of supply models

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and by doing so we are laying the foundations for improved productivity going forward.”

Philips’ segmented business streams model is made up of a number of key elements, but essentially comes down to the notion that its business can be optimised by being broken into logical segments. Each of these exhibit different characteristics, and lends itself to one of a limited number of specific supply models, where the trade-offs are optimum.

The key building blocks of this model consist of introducing the segmented business streams in particular formal, differentiated, and aligned supply policies. Further factors taken into account are the supply models portfolio, product platforms (in support of late stage configuration) and end-to-end analytics.

By concentrating the number of product platforms at its disposal (with the end-goal of narrowing them down to 10 ‘core’ platforms, Philips is intending to support configuring its luminaires in the latter stages of production.

Adams says: “We focused on building a vertically integrated ecosystem alongside our suppliers and customers in order to further shorten time from innovation to market, not to mention the lead time for order fulfilment. We also established alternative logistics models in order to shorten end to end lead times.”

Philips also utilises end-to-end analytics to manage trade-offs using total cost of ownership (TCO). Adams says: “We are designing

Additive manufacturing is being introduced as a key enabler to late stage configuration, and also as a way of producing low volume components on demand

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Neil Adams - Head of Operations Strategy

platforms based on an understanding of the total cost across a range of products versus peak design costs. This includes the total cost of ownership across the full value-chain. Plus changes to decision rights, KPI’s, and the governance model to make this happen.”

Not content with merely keeping up with the latest consumer and technological trends, Philips Lighting has shown through its sophisticated manufacturing strategy that delivering cost effective, locally relevant products can be achieved, while also leveraging economies of scale.

and Manufacturing

The latest in manufacturing technologies Looking to the integration of advanced manufacturing technologies, including additive manufacturing as part of the manufacturing, and product design process, Adams explained: “It can be used to make the whole luminaire as well as to enable late stage configuration; it can also be used to reduce obsolescence risk on low volume and non-common components.

“Additive also reduces costs in a number of areas: material costs are lower as a result of our ability to reduce the number of components; conversion costs are also lower, as it also knocks out 70 percent of the direct labour involved in producing a product.

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we have fewer people buying components so the procurement overhead also will fall significantly. From a marketing perspective it makes variety cost effective’’.

By deploying additive manufacturing on an industrial scale, Philips is able to utilise mass customisation, giving customers the opportunity to have some design input on the luminaires, since a much greater percentage can be made to order through this process.

This system also enables Philips to remove the constraint around component commonality; obsolescence also becomes much less of a threat since parts are produced on a more on-demand model rather than a forecast.

Philips is intending to support configuring its luminaires in the latter stages of production

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The recipe for

Written by: Lucy Dixo

or success

on Produced by: James Pepper

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A rich mix of innovation and evolution is in evidence at one of Spain’s oldest companies, as Business Review Europe reports

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ith almost 300 years of history producing sweets and chocolates, Confectionary Holding is one of Spain’s oldest companies. It has two manufacturing bases – one in Jijona (Alicante) and one in Alcaudete (Jaen) – as well as facilities in Chile and Morocco where it sources raw materials such as almonds. There are seven distinct brands within the group, producing a range that includes nougats, chocolates, truffles and marzipans.

Andrés Cortijos, the General Manager , describes the markets it operates in: “Spain is our biggest market with around 65 to 68 percent of our sales, and then our biggest foreign markets are South America, thanks to the similarities between our cultures,

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the southern states of the U.S and France, thanks to its geographical proximity.”

As well as its presence in these markets Confectionary Holding has also launched an online shop in the last few years, with over 35 percent of the sales in its first year of operation coming from international customers. The fact that 70 percent of purchasers order a mix of brands from the website is a particular highlight for the company which also reports that classic nougats and Christmas gift packs were the most popular products.

Confectionary Holding has been looking at promoting its presence in Eastern Europe, too, as well as exploring opportunities in Africa. And recently the group has started working with China, where local knowledge is key. Cortijos explains: “To make progress within the Chinese market, we have been working closely with our distributors to provide the right product portfolio for the customers. For example, having the wrong colour packaging could have meant that a product failed in China, so we have been able to make small adaptations using feedback from our distributors to improve our sales.”

All of this activity illustrates the group’s global vision – and the importance of its supply chain.

“Being agile as a company and in our supply chain is one of the pillars of our overall strategy,” says Cortijos, who also highlights that agility is particularly important thanks to its customers’ seasonal buying behaviour. “We have a very short

35% The percentage generated from international customer sales

The 1880 brand

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Christmas is the busiest time of the year for sales

period of time in the lead up to Christmas when we do the majority of our sales, so that agility within the supply chain is crucial to us.� Being able to change the levels of production in the workshops and adjusting the resources to the production demands as required is a balancing act, which Confectionary Holding is achieving by constantly working on improving its supply chain.

And achieving this would not be possible without effective working with people. Cortijos says: “We have put a lot of effort into working with the middle managers who are in charge of different products, geographical areas and key accounts. Working with these managers has

Almendras Llopis was founded in 1974 in San Vicente del Raspeig, Although its roots date back to 1923, when Llopis opened an almond shelling business in Alicante.

Our Company offer the international confectionary and the ice cream markets ingredients of the highest quality, guaranteeing compliance with production chain deadlines. Our main strong points are too be a benchmark of quality and partnership for the Industry, to remain committed to innovation,to be responsible with food safety, And to offer a product with a guarantee of sustainability, to achieve this goal throughout the supply chain.One of the features that sets us apart is that we have our own facilities and plantations in different locations across Spain.

In Almendras Llopis we attach great importance to the relationship with our customers. Therefore, from the outset and thanks to our strong family character, we have maintained a close relationship with each and every one of them. This confidence requires us to immediately adapt to market circumstances, so our team, consisting of more than 90 people and a group of seasonal specialists and technicians, working under quality guidelines designed to comply with all our guarantees.

Tel +34 965 66 12 62 | Fax +34 965 66 64 32 almendras@llopis.es | www.llopis.es

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Agility within the production process is crucial

been very important as they get the feedback that we need on how our business plan is working.

Then we can adapt our processes and adjust our strategy as necessary. We have trained this particular level of our staff so that our strategy can be implemented the most effectively.”

Again, this illustrates how flexible Confectionary Holding can be and how much it responds to the needs and demands of its customers.

“We need to be able to adjust our strategy periodically depending on the feedback we receive – our middle management are completely in touch with the reality of our business, so they enable us to do this very successfully.”

In fact, Cortijos believes that part of this success is because it operates with different

“We have a very short period of time in the lead up to Christmas when we do the majority of our sales” – Andrés Cortijos, General Manager

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Key Personnel

Andrés Cortijos

General Manager

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supply chains for each market and each client. “It can be complex, but we need to offer a segmented response,” he adds.

Another significant ingredient in Confectionary Holding’s recipe for success is its approach to innovation. Cortijos explains: “We have developed a process that involves assessing our innovation techniques and the parameters we use to judge it.

This is to avoid wasting resources on innovation projects that won’t go anywhere – because less than 10 percent of innovation actually makes it to the supermarket shelves so we have to make sure we get a return on our innovation investment.”

So new products are chosen very wisely and as a result of studying the feedback from the group’s existing customers. One example is that one of the premium brands, the 1880 range, is now available in single servings. “In response to our customers’ buying behaviour, we have introduced this product – with new packaging – which gives the consumers the chance to enjoy our products in smaller quantities, when they just want to enjoy a taste in a specific moment.”

Using technology – and ensuring it flows around each department – is another example of Confectionary Holding’s understanding of its customers’ needs.

“Before we had a lot of information about our markets – about the country or the sector in terms of big data – but we didn’t

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have effective tools to filter and classify this information. This is something we have improved this year,” says Cortijos. This information management has helped the company to orientate its supply chain in response.

The future for Confectionary Holding includes an expanded product portfolio, but Cortijos cannot divulge what this may include at this time.

He does give a little clue: “We are focused on confectionary but it’s true that we have developed a lot of technologies and knowledge during our 300-year history. Sometimes it’s a simple adaptation to produce another type of product.”

The 1880 range is one of the comapny’s premium brands

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The science of good food Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by James Pepper

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RICH SAUCES

Rich Sauces, the successful Northern Ireland supplier to the food industry, with a long established history in innovation and excellence has partnered with RS Cutting Edge to demonstrate that through innovation and a focus on quality, food can last longer, taste better and be more sustainably and profitably produced than ever before

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he story of Rich Sauces has a very Irish flavour to it, mixed with a dash of Northern Irish engineering and a never say die attitude. When Trevor Kells’ fish processing business collapsed in 1985, he went to work in his parents’ fish and chips shop in Belfast. It was his only option, says the man who describes himself as ‘unemployable and unbiddable’!

He wasn’t working there for long, however, before he realised the opportunity right under his nose. He and his mother Maud Kells had been working tirelessly to finalise the best recipe for their chip shop mayonnaise. Once completed, Trevor decided to apply his engineering skills to build a specialised machine in order to produce

Rich Sauces location in County Down, Northern Ireland

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commercial volumes of their product. His unique selling point in those early days was the ability to provide mayonnaise in industrial volumes that was consistently superior to what his customers could produce in their own kitchens. It would save them time and money and improve the quality of their product offerings, something that remains the core principal of the business to this day. This focus on his customers as well as a never say die attitude has led to Kells assuming a position of chairman, mentor and serial innovator in a closeknit family business, that today employs more than 60 people at its factory in Newtownards.

Rich Sauces has upward of 60 catering food suppliers throughout the UK and Ireland, and

60+ Number of jobs to be supported by Rich Sauces

d

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Rich Sauces has upward of 60 catering food suppliers throughout the UK and Ireland, and customers in the USA, the Middle East and continental Europe

customers in the USA, the Middle East and continental Europe, with its products being sold exclusively to food manufacturers and processors. Mayonnaise and its variants are still a stable of the range, which now extends to ketchups, uncooked highly flavoured sauces (another of the company’s proprietary technologies), bouillons and many more dressings and wholesale sauces, sold under the Rich Sauces brand or in the newer Alfees range.

Over 29 years Rich Sauces has built a firm relationship with its food service customers, thriving in a competitive market thanks to a focus on quality and customer benefit. “As with the first mayonnaise we sold, the end product is sold as our customers’, so they can’t afford to compromise on quality and consistency, and 192 December 2015

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our products are the best on the market,” says Trevor Kells. “We have a team of new product development (NPD) “chefnicians” who are all from a culinary background, and have developed a huge amount of Food Science expertise over the years. This means that they understand the importance of flavour, texture, aroma and all the things that the consumer appreciates but also have the technical ability to ensure this quality is present in the final products our customers receive.” According to his mother, Maud Kells, however, “despite all the clever people and expertise in the building here now, and in companies around the world, nobody has yet managed to improve on my original mayonnaise product; but I suppose quality is timeless!”

The Rich Sauces team works with the customer directly to develop an end product they want and in many cases even better than they imagined. Trevor cites the example of a retail customer who wanted to develop a range of boil-in-the-bag fish meals. As each type of fish behaves differently, sauces need to be created to maintain the quality of each fish component during the cooking process, leaving the final customer with consistent results every time.

Another customer is preparing twelve sandwiches for the Christmas season. Working with this customer’s preferred bread supplier, Rich Sauces created twelve menu design ideas with step-by-step procedures on how to implement them in-store, including training the

Rich Sauces created twelve menu design ideas with step-bystep procedures on how to implement them in-store

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The Rich Sauces team works with the customer directly to develop an end product they want and in many cases even better than they imagined

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staff. “We do a lot of extra service beyond just making the best sauces in the market,” says Kells, it’s a good illustration of how Rich Sauces guards the reputations of its customers”.

With 150 products in the catering food supplies range the product development needs of most food producers can be quickly met. All are manufactured at the company’s 55,000 square foot plant, which produces an average of 400 tonnes of product each week. “It is a fully ISO and BRC (British Retail Consortium) accredited site

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Key Personnel

Trevor Kells Chairman

and we have recently won an award for our focus on the environment and sustainability,� he adds.

The really exciting news from Rich Sauces was the creation of a partnership company at the end of 2014, a parallel business, RS Cutting Edge. This business was founded

by Trevor Kells and Dr Liam Ryan, a food scientist with many years of academic and industrial experience, who is passionate about developing and implementing novel technologies in a sustainable and cost effective way.

Trevor Kells has since founding Rich Sauces 29 years ago, been involved in every aspect of the business from developing the initial machine to produce the first mayonnaise, to developing the patent pending technology to allow a number of Rich Sauces products to be produced without cooking, thus maximising flavour delivery. Kells is currently the chairman, mentor and serial innovator/entrepreneur in a close-knit family business including his daughter Sarah, son Tim and son-in-law Clint.

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Technologies are continually being developed in-house to improve food quality at each stage of production

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The challenge of feeding the world’s growing population with the optimal use of resources, to ensure the cost effective and sustainable production of food is a major focus. Waste occurs at each stage of the production process all the way from the farm to people’s dinner tables, with one third or 1.3 billion tonnes of the food produced globally being lost or going to waste (United Nations Environment Programme, 2011).

Technologies are continually being developed in-house to improve food quality at each stage of production with the working relationship, with Rich Sauces and its senior management focusing these technologies on producing better quality food with longer life, at a lower final cost to the producer/consumer.

Recent attention internally has been on chewing gum biodegradability, the nutritional quality of foods and a solution to campylobacter on chicken, all of which cause many billions of pounds in problems every year in the UK and the wider world. In tandem with this, work is currently being performed on implementing some of RS Cutting Edge’s shelf life extension products in developing countries and with the University of Ulster, Coleraine, on the use of naturally occurring algae and seaweed as carbon neutral, sustainable food sources. There is also a large research programme underway to help remove some of the chemical additives currently found in foods on our supermarket shelves, replacing them with natural alternatives that perform as

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Rich Sauces is 90 percent based in the UK and Ireland

well, both functionally and commercially.

“One of the best things about Rich Sauces,” admits Liam Ryan, “is their ability to just get things done and to have fun doing it. Our engineering team is really quick to build the bespoke equipment we need to run trials, dramatically increasing our competitive advantage.”

Rich Sauces and RS Cutting Edge together will be a strong force in the global food market, says Trevor Kells. “We have developed a perfect partnership here. Rich Sauces is 90 percent based in the UK and Ireland, while the sales plan for RS Cutting Edge is global.

But the ultimate goal for both companies is to give competitive advantage to our clients and deliver the best possible end product.” w w w. r i c h s a u c e s . c o m

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THE POWER OF SIX A super grid in the Gulf Written by: John O’Hanlon Produced by: Richard Thomas

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The GCC Interconnection Authority is the body charged with keeping the lights on across the Middle East’s leading economies: we spoke to its CEO Ahmed Ali Al Ebrahim about the authority’s strategic role and some of its successes to date

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t was on 31 December 2001 that the six GCC Countries (Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman) agreed to establish the GCC Interconnection Authority (GCCIA) for the purpose of interlinking their power systems.

The authority had the backing of GCC leaders and the support of electricity and energy ministers. Though the shareholdings vary, each country has equal representation on the GCCIA board, with the chairmanship rotating every three years, so that no single country drives this initiative. Today the interconnector links the transmission networks of the member states on one unified super grid that spans around 1,200 kilometres of overhead lines and submarine cables.

By 2004 the tender documents for the project had been prepared for Phase 1 of the project connecting Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In 2005, a contract was awarded to the Canadian firm SNC-Lavalin to supervise number of projects. These included the construction of six ABB 400 kV gas insulated high efficiency substations, a high voltage direct current (HVDC) converter station, the installation

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of 830 kilometres of double-circuit 400 kV transmission lines, and 47 kilometres of land and submarine cable. The company also supervised the construction of a central protection, telecommunications and control centre.

This was the first-ever project in the Middle East to use HVDC technology, which enables power to flow between Saudi Arabia, which operates a 60 hertz grid, and the other five states, which operate at 50 hertz. The HVDC station is also the largest of its kind in the world.

Work started early in 2006, and it was months later that Ahmed Ali Al Ebrahim, bringing with him more than 20 years’ experience in power systems and infrastructure projects planning, joined the authority as Director of Operations, Maintenance and Market Operations. “I had to establish processes from scratch, recruit the people, set out processes, rules and operating procedures, as well as be deeply involved in all technical aspects and tests of the project to ensure its successful

Key Personnel

Ahmed Ali Al-Ebrahim CEO Ahmed Ali Al-Ebrahim is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GCC Interconnection Authority. He has more than 28 years’ experience in power systems as well as infrastructure projects planning. Al Ebrahim holds an MBA from DePaul University, USA and an MSc in Electrical Power Engineering the University of Strathclyde, Scotland as well as a BSc in Electrical Power Engineering from the University of Texas

GCC INTERCONNECTION AUTHORITY

HVDC (high-voltage direct current) module is a highly efficient alternative for transmitting large amounts of electricity over long distances and for special purpose applications

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completion” he recalls.

“It has been a long journey, always presenting new challenges.” The organisation he leads is lean, with just 67 employees, all highly experienced and qualified. The authority works on what he calls the ‘informed client’ model, outsourcing maintenance work to the most reliable contractors, while keeping full control of core operations. “This model has proved very flexible and very economically effective,” he adds.

There was no precedent to follow. “The only comparable system is the Sistema de Interconexión Eléctrica de los Países de América Central (SIEPAC) being installed to link six Central American countries but our

GCCIA 3rd Forum on Power Trade

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Omexom - an international network operating across the Power & Grid chain Omexom is the brand of VINCI Energies dedicated to Power and Grid solutions. Omexom delivers an impressive range of business lines and services to our Power customers around the world: from generation through to substation, transmission and distribution infrastructures.

With its close-knit network of 1,500 business units, VINCI Energies is now a leading provider of energy and information technology services in Europe and throughout the world.

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Our unique expertise makes us the preferred choice for electricity producers, grid operators and managers, large power equipment managers and power-intensive industries.

Every day, our 250 Business Units operating in more than 40 countries with a 12,000-strong global workforce designs and builds the power infrastructures of tomorrow, while maintaining and upgrading those of today.

As an integrator in the energy sector, we support all our customers with complex project management and turnkey solutions. We also supply innovative offerings to manage more conventional development and maintenance projects.

Overhead Lines Maintenance

A key player on the middle east market Omexom Saudi has been providing maintenance services for the Gulf Cooperation Council Interconnection Authority’s assets for the last 4 years, in all GCC countries.

With dedicated and professional teams maintaining GCCIA’s 400kV substations and overhead lines, Omexom operates in all the GCC countries and is expanding into the design and construction of electrical infrastructure: greenfield, extensions, deviations and upgrades in the generation, transmission and distribution fields.

Thanks to the power and skills of the brand network, Omexom can supply a complete offer on the Power & Grid Market and follow its customers all over the world.

Operating in over 50 countries, including 30 outside Europe, VINCI Energies employs 63,000 people and generated revenues of €9.3 billion in 2014.

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A major actor in the Power & Grid market, Omexom delivers an impressive range of business lines and services to our Power customers around the world: from generation through to substation, transmission and distribution infrastructures. Our unique expertise makes us the preferred choice for electricity producers, grid operators and managers, large power equipment managers and power-intensive industries.

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As an integrator in the energy sector, we support all our customers with complex project management and turnkey solutions. We also supply innovative offerings to manage more conventional development and maintenance projects. Our proactive growth strategy has positioned us as a leader in the Power & Grid market. In 2015, Omexom generated 2 billion Euros in revenue, a ten-fold increase in just 10 years.

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GCC INTERCONNECTION AUTHORITY

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“By the end of 2011 we had all six member states interconnected, so since that time we’ve been operating as a single GCC grid for practical purposes” – Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, GCCIA CEO

organisation is much bigger in terms of capacity, the technology that is employed and the size of the systems that we are using,” he explains.

The first substation was commissioned in Kuwait early in 2009, and part of the system went live in the summer of that year. Connecting four previously separate grids. “By the end of 2011 we had all six member states interconnected, so since that time we’ve been operating as a single GCC grid for practical purposes.”

To give an idea of what that meant on the ground, blackouts that in the noughties were something that the Gulf States had grown used to living with became a thing of the past. Since 2009 more than 1,300 potential outages have been prevented through instantaneous intervention by the GCCIA and by the very existence of the interconnector as a regional backbone.

“Consumers would not even have noticed these incidents”, he says. Critical utilities like hospitals and factories have benefited immeasurably.

When something does go wrong, it can be quickly diagnosed remotely from the control centre or even by online engineers

67 The number of staff employed

by GCC Interconnection Authority

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“We are looking forward to creating a GCC power market with all six member states participating” – Ahmed Ali Al-Ebrahim

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on the spot, logging in on laptops or handheld devices. In the early days, an outage had to be checked manually, now it is electronically identified and quickly fixed.

“The people in the control centre can have a real time view of what’s happening. We are utilising lots of modern smart technologies, like drones that fly above the overhead line with a camera and can pinpoint the problem, and infrared cameras to detect any kind of hotspot.

“On-line diagnostics can also pinpoint the site of faults on 100s of kilometre of overhead lines to be within few hundred meters. That really speeds up attendance of any faults and repairs. Delivery of a reliable supply in 2009 saw the achievement

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of the first objective, says Al Ebrahim. “Now we are in a new phase of optimisation and improving the reliability of the grid, something we cannot compromise on! Also, we are looking to maximise the economic benefits from the connector by developing more opportunities for power trading. Eventually we are looking forward to creating a GCC power market with all six member states participating.�

In short, if reliability is the number one thing GCC citizens want from their utilities, cost effectiveness is the next. GCCIA can lead the creation of a common energy market to achieve the lowest-cost generation. A bilateral trading system currently gives countries

Salwa control room

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Established in 1976 under the name of Saudi Swiss Electro Mechanic Works Co. Ltd. Since its inception in 1976, SSEM has established itself as one of the leading Saudi companies in the turnkey execution of large and diverse construction projects as EPC contractor in power, water, and industrial projects.

Classified as Grade 1 for Electrical, Mechanical and Water & Waste Water Projects in addition to 4th in Civil Works by the Saudi Department of Classification Services • Power Generation, Transmission and Distribution for Overhead Transmission Lines, Substations and Underground Cables.

• Water Treatment, Transmission and Pumping Stations.

• Electrical and Mechanical Services for Industrial, Petrochemical, Commercial and Housing • Operation and Maintenance.

Tel +966-11-4625511 | Fax +966-11-4627804 | Web www.ssem.com.sa | Email ssem@ssem.com.sa

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“Most of the telecoms operators in the GCC are connected with us, and they find our fibre optic network much more reliable than conventional telecom networks” – Ahmed Al-Ebrahim, GCCIA CEO

visibility over capacity in other member states and enables them to place bids using yearly, monthly or daily options. “We are looking to maximise the revenues we make in order to reduce the annual connection fees we currently take from the member states.”

That can be done in several ways. Power is not the only commodity the interconnector carries.

The network has been built to carry fibre optic cables to enable reliable telecommunications needed for core operations of the grid. GCCIA got permission of telecom regulators in the GCC to lease additional spare fibres to licensed operators for data and telecommunications, and these cables sit at the top of the towers, up to 100 metres above ground and safe from accidental or malicious interference – they haven’t been interrupted since operations began, providing very reliable telecom network for commercial telecom operators.

“We contribute to the economy of the GCC by improving telecom services. Most of the telecoms operators in the GCC are connected with us, and they find our fibre optic network

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Electrical engineer onsite at Fadhil

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much more reliable than conventional telecom networks that are subject to regular interruptions.”

With the GCC electricity market unified, the next step is energy trading beyond its borders, potentially a big earner. In the past the GCC countries have exchanged small amounts of power with its neighbours, to meet emergency shortages, but in the last three years there have been no trade exchanges whatever. “We are not happy about that and mean to change it! There are huge economic opportunities for the GCC countries to grab” declares Al Ebrahim. “We

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intend to develop economic power trading.”

There are big savings to be made here, and GCCIA has estimated this market could be worth $27 billion over 25 years.

Even with enough domestic generation capacity, a more sophisticated system will ultimately enable countries beyond the GCC to balance energy demand and supply, and at the same time save fuel and reduce the environmental impact of power generation.

Energy trading is a long term goal. A more immediate project, currently at the tender stage, is the GCC High Voltage Test Lab being built in the east of Saudi Arabia. “The power utilities have to send equipment overseas for testing after repair or maintenance, which is costly. The lab’s an excellent example of the kind of business opportunity we are seeking, related to our business and with real benefit to the GCC countries, and we are currently 5 percent shareholders.”

Energy efficiency is difficult to assess in the GCC, where the market is skewed by varying rates of subsidy. This gets in the way of real economic trading, based on ‘real’ prices.

Ahmed Al Ebrahim wants to work towards a fair pricing model that can be used by all and that would really encourage power trading between the GCC nations. January 2015 sees GCCIA’s next Forum which will focus on reforming energy pricing in the GCC.

High voltage tower on the Fadhili site

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Superior service Written by Lucy Dixon Produced by Heykel Ouni

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Anticipating their customers’ needs is the thread running through Karam Fedics Services

Head office in Al Khobar

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ith decades of industry knowledge and technical expertise behind it, Karam Fedics Services has quickly become a leading provider of life support services in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Created in 2009 – with the backing of the Tsebo Outsourcing Group, Africa’s largest provider of life support and facility services in South Africa and Xenel in Saudi Arabia – Karam Fedics Services offers catering, laundry, housekeeping, camp management and much more at oil and gas sites – onshore and offshore – throughout the region. Managing the villages involves, says General Manager Hamid Khan, creating a home-from-home environment for the staff who will be living there. The sites are usually in a remote location, so there needs to be WiFi capability so that the residents can keep in

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touch with loved ones back home. “These guys, often ex-pats, are coming to the Kingdom on a three- or five-year contract, so we try to create an environment which is conducive for them to have a bit of rest and relaxation when they get the opportunity. It’s very important to have that because they are away from their families, so we really try to take care of them,” he explains.

And Karam Fedics Services is now diversifying into other markets says Khan: “Currently, most of the companies we work with are oil and gas, but as the dynamics change, we have to look at ways of creating different offerings, rather than just one or two. There is construction, hospitals, government business and education, for example.”

The dynamics he refers to are, of course, the current pressures in the oil and gas industry, which has led the company to venture into other markets, including government contracts, which has involved a lengthy audit process. Khan says: “We are on the verge of getting our government classification certificate following successful audits by the relevant authorities recently. . Once that happens, it opens up a whole new avenue of opportunities for us – hospitals, education, military, and prisons. And if you win a government tender, and you need 1,000 staff, the visa application process goes much more swiftly.”

Another way the company is managing the impact of the oil price drops is by working closely with its supply chain to ensure they are making the most of economies of scale. Khan says: “We have

The team

Hamid Khan, General Manager

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‘The high quality service is the same across all of the company’s sites, because of this central way of managing the specification and standards’

a central distribution system. Everything we need gets bought in and brought in to our warehouse, where it is processed and then distributed to the various sites. We are not going to have different camps ordering at different prices, it’s more costeffective if it all goes through our central system.”

As well as cutting costs, this system also means that Karam Fedics Services can keep a close eye on the quality of goods it receives. “If a supplier delivers to a site and that particular manager is not really switched on to look for the quality and so forth, they could easily get a product that might be substandard – whereas if it comes through our warehousing and distribution, we can manage

Shahzad Zafar Group of Companies

Shahzad Zafar Group of Companies started its operation in Bahrain since 2007 and 2009 in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and expanded in year 2013-2014. The company has been recognized by its large scale and wide variety of Import/Export and Sale of Food Stuffs (Fruits, Vegetables & Crops, Dairy, Frozen Goods), Non- Alcoholic Drinks and General Mercantile.

A sole distributor of Unifrutti Products in KSA and Bahrain and a sole distributor of Monviso Water bottles in GCC. Moreover, the company is also a distributor of Delizia products, Dellaves, Anchor Brand & Chiquita in KSA. Thus, Unifrutti became a benchmark for the company’s excellent quality products. Goods are being imported from Chile, South Africa, Italy, Pakistan, and USA. Dairy & frozen products are being imported from Brazil, India, and Australia. The company uses its own build structured Coldstorage rooms in Dammam with controlled temperatures securing each product and maintaining its freshness.

The company is one of the established in logistics and transportation with its largest fleet. Each carrier is ensured with high quality and sensitivity of products while delivering to customers, especially fruits and frozen goods.

Tel +966 13 8476884 Email rizwan_hamza2002@yahoo.com 218 December 2015

We Sell Fresh Fruit And Vegetables YOUSUF NASSER AL MEFRAS TRD EST PO No. 2739, dammam 31463, Saudi Arabia Mobile 00966555861394

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Management team

that process as well,” Khan says. The high quality service is the same across all of the company’s sites, because of this central way of managing the specification and standards.

One big difference is the offshore sites because they, clearly, have a separate set of challenges due to the fact Karam Fedics Services is not on site.

Khan explains: “We deliver our product to the port in a refrigerated container and then it gets loaded onto a boat to get taken out – that process we don’t manage so we have to rely on the rig management team to ensure everything is delivered on time and at the right temperatures.” For this reason, the team look for products with a long shelf life, such as hardier vegetables. “We have introduced vacuum sealing as well and we are looking at a future stage

915 Number of jobs to be supported

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Hamid Khan, General Manager

“We are hands on and see the clients on a regular basis, so we know up front if there is an issue bubbling underneath the surface and we can deal with it straight away”

to introduce CO2 into this to further extend the shelf life of some products,” Khan adds.

Back on land, each site has a manager who is in contact with the client on a daily basis. This feedback is crucial for Karam Fedics Services and is part of a wider programme of listening to its customers’ needs and opinions. Khan says: “For every 10 sites, we’ve got a supervisor who also liaises with our clients. And then we have a customer relationship management tool which, through an outside supplier, will phone clients at random just to get feedback on how the service is.

And finally, on each site, we have communication boxes that people fill so we get feedback from the actual customers on site as well.”

Khan himself, along with the operations director and the operations team, also keeps pretty close to the action. “We are hands on and see the clients

– Hamid Khan, General Manager Human Resources & Government Relations Dept.

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Imtiaz Shah, Supply

Mohammed Mohsin,

Frank Iddon, Director

Chain Director

Chief Accountant

- Operations and Business Development

on a regular basis, so we know up front if there is an issue bubbling underneath the surface and we can deal with it straight away. Listening to feedback is absolutely essential, because it’s pointless providing a service that people are unhappy with.”

The company employs around 915 people – this has doubled since it started in 2009 – and sourcing staff with the right level of expertise is key to its success. “We make sure we have the right quality people with the right sort of skills but, more importantly, we make sure there are mechanisms in place to retain them. We listen to their requirements, make sure there is career progression and that there is no mismatch between the job and the actual individual. We believe in investing in our staff so that they are driven to provide superior service to our customers. As such we retain staff and keep our clients satisfied,” Khan concludes.

Mubarak Saad Al-Ajmi, Admin. Manager and Legal Affaris

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ADC Energy Systems is switched on for development Written by: Sheree Hanna Produced by: Richard Thomas

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As a leading Engineering, Construction and Procurement contractor the company is exploring growth opportunities across the GCC and beyond

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DC Energy Systems, based in Dubai, is building on its expertise gained over a successful 10 years in business by seeking to grow not only its capabilities, but also its geographical reach.

The company, which has reached AED 1.7 billion turnover since its inception in 2005, is a turnkey contractor for Cooling Plants, Energy Services, Grain Handling and Infrastructure.

The EPC (Engineering, Construction and Procurement) contractor has been awarded over 20 district cooling plants during that period and is currently working on bringing to completion six plants by the end of 2015 and into the first half of 2016 within the GCC region.

ADC built its first district cooling plant for Dubai’s iconic development The Palm Jumeirah, the palm-tree shaped, manmade island, which is home to a number of luxurious hotels and holiday accommodations including the five-star Atlantis Hotel.

CEO Ibrahim Sleiman said: “This was the first major project we won through our partnership approach and since then there have been almost 20 projects scattered between Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates, and other GCC countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

District data Collectively, to date the district cooling plants generate a total cooling capacity nearing 600,000 tons of refrigeration; its sub-stations are designed

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District Cooling Plant

and equipped for 450MW and its cooling impact may reach up to some 240 million square feet of occupied space. They have a total combined footprint of about 26,000 square metres and serve seven leading utility developers and operators, as well as master developers within the GCC region.

With some 200 professionals on board, along with a 350-core construction team, Sleiman explained that ADC is keen to further explore its capabilities throughout its energy services division, and new sectors like Renewable Energy.

The forward-thinking company is also looking at how it can further utilise the renewables sector in a

62.5m The amount of Revenue in USD generated

by ADC Energy Systems in 2014

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bid to bring greater efficiencies and benefits for not just its customers, but also for the environment.

Exciting times are ahead in the GCC region with events such as the World Expo 2020 to be hosted in Dubai and the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

All of these are opportunities that ADC is keen to exploit and is already involved in, or pitching for the business they are creating. The company is in the finishing stages of completing a new district cooling plant in Qatar’s $45 billion, ambitious and ground-breaking new town development of Lusail, which is being purpose-built to cope with the demands the World Cup is expected to generate.

ADC Energy Systems is looking at further opportunities in Jordan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to produce the larger 100 megawatt plants

Powering on First and foremost, ADC, building on its wealth of experience in Engineering, Procurement and Construction and as a natural growth from the District Cooling sector, through its Energy Services arm is currently looking at how it can develop Combined Cooling Heating & Power (CCHP) schemes.

For this purpose, ADC is targeting industrial and institutional clients whose connectivity to the main grid or need for back-up power in addition to their requirements for comfort or process cooling and heating qualify them as attractive prospects for CCHP schemes.

Sleiman said: “District cooling systems are very efficient, but they are intensive power users of the national grid with an average 4050 megawatts per plant. Through the power w w w. a d c e n e r g y s y s t e m s . c o m

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generation, transmission and distribution cycle, there is a lot of energy wastage with nearly -60 percent of the original energy source lost.

“So that is not very efficient and what we want to do with CCHP is to produce the energy where you need it by combining your power generation with your cooling/heating requirements in one plant and optimise the production of the power side by capturing the waste heat wherever you produce power.

“By so doing, we can almost increase the effectiveness of the energy source from 35-40 percent up to 75 percent or maybe even higher.”

Sleiman was keen to point out that ADC is not pursuing pure power production, but targeting the sector of distributed energy plants which deliver energy at the point of use.

Exploring renewables Another strategic focus for the company is the use of renewable energy sources such as solar panels and the company is currently investigating the use of Concentrated Solar Panels.

“The reason we still use fossil fuel for our plants is that with solar energy plants you need a lot of space which is hard to find in urban areas,” said Sleiman. “So for now we are concentrating on smaller-scale solar plants. We are looking to participate in an Egyptian set of tenders which will come out shortly, which will range between 20 and 30 megawatts of power production.

“We also anticipate to a smaller extent that there

Mr. Ibrahim Sleiman - CEO

Mr. Khalil Issa - MD

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“The forwardthinking company is also looking at how it can further utilise the renewables sector in a bid to bring greater efficiencies and benefits for not just its customers, but also for the environment.”

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will be further opportunities from Jordan and Kuwait, and with Saudi Arabia much larger 100 megawatt plants which we will target in due time.

“As a leading and specialised EPC contractor, we are able to team up with international EPC contractors and technology providers to work hand-in-hand on the implementation of such projects.”

New frontiers

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Geographically speaking, ADC has already qualified and participated in tenders as far afield as Algeria to the North and eastwards as far as India and Bangladesh for its grain handling business.

Huge infrastructure growth in Saudi Arabia means ADC has its hand firmly on that tiller.

Sleiman said: “There is huge opportunity in Saudi at the moment and when you add up all the other GCC countries, Saudi can

Qatar’s $45 billion new district cooling plant

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Our CCHP strategy is a natural outgrowth of our district cooling plants to second generation cooling/thermal energy plants and moving into renewables.

equalise if not exceed the development of all of them put together pending more regional stability in terms of security and oil prices. “There are essentially two prongs to our growth, one is expansion horizontally by pushing our CCHP strategy which is a natural outgrowth of our district cooling plants to 232

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second generation cooling/thermal energy plants and moving into renewables. “The second is location wise, expanding beyond our core markets to tackle projects in the wider GCC as well as in North Africa and potentially central African countries, where we are bidding for a few projects right now.� w w w. a d c e n e r g y s y s t e m s . c o m

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Making mining work In challenging market conditions, the European mining industry still has an important role to play Written by: Lucy Dixon Produced by: James Pepper 235

B R I T I S H F L U O R S PA R

Stope drawpoint

T

Processing minerals

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he struggles of the mining industry have certainly been in the headlines lately and Peter Robinson, Chairman of British Fluorspar, acknowledges that mining is currently a tough place to be. He says: “All mineral commodities, with the exception of gold, have come from a very high place in terms of demand and price to a massive low. So suddenly there’s not the demand or the price for our mineral products that there was a year ago.” But although Robinson recognises that challenging market conditions are likely to be around for the foreseeable future, he also wants to point out that the industry is far from over.

“The world and society need mineral products,

MINING

so the mining industry isn’t finished – this is only a self-correction. The human race needs raw materials and it’s a question, really, of where they come from and at what price – and then the mining industry has got to adapt. Some mines will go through this, some will not, and new mining projects will emerge.”

Fluorspar is, Robinson explains, a small, industrial mineral. And it’s a very important one that we use every day, without even realising.

“Fluorspar is the raw material that makes fluorochemicals, which then go into things like air conditioning units, refrigeration gases, the non-stick in your frying pan if you have a fry-up, and there’s a whole heap of other

“The human race needs raw materials and it’s a question, really, of where they come from and at what price” – Peter Robinson, Chairman of British Fluorspar

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B R I T I S H F L U O R S PA R

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MINING

Drilling at Mildam mine

everyday uses. And there is no economically viable replacement.” Robinson is talking not long after giving a presentation at the Fluorspar Mining Conference in Morocco, where he took the opportunity to underline the importance of maintaining European suppliers of the mineral, despite strong competition from the Far East, Africa and Central America. He says: “I think there’s a strong argument to say there needs to be a balance, and it would not be good for Europe if it didn’t produce any of its own raw materials and it became dependent purely upon imports.”

Despite pressures from non-EU suppliers, Robinson is confident that British Fluorspar is making the necessary adaptations to cement its place in the industry. He says: “We are one of the last three or four producers in the EU producing Fluorspar, so I’ve been looking at

Underground mining

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how we operate sustainable mining operations and we are now moving back to an underground mining model from an open pit mining model for producing our ore.� In essence, Robinson says, it is proving more cost-effective to return to an underground mining model, largely due to the costs and delays of legislation and permits required for EU-based open pit operations, which had always traditionally seen lower costs per tonne. The balance has been shifting towards underground mining, particularly with the use of modern underground mining equipment. “In

MINING

Ore loading

tougher market conditions we have to develop new technology and improve the equipment we use. We have an equipment partnership with Atlas Copco and it is developing ever-increasing ranges of more efficient, cost-effective, fuelefficient and quieter equipment, with less impact on the environment,� says Robinson.

He also thinks that European governments are now on the same page when it comes to supporting their mining industries. “I think there is a recognition in Brussels now that there needs to be European support for the rejuvenation of

Processing plant

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Key Personnel Peter Robinson Chairman Peter is a Mining Engineer with over 30 years’ experience in management in the mining industry, particularly at executive level, involved in project management and strategic and development planning. He was CEO and principal shareholder of Glebe Mines Ltd which mined vein minerals in the environmentally sensitive Peak District National Park. He has worked in the Australian and South African mining industry as well as in Europe and was at the forefront of regeneration of redundant brownfield land resulting from the coal mine/power station closure programmes. During 2012 he was appointed Chairman of British Fluorspar Limited. In 2015 Peter was also appointed Non-Executive Director of Metalfer Mining, a Serbian mining company with operations in the Balkans and a Supervisory Board Member of FAME which is an EU funded mineral processing research and development body.

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mining in European industry. We’ve gone through a generation of closures. Here in the UK, we’ve gone from having a coal mine just about outside everyone’s bedroom window in the North to having virtually no underground coal mining left.” The revival of the mining industry in Europe could provide much needed employment in these traditional mining towns and villages.

One of the challenges for British Fluorspar is that its operations are in the Peak District National Park, a protected part of the UK. Robinson says: “The big difference between the Peak District and other national parks is that we are in a living community – it’s full of people – and a lot of them prize the old mining villages, which are now seen as the desired location to retire.

That brings tension in itself, because incomers want mining to be put into a museum. But taking that dimension aside, there is a huge responsibility on continuing mining, particularly

Fluorspar ore

“It would not be good for Europe if it didn’t produce any of its own raw materials and it became dependent purely upon imports.”

– Peter Robinson, Chairman of British Fluorspar

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B R I T I S H F L U O R S PA R Open pit restoration operations in progress

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for us, in arguably one of our most important national parks. We have to look very carefully at the impact and relationships we have with the local community and the landscape.”

In response to those with concerns about mining’s effect on the environment, Robinson points out that it is only a temporary land use – the land is simply borrowed to extract the mineral.

“We’re undertaking an activity that people are fundamentally suspicious of and therefore we’ve got to build bridges and demonstrate that we can be an acceptable part of the local community and then contribute accordingly,” he says. And

MINING

the landscape is, in fact, protected for future generations. Robinson adds: “Since Roman times, people like me have been digging holes in the land to get the minerals. I don’t apologise that I dig holes in a national park, but I have a responsibility for how I dig the holes, the impact I have on the local community whilst I’m digging the holes, and basically how I leave the holes when I’m finished. The next generation of mining has got to be ever more sustainable and look at the total process, including planning for closure at the outset. And that’s what we’re doing here in the national park - we’re at the forefront.”

Drilling and blasting

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Growing in th

he UAE

Written by Nye Longman Produced by Craig Daniels

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JANNAH HOTELS

The hospitality company is experiencing massive growth while looking to further diversify its revenue base

Eastern Mangroves suites - rooftop swimming pool

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S

ince the first Jannah hotel opened in Abu Dhabi in 2013 the company has been on a strong growth footing and has also been looking at innovative ways to drive value for its customers and stakeholders. Alongside increasing the number and range of its hotels, the company is pursuing a number of technological and business initiatives in order to grow its revenue base and broaden its market offering.

Today Jannah Hotels manages assets of roughly 1.8 billion dirhams, but is seeking to increase this to as much as three billion in the next two years.

Operations Having built their careers in the hospitality industry in various senior positions around the world, CEO Nehme Darwiche and a group of likeminded professionals established the first hotel in 2013. Having built a strong brand based on local values, the business managed to acquire a strategic backer who enabled it to leverage significant

H O S P I TA L I T Y

The lobby in Dubai

capital and construct another four hotels spread between Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

While both both cities are no strangers to luxury hotels, Jannah has worked hard to secure a number of industry firsts in order to offer travellers travellers truly unique experiences in an already unique part of the world.

Darwiche explains that the company’s dedication to its guests was the best example of this: “We introduced the first butler service in Abu Dhabi and we called it Karim which means generous in Arabic; we make sure that all of these butlers are highly trained. This is key to why we get so much return business.”

Jannah’s Burj Al Sarab resort also made news for introducing the first hotel range of mini bar items set at ‘street prices’ in the UAE (and

500 Number of employees at Jannah Hotels

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JANNAH HOTELS

‘Today the company manages assets of roughly 1.8 billion dirhams, but is seeking to increase this to as much as three billion in the next two years’

probably for much of the rest of the world!).

He also says that, having gone through the full cycle of constructing its first hotel, the company was in a strong position with both its go-to construction company and its consultants, not to mention comfortable delivering this in the UAE, whose government has been helpful.

Diversification Darwiche highlights the fact that Jannah had not behaved in the same way as its competitors in the market: “We did not wait.

There are other established companies that are more mature; they have been established

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H O S P I TA L I T Y

Jannah Place Dubai Marina - Rooftop Pool

for, say, over 15 years. We will expand to have 33 hotels in the next five years.�

He also explains that the business had diversified into several different brands which covered a variety of hotel types and that this was where its competitors frequently fell short: “They only start with one brand and then ten years later they realise that the consumer is not experiencing the same level of service across the hotels. We diversified our brand portfolio, so that we have something that a variety of guests can connect to.�

Alongside eyeing territorial expansion in Morocco and Algeria in the next 12 months, Darwiche notes that the company had acquired an online room booking firm, similar to Air B&B, predicting a rise in this form of rental in the future. The company has also

Jannah Place Dubai Marina - Jannah Two Bedroom Suite

Jannah Burj Al Sarab Bathroom

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“We approach efficiency from a very scientific point of view. We were amongst some of the first to use solar panels to heat our hotels’ water; we know how to design our receptions and buildings to be easy to maintain and easy to access” – Nehme Darwiche, CEO and founder

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established a laundry and dry cleaning service with a unique vision: to become the first global leader providing this service. It also owns its own housekeeping business.

Smart hotels Always keen to crest the wave, the company has pioneered innovative technological solutions across the board, both big and small.

Jannah’s Burj Al Sarab was also the first smart hotel to be built in Abu Dhabi and will be used as a benchmark for future developments.

Darwiche says: “We are looking to roll this technology out across all of our hotels. One day soon you will be able to control almost everything, from the curtains, TV, coffee machine and bath tub, to the room temperature and the shower.

You won’t even need to pick up the phone. We are also looking to provide the world’s fastest hotel Wi-Fi which will hopefully be recorded by Guinness World Records once it has been delivered.”

Having ensured its

H O S P I TA L I T Y

hotel rooms will eventually rank among some of the most high tech in the world, Darwiche and his management team have drilled down to the smallest details of the business in search of efficiency savings. Everything from its cleaning chemicals to its carpets have been analysed so that they can be used optimally in order to save time, effort and stress.

He says: “We approach efficiency from a very scientific point of view. We were among some of the first to use solar panels to heat our hotels’ water; we know how to design our receptions and buildings to be easy to maintain and easy to access.”

Having the confidence to set its own course in a highly competitive market has already reaped benefits for this young hospitality company; approaching its growth prospects from a number of interesting and unique directions has ensured that Jannah Hotels’ place in the UAE market is firmly cemented for many years to come.

1.8bn

Dirhams The value of real estate assets owned by the Jannah Hotels group

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Making projects happ Written by John O’Hanlon Produced by Jordan Platten

pen in the Gulf and beyond 255

KBR

Yemen LNG is the first natural gas liquefaction project in Yemen

When it comes to delivering major project management for construction, industry and governments KBR is known across the world: right now though it has a particular focus in the Middle East Region (MENA) 256

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K

BR has a long and distinguished history as a contracting engineering and construction company. Its antecedent companies MW Kellogg and Brown & Root date back to the early 20th century, and though they did not merge until 1998 these are the names still indelibly etched in the consciousness of the worldwide contracting sector. Today’s KBR was formed in 2006 when it spun out from Halliburton and floated on the New York Stock Exchange.

In mid-2014, KBR streamlined its operations to focus on core strengths as a technology, engineering, procurement and construction company serving the global hydrocarbons and government services industries. Its three distinct global businesses: Technology &

CONSTRUCTION

Consulting; Engineering & Construction; and Government Services, are all in evidence as KBR seeks to lead the field in contracting and consulting, however the Middle East is currently offering a key set of opportunities.

Over the years KBR has been involved in many projects in the Middle East region, largely as a global operator working out of its Houston, Texas headquarters; and its London Operating Centre. Right now, that is all changing, and KBR is pursuing a strategy of getting a whole lot closer to each of the countries in the region. A key move was the appointment in March 2015 of Jay Ibrahim, a Lebanese-born American, to the post of President, Engineering & Construction, Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Ibrahim now leads KBR’s expansion in the region, in upstream, midstream and downstream projects.

Prices and producers The current slump in hydrocarbon prices is a constraining factor on oil producers wherever they are, admits Graham Hill, KBR’s recently appointed Executive Vice President responsible for Global Business Development and Strategy. But that’s not the whole story.

“People think the industry comes to a halt as a result. It does not!” he insists, and with 38 years of contracting experience in global hydrocarbons, his analysis is worth listening to.

“As the oil price falls, priority is given to those areas of the world where operators

The Yemen LNG plant is located in Balhaf

25k Number of staff employed

by KBR

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We Make It Happen For You

IMI is a leader in providing technical assistance. IMI offers our clients partners an array of services, ranging from the supply of engineers and work force on Industrial, oil and gas and construction work sites throu the world to training and maintenance. IMI is established in 22 countr

and d skilled ughout ries.

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As the leading global provider of technical assistance and recruitment for the EPC and oil & gas industry for over 40 years, IMI is established in 22 countries.

With an array of services ranging from the supply of skilled workforce on Industrial work sites around the world to training and global maintenance, we are dedicated to offering the superior global resources and comprehensive solutions to our clients and partners. As an integrated company, IMI strives to provide the most cost effective and schedule sensitive technical solution in the challenging oil & gas industry.

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KBR

can still make money at the prevailing market rates. We must not forget that the cheapest oil in the world is produced from onshore oil production in the Middle East.� Their offshore oil is also relatively cheap because the waters are shallow and benign. The rest of the world is producing oil from deep and hostile waters, fields a long way from shore, using extensive subsea techniques and complex equipment like FPSOs, often in hostile conditions. “Beyond accessibility and proximity lies capacity. Look forward a century, and whatever progress renewables have made there will still be a demand for hydrocarbons. Where will these be found? Many oilfields will have come and gone but the one territory that will be still there

CONSTRUCTION

SEGAS LNG is a liquefied natural gas complex in Damietta, Egypt

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KBR

SEGAS LNG is a liquefied natural gas complex in Damietta, Egypt

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in ‘the endgame’ will be the Middle East”.

“There’s a lot of talk about shale,” he continues, pre-empting the inevitable question, “but shale is relatively expensive to produce, especially if you’re not in the USA. There they have the pipeline and road infrastructure to support it but in other places, the logistics both of production and delivery to the market are daunting, even if you can get past the environmental and social hurdles we all know about.”

Jay Ibrahim does not think the oil price is a major issue for his clients. It’s more a matter of the ‘social burden’ that is placed on oil revenues, in countries that by and large lack other sources

CONSTRUCTION

of foreign exchange. That means anything from infrastructure to health and education.

“Though the cost of production, and the social burden vary from country to country, with costs typically under $20 a barrel, most Middle East countries claim there is about $50 per barrel social burden. This means that, for most of the countries, $60-80 is their breakeven point.”

So at the current prices, fluctuating between $40 and $50 per barrel, something has to give, as manifested in the June decision to shelve the 11 regional football stadia that Saudi Arabia is planning to build. “They are also sweating their facilities to get more out

“Though the cost of production, and the social burden vary from country to country, with costs typically under $20 a barrel, most Middle East countries claim there is about $50 per barrel social burden” – Jay Ibrahim, President, Engineering and Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

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At Koch-Glitsch the culture of innovation has been going strong for more than 100 years. As a global leader in the design, manufacture, and supply of a complete line of mass transfer and separations technology equipment, Koch-Glitsch has extensive knowledge and experience in the refining, chemical, petrochemical, gas processing, pharmaceutical and other specialty industries.

On a daily basis, Koch-Glitsch engineers assist plant operators in addressing concerns with energy efficiency, product purity, operation reliability and the environmental impact of processing operations.

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John Zink Hamworthy Combustion is a global leader in emissionscontrol and clean-air combustion systems, delivering advanced technologies backed by 80+ years of proven experience and expertise.

Our engineered-to-order products include process burners, thermal oxidizers, flares, gas recovery systems, boiler burners, duct burners, vapor control systems, biogas flare systems and specialized burner systems for the offshore and marine sectors.

JZHC research and development facilities make up one of the largest and most advanced testing complexes in the industry, allowing us to push innovation, gain expertise and measure performance in a near fullscale industrial setting under real-world conditions. www.johnzinkhamworthy.com

KBR

of them. When the oil prices go down most operators, including those in the Middle East, think about how much juice they can get out of their existing facilities by doing revamping and debottlenecking projects as opposed to spending a lot of money on new capital projects.�

At the end of the day, using Micawber economics the Middle East is a happy oil producer because it is among the few selling at more than the cost of production. It also has to keep the wells flowing, and the exploration drills turning because true diversification is some way from being realized. For now the diversification is itself oil based, as the Gulf states spend and spend on downstream derivatives and chemicals.

This again represents an opportunity for KBR.

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A KBR project for Egypt Basic Industries Corporation

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KBR

CONSTRUCTION

“When you have these cheap feedstocks you have a competitive advantage right up the value chain,” says Hill. Every part of the Middle East has a further advantage, its location. Though it is generally lightly populated, it has good links to fast developing markets elsewhere: “They can easily ship to the developed and developing worlds where these materials are in demand for transportation and advanced manufacturing.”

Structuring to win To say that KBR has good standing as a reliable partner for the international oil companies (IOCs) would be a considerable understatement. It built the first platform out of sight of land, in the Gulf of Mexico, in 1947 and has been at the forefront of some of the major milestones

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$6.3bn The amount of revenue in USD generated by KBR in 2014

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L&T Heavy Engineering is part of Larsen & Toubro - a USD 15 billion technology, engineering, construction, manufacturing and services conglomerate with global operations.

L&T’s Heavy Engineering Process Plant Equipment group manufactures and supplies Engineered to Order (ETO) critical process equipment & systems for core industry sectors like Oil & Gas, Refinery, Fertilizer, Petrochemicals, Gasification & Power plants. We supply Reactors, Ammonia convertors, Reformed gas boilers, Urea equipment, Coal Gasifiers and High pressure - High temperature Heat Exchangers to over 50 countries including the US, UK, France, Russia, Saudi Arabia and China.

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KBR

KEY PERSONNEL

in the global hydrocarbons industry, claiming to have designed and constructed no less than a third of the world’s LNG production.

Nevertheless, despite having a second-to-none presence in the Middle East, before this year KBR engaged with the region very much as a global partner rather than a local player. In the past KBR was executing specific projects in the ME as opposed to building sustainable continuous business in the various countries and primarily in engineering and construction (E&C) projects.

From this year, this approach has changed, as reflected in Jay Ibrahim’s appointment and the establishment of a regional headquarters in Abu Dhabi. “We have been sub-scale in relation to the number of projects we deliver,” he admits, “but from here on in our operating model will be to work as a local business in each of the counties of interest. Our global operating model dovetails with this approach, so where we do

CONSTRUCTION

“From here on in our operating model will be to work as a local business in each of the counties of interest… where we do major projects we draw on our global resources, but keep the interface on a local scale working through our offices in each of these countries” – Jay Ibrahim

Jay Ibrahim President, Engineering & Europe (E&C) Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Jay Ibrahim is President, Engineering & Europe (E&C) Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Mr. Ibrahim has 21 years of experience in the Middle East Region, having served in a variety of engineering, project management, business development and business management roles for Parsons E&C/WorleyParsons. He will lead KBR’s continued expansion in the region, which is expected to provide growth opportunities throughout the Hydrocarbons value-chain (upstream, midstream and downstream).

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KBR

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CONSTRUCTION

Shah Deniz gas field is the largest natural gas field in Azerbaijan

major projects we draw on our global resources, but keep the interface on a local scale working through our offices in each of these countries.

We want to have a strong local business that will facilitate the global implementation!”

This is not just typical ‘think global act local’ rhetoric. It represents a deep structural change in the organization, Hill emphasizes: “For a start we intend to grow organically in the region, probably making some additional strategic investments and focusing on winning a portfolio of new projects. From there we will move forward in a synergistic way.

“Abu Dhabi will be the hub - Jay has

“We intend to grow organically in the region, probably making some additional strategic investments and focusing on winning a portfolio of new projects” – Graham Hill, Executive VP for Global Business Development and Strategy

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KBR

been a resident there for many years. But, unusually for the industry, we do already have a global outsourcing office in Dubai.” The Dubai office, he explains, employs many people supporting back office functions and shared services – and coordinating operations well beyond the Middle East.

Instead of looking to the Houston, Texas office/headquarters to provide the expertise and resources it needs, KBR is increasingly autonomous in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions. In particular, it has been investing heavily in India. “India is a vital part of the supply chain for projects in the Middle East,” says Graham Hill. “It is geographically close. A huge number of Indian and other Asian nationals work in the industry,

CONSTRUCTION

A project for the Saudi Kayan Petrochemical Company

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Lindinger Inspection Engineers, Inc Quality inspection expediting service since 1956

Lindinger Inspection Engineers, Inc is a global provider of value added vendor surveillance inspection and expediting services. Having been privately owned and operated since 1956, Lindinger has been able to provide the highest quality services to the Petroleum, Petrochemical, and Energy Industries without the burden of mergers or acquisitions that cause confusion and frustration rather than build stability. As a compliment to one of the industry’s most respected staff of Project Coordinators and back office staff, Lindinger’s Management has extensive and proven inspection experience which enables us to provide superior technical and support service to both Inspectors and its Clients.

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KBR from labor to supervisory and board level. The Middle East countries have small populations, and to supplement the indigenous population they naturally employ people from the subcontinent.”

Though India still retains its low-cost advantage, there are many other compelling reasons why KBR has chosen to establish technology centers there. Among the requirements sourced from India are engineering and procurement services, construction labor, construction supervision, technology, licensing, chemical sales, equipment manufacturing, specialty items and many others.

“We do all these things out of India because it is a very competitive country, a largely Englishspeaking market, and has a legal system based on English law.” And in order to avoid any short term supply side constraints KBR has deliberately chosen diverse locations, at present Pune in the west, Chennai in the east and Delhi in the north.

CONSTRUCTION

“We do all these things out of India because it is a very competitive country, a largely English-speaking market, and has a legal system based on English law” – Graham Hill

KEY PERSONNEL

Sadara and beyond So what is the current state of KBR’s involvement Graham Hill Executive Vice President responsible for Global Business Development & Strategy Graham Hill is KBR’s new Executive Vice President responsible for Global Business Development & Strategy. He joined KBR in November 2014.

He has 38 years of experience in the hydrocarbons industry in all aspects of contracting; commercial foundations for mutual success; negotiation and all technical aspects of the EPC business.

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Powering American gas exports Proven compression solutions for midsize LNG plants

Efficiency and reliability are crucial in the liquefaction process. With our full range of compressors, gas and steam turbines, that’s exactly what Siemens is helping the oil and gas industry achieve. We offer reliable compressor solutions for the mixed refrigerant process as well as for all supporting compression applications. Plus we supply the electrical equipment and the integrated automation systems required for an LNG plant.

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KBR

in the region? By far its part in the Saudi Aramco/Dow Chemical Sadara project at Jubail in Saudi Arabia. Sadara has become the world’s largest chemical complex ever built in a single phase. With 26 integrated world-scale manufacturing plants, over three million metric tons of capacity per year, and a total investment of about US$20 billion, it is anticipated that Sadara will become a Fortune 500 company within the first year of full operation – 2016/17.

KBR’s part in this massive project was to execute the project feasibility and pre-FEED (front-end engineering and design) for the entire complex, as well as the FEED scopes of several major assets. KBR is also the licensor of its Aniline technology for the project. KBR is currently the project management contractor (PMC) and has

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A KBR project at In Salah, Algeria

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Mitsubishi turbomachinery combines advanced technology, robust design, precision engineering and exceptional quality with proven reliable performance to enhance customers’ competitive edge in the global marketplace.

Tel +81-82-291-2191 Email mco_inq@compressor.mhi.co.jp

Construction, Engineering And Procurement LEAD Contracting & Trading Ltd is a large-scale construction company operating in the Middle East and North Africa region, specializing in oil & gas and power plant contracting services.

T + 971 4 448 6672 / +971 4 448 6673 F + 971 4 374 1921 dubaioffice@lead-ae.com www.lead-ae.com Jebel Ali Free Zone - Dubai - UAE

KBR about 700 specialized personnel on site as the project goes into the commissioning phase.

The company will continue to have significant numbers in Jubail as part of the integrated project management team assisting Dow and Aramco during the final stages of the project, says Ibrahim. “We have been engaged on that project for five or six years.” Sadara has scored a lot of superlatives, not least clocking up 80 million construction man-hours without a Lost Time Incident (LTI). That achievement had nothing to do with luck, he insists. The KBR onsite team performed hundreds of joint safety walkthroughs with the project management team and their construction contractors.

The same culture is applied in the other major projects in the region, such as the Jazan refinery and terminal, again for Saudi Aramco. In 2012 KBR was awarded a contract for FEED and PMS services to develop the process design, layout, integration and optimization of the facility, develop equipment and material specifications, the preparation of EPC bid packages and the development of a construction estimate for the refinery.

Other major projects include the Yanbu Aramco Sinopec Refining Co. (Yasref), a joint venture between Saudi Aramco and China Petrochemical Corporation (Sinopec). It’s a refinery with the capacity to process 400,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Arabian Heavy crude and produce 90,000 bpd of gasoline, 263,000 bpd of ultra-low-

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A KBR project at In Salah, Algeria

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BERTLING – CELEBRATING 150 SUCCESSFUL YEARS IN BUSINESS.

Bertling plans globally and performs locally.

Freight forwarding projects are managed and executed to the highest technical standards.

Bertling uses robust group-wide systems, experienced in-house personnel and puts together teams dedicated to your global business to offer the following transport services: Project Logistics Shipping & Chartering Transport Engineering IT Solutions QHSSE Management Your Freight Forwarding Specialist in Houston: Bertling Logistics, Inc. 19054 Kenswick Drive Humble, TX 77338 Phone: +1 2817742300 Web: www.bertling.com/usa For more than 150 years Bertling’s innovation has delivered operational excellence.

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We Are MORE Than Just PIPE SUPPORTS! Founded in 1978, Piping Technology & Products (PT&P), along with its subsidiaries, is the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality engineered pipe supports, hangers, shoes, expansion joints and custom piping solutions.

Our mission is to fabricate the finest engineered pipe products in the industry. Through our investments in R&D and customer service, PT&P and its subsidiaries continue to develop innovative products and solutions that add value to our customers worldwide.

Tel 713-731-0030 Web www.pipingtech.com Email info@pipingtech.com Piping Technology & Products, Inc. | 3701 Holmes Rd. | Houston | TX 77051

KBR

sulphur diesel, 6,300 metric tons per day (mtd) of coke and 1,200 mtd of sulphur. “We provided a team to supervise the EPC on that, and the refinery started producing in June this year.”

The list goes on, including the latest LNG Expansion for Sonatrach in Algeria, illustrating the depth and breadth of KBR’s work for the Region and its flexibility in terms of partnership models.

For example there’s a joint venture between KBR and a local Saudi company AYTB, which provides fully integrated technical, logistical services and industrial solutions for the Hydrocarbons sector.

This is less a construction and more of a smart planning and maintenance operation, he says, but it involves more than 300 KBR employees.

In a further JV operation with a local company,

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A refinery project near Skikda in north eastern Algeria

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KBR AMCDE, KBR performs services for the GES (general engineering services) Contract – onshore O&G, as well as its offshore maintain potential (MPP) contract – Offshore O&G for Saudi Aramco.

Risk and reward All in all in, KBR has currently close to 2,000 people working on various projects and JVs in Saudi Arabia, its largest presence in the Middle East for now. However Jay Ibrahim is aggressively looking at potential partnerships in Oman and Kuwait. His long experience will be indispensable here. Kuwait Oil company (KOC) has a different tendering pattern from its neighbours, awarding a

“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision. The ability to direct individual accomplishment toward organizational objectives. It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.”

Shipping logistics gives you and your company over 20 years experience in the freight forwarding industry. Our Experienced staff offers a multitude of options and logistics for your shipping needs. Shipping Logistics provides you with on time services and logistics.

Air Transport • Sea Shipping • Trucking Delivery Phone Fax

281-741-7310 281-741-7156

3340-C Greens Road | Suite 200 | Houston, Texas 77032

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November 2015

Kfrancis@shippinglogistics.ws

EUROPE

single, five year, project management consultancy (PMC) deals worth in the region of $400 million.

That’s great if you are the winner, he says, but if you are not, then you are in the cold till the next round. In the UAE, the tendency is to issue separate PMC deals for each project – more work, more opportunities. He is used to widely differing types of negotiation, and insists that the really important thing in the Middle East is to be able to win long term relationships.

“I have been in the Middle East for 21 years and I have seen it all! One model can’t work for all clients.” The Middle East is what he calls a lump sum turnkey (LSTK) market where the SEGAS LNG is a liquefied natural gas complex in Damietta, Egypt

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KBR

Doha Expressway in Qatar

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client seeks to pass on the majority of the risk to the EPC partner. There may be ‘better’ models when benchmarked against western economies, but western regulatory frameworks may not fit so well in the Middle East.

It comes back to fundamentals. The Middle East continues to attract money, as evidenced by the interest of Chinese contractors like Sinopec and Indian players like Larsen and Toubro and Punj Lloyd, which are taking an increasing interest, following on the heels of the Korean contractors who picked up $15 billion of contracts seven years ago. This inward investment is good news for KBR, which is ready to provide Pre-FEED, FEED, Project Management, and even EPC, construction

CONSTRUCTION

Company Information INDUSTRY

Europe, hydrocarbons REGIONAL HQ

Abu Dhabi FOUNDED

2006 EMPLOYEES

25,000 REVENUE

supervision and maintenance services.

His game plan is to open offices in countries like Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait – as well as Saudi and the UAE. One other tempting market remains; in Iraq KBR would like to grow the footprint it has alongside the IOCs at the large oilfields of Rumaila and Majnoon (where KBR is already building the camp for Shell). He also is keeping a close eye on Iran. Sanctions make direct engagement impossible right now, but he sees engagement with Iran as an important keystone of KBR’s ambition to be a major local player in the Middle East. With the rapid thaw in Iran’s relationship with the west, a KBR presence in Tehran might not be too distant a prospect.

$6.3 billion (2014) PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

KBR, Inc. is a technology, engineering, procurement and construction company serving the global hydrocarbons and government services industries

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In-house expertise helps Riyadh transform its city centre Interview by John O’Hanlon Produced by Jordan Platten

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STRUKTON

Strukton, as a member of the FAST consortium, has been awarded a contract by Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) to construct three of the six lines of a fully automatic, driverless metro system to be launched by the city of Riyadh

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stablished in 1921, Strukton provides cross-border solutions in the fields of rail infrastructure, civil infrastructure and technique & buildings markets. As a leading player in the global market for railway projects and comprehensive infrastructure projects Strukton focuses on transport systems in densely populated areas, opening up ports, airports and mining areas, and generating and distributing (sustainable) energy. Through almost a century of construction involvement, maintenance expertise and technological development the company has successfully adopted, created and connected past, modern and future best practises.

Privatised in 2010, today the company boasts expertise in the fields of operational asset management, monitoring systems (POSS), rolling stock systems, signalling systems, energy solutions, training and certification, and highoutput equipment.

“We aim to improve all aspects of mobility and accessibility on a permanent basis. Our extensive experience with the construction, project management and maintenance of highquality infrastructure systems – covering railways, ports, roads and airports combined with our inhouse technical specialisations helps us achieve this,” says Business Development Director, Chris Raijmakers. “We operate on an international basis and have long-term operations in the Netherlands

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Tunnel entrance at Riyadh Metro

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FREYSSINET SAUDI ARABIA CO. LTD. (FSA) was founded as a limited liability company in 1978 by H.E. the late Sheikh Kamal Adham. Since its inception, FSA has completed numerous turnkey projects in Saudi Arabia covering various fields and amounting to several Billions Saudi Riyals. The success of the company stems from a positive and dynamic approach, incorporating advanced technology and a natural aptitude for innovation and optimized solutions. This can be attributed to a highly qualified and dedicated team of technical and administrative staff, backed by extensive resources of proficient manpower and modern equipment. FSA is committed to providing its clients with the highest quality of services in the construction sector. It is our policy to develop and maintain client satisfaction.

Today, FSA is considered as one of the leading general contracting and engineering companies in Saudi Arabia active in all aspects of the contracting business including value engineering, design optimization, project management and project execution.

Tel +966 12 6602365 Fax +966 12 6695503 E-Mail info@fsa.com.sa Web www.fsa.com.sa

STRUKTON

CONSTRUCTION

Sweden, Denmark, Belgium, Italy and Australia.

We are now expanding this network to the Middle East, the Far East and Latin America�.

Riyadh Metro Project Strukton, as a member of the FAST Consortium of companies, was awarded a contract by Arriyadh Development Authority (ADA) to construct three of the six lines of a completely automated and driverless metro system to be launched by the city of Riyadh. The total contract value amounts to $8 billion and Strukton’s share represents almost $1.2 billion, which will generate a yearly turnover in excess of $200 million for the company.

This new metro will transform Riyadh, reducing traffic congestion, strengthening and driving the Saudi economy and improving living standards for citizens. The city currently has a population of 5.7 million, which is expected to increase to

Key Personnel Bert Hoekstra Managing Director Bert has over 35 years of experience in the international construction business. Graduated from Delft Technical University, Netherlands with a Master Degree in Civil Engineering he started at the Dutch Construction Company Ballast Nedam as a design Engineer and developed himself via the classical route of Field Engineer, Construction Manager and Project Manager into General Management functions. He joined HOCHTIEF in 2006 and moved to Strukton in 2014.

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RECO. PROVIDING THE CONSTRUCTION WORLD WITH BUILDING MATERIALS, TOOLS AND MACHINERY.

Throughout the years, RECO has developed into a successful, international enterprise with several branches.

RECO thanks its customers for this growth. Customers who value and appreciate the wide product range, the reliability, the expertise and the experience of RECO. With a sophisticated range of rental equipment, RECO facilitates projects from A to Z! Whether your project requires the temporary use of accommodations and equipment or the construction of a temporary station concourse, RECO is the right partner and is more than happy to assist you!

RECO. The best start of any project!

MATERIAL SOLUTIONS

POWER, LIGHT & HEATING | CONSTRUCTION SITE EQUIPMENT | ACCOMMODATIONS SCAFFOLDING & SUPPORT | LIFTS & PLATFORMS | MACHINES & TOOLS FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT: WWW.RECO.EU OR CALL +31(0)71 341 91 20

YOUR PARTNER IN EQUIPMENT

STRUKTON

CONSTRUCTION

© 2014 -Gitte Spinder Construction Photography

Cut & Cover Tunnel

8.3 million by 2030. The metro helps provide a solution to daily traffic problems: of 7.4 million daily commuters, only 2 percent currently use public transport.

The FAST Consortium’s contract includes the design and construction of three lines, including 25 stations. The lines will host 62 kilometres of rail, of which 34 kilometres of track will be on viaducts, 20 kilometres will be underground, and 8.2 kilometres at ground level. In total, the six lines that make up the Riyadh Metro will span more than 176 kilometres, making it the largest metro project under development in the world at

€1.8bn Revenue generated

by Strukton

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Al Bawani A general contractor in Saudi Arabia with over 27 years experience and backlog over US$ 1 billion diversified into Healthcare, Industrial, Residential, Education, Data Centers, Defense and Commercial buildings across the Kingdom.

Our Services • Preconstruction

• Program Management

• Consulting

• Construction Management

• Project Management

• Design-Build/Finance

• Design-Build General Construction

• Building Maintenance

• Multiple Building Program

Contact WWW.ALBAWANI.NET INFO@ALBAWANI.NET

STRUKTON

CONSTRUCTION

y

present.

Completion of the project will be no mean feat and will require all of Strukton`s in-house experience and expertise to ensure it is executed successfully. The team Strukton selected for this major project has been involved in numerous tunnelling and civil works undertakings and has wide-ranging knowledge in the field of rail systems. They have been involved with the project from day one, working on the design and construction of all three lines. “We are very pleased to have been selected by the city of

Tunnel for station

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STRUKTON

Al Hajry Overseas

mohsin@alhajry-overseas.com.sa ; +966 582 770771 mohanad@alhajry-overseas.com.sa ; +966 552 421886

Info@alhajry-overseas.com.sa

www.alhajry-overseas.com.sa

At present Al Hajry Overseas has offered their extensive Welding & Steel fixing Services in Riyadh Metro Project. We have been given the Welding & Fixing job on the Steel reinforcement Rebar cages of different lengths up to 32 meters and sizes up to 2.5 meters diameter with zero error and 100% accuracy and efficiency.

We are appreciated and rewarded for our excellent services which were on time and as per commitment.

With our level of performance now we have stepped in multiple section lines with our full range of Welding Solutions starting from consultancy to project execution and inspection services as well.

Al Hajry Overseas Welding Solutions Division is specialized in engineering and consulting services for the welding industry in the Kingdome. Our Staff and laboratories offer skilled and qualified Welding Engineers, Welding Inspectors and welders with a knowledge base that covers all aspects of the welding processes, weld verifications and compliance with customer standards and international standards as well.

The AHO Welding Division is distributed in four segments of services as mentioned below which are operated by professional staff at their full capacity.

1. Welding Projects and Consultancy Section.

The ultimate goal for the welding division is to identify customer needs & targets in their welding related projects and to become one stop solution provider for all the range of products and services. We can start from the consultancy level of Welding Procedures specifications (WPS), Welding Procedure specifications data sheets (WPDS), and Prequalification record reports (PQR), then the execution by professional engineers and welders as per standards and finally relative needed inspection services upon the completion of the projects.

2. Welding Manpower Resources Section.

We have very qualified and skilled welding teams which include Welding Engineers & Supervisors, Welding inspectors, Expert Welders and Grinders, meeting international standard for quality

Head Office: Dammam Najd Street Tel: +966 2 13 9 88265555, November Fax: +966 13 8263558

2015

and safety while perform at their jobs. Welding Teams are certified by third party Inspection companies and are ready to meet any challenges in any position of welding. Our staff is available on a short or long terms basis and is on-call for emergency situations.

3. Equipment Section.

Equipment Section offer products such as Welding & Cutting Machines, Accessories and Consumables. You can choose from the range of Welding machine from ARC (Inverter, Rectifier, and Engine Driven Welder), TIG, MIG/MAG, Welding Automated, Column & Boom and Orbital Welding System. Our Cutting Machines with Plasma, Oxyfuel, combined Plasma & Oxyfuel, Automated Cutting and Pipe Beveling Machines. This machines will give your required needs and ensure high performance, low cost, more productivity, more efficient and more success in welding and cutting.

4. Inspection Services Section.

We provide professional Inspection services that reduces the risk exposure of our Customers in functions that are critical to their success. i. NDT & DT Services ii. Third Party Inspection Services iii. Radiographic Inspection iv. Ultrasonic Inspection v. Calibration services Our mission is to offer the best in engineering services to the welding community with zero errors and 100% on-time delivery; to stay abreast of technological advances; to recognize our employees as our most important asset; and above all, to always act with integrity.

Al-Hajry Overseas (AHO) was founded in 1973, with a vision to provide facilities management services, Over the years, AHO diversified into Real Estate, Manpower Consultancy, ICT Systems Installation & Maintenance, Electromechanical Contracting, Steel Jobs & Welding Solutions and many more, partnering with the top companies in their respective markets.

Branch Offices: Riyadh Salahuddin Alayoubi Street Tel: +996 11 4725775, Fax: +966 11 4780148

Jeddah Falasteen Street Tel: +966 12 6702823, Fax: +966 12 6702823

STRUKTON

CONSTRUCTION

Riyadh to support this major project and to help make public transport an attractive and safe option,” says Strukton’s CEO Bert Hoekstra, who has taken upon himself the role of project manager for this strategic contract. “Having extensive expertise in both the rail and civil construction world, Strukton is the ideal partner for such integrated projects”.

ADA announced in July 2013 the winners of the three turnkey contracts for the construction of the six lines of the driverless metro network.

The official start of the project was in October 2013 and design work began immediately, with earth being broken on the construction site in

Viaduct construction

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LINCOLN

STRUKTON

The sole distributor of FORD and LINCOLN

•Cars Sales& & Trucks Marketing • Service (Including Body Shop) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia • Sales & Marketing • Service (Including Body Shop) • Parts • Service & Quick Parts •• Sales & Marketing •• Quick Service (Including Body Marketing • Service (Including BodyShop) Shop) Sales && Marketing Service (Including Body Shop) • Parts • Quick Service & Quick Parts Parts • Quick Service & Quick •• Parts ••(Al Quick Service & Parts Parts Quick Parts Quick Service & Quick • Operational Lease Jazirah – Leasing) • Operational (Al Jazirah – Leasing) • Operational Lease &Lease Daily Rental (Al Jazirah - Leasing)

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Introduction (Al Jazirah Leasing) Introduction (Al Jazirah Leasing) •Introduction Started • Started in 2006in 2006 (Al Leasing) Introduction (Al Jazirah Jazirah Leasing) With fleet exceeding 20,000 + vehicles • With•••fleet exceeding 20,000 + vehicles as as Started in 2006 Started in 2006 of today •• With fleet exceeding 20,000 + vehicles as of today With fleet among exceeding + vehicles • Classified few 20,000 at the Saudi LeasingasMarket of today • Classified among few at the Saudi Leasing Market of today • More than 800 +few professionals at your Service Classified the Saudi Market 950 +among • More•••than 800 professionals yourLeasing Service Classified among fewofat atexperience theat Saudi Leasing Market More than 25 years • More than 800 + professionals • More•than years More25than 800of+experience professionals at at your your Service Service •• More More than than 25 25 years years of of experience experience

Why - (AlJazirah JazirahLeasing) Leasing) Why - (Al Proven Track Record • •Why Proven Track Record -- (Al Jazirah Leasing) Why (Al Jazirah Leasing) Long Term Approach develop strong • •••Long Term Approach toto develop strong Proven Track Record Proven Track Record business partnership ••business Long Term Approach to develop strong partnership Long Term Approach to develop strong • Pro-Activeness business • Pro-Activeness business partnership partnership • Excellent Product Range from Ford & Lincoln Pro-Activeness • •••Excellent Product Range&from Ford & Lincoln Pro-Activeness Supply of Multi Brands Makes • Excellent Product Range from Ford • ••Supply of Multi Brands & Makes Excellent Product Range from Ford &Management & Lincoln Lincoln No InitialofInvestment and&Total Fleet • Supply Multi Brands Makes Supply ofBusiness Multi Brands & Makes • ••NoBelief InitialofInvestment and Total Fleet Management Partnership • No Investment and No Initial Initial Investment and Total Total Fleet Fleet Management Management • •Belief of Business Partnership •• Belief Belief of of Business Business Partnership Partnership

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AtAt Your Service (Al Jazirah Leasing) Your Service (Al Jazirah Leasing) •At•Your Service Vehicles – 40 + Vehicles (Wreckers + Sathas) Service Vehicles – 40 + Vehicles (Wreckers + Sathas) Service (Al Leasing) Your Service (Al Jazirah Jazirah Leasing) ••At•31 Mobile Service Vans 31 Mobile Service Vans Service Vehicles – 40 + Vehicles (Wreckers + Sathas) Service VehiclesVehicles – 40 + Vehicles (Wreckers + Sathas) ••• •Replacement 31 Mobile Service Vans Replacement Vehicles • 31 Mobile Service Vans •• Road Side Assistance – 24 / 7 Replacement Vehicles • Road Side Assistance – 24 / 7 • Replacement Vehicles •• Full Comprehensive Insurance Road Side Assistance –– 24 // 77 Coverage • Full Comprehensive Insurance Coverage • Road Side Assistance 24 •• Unlimited Mileage Available Full Comprehensive Insurance Coverage • Unlimited Mileage Available • Full Comprehensive Insurance Coverage •• 17 OwnedMileage and Stand Alone workshop facilities Unlimited Available Unlimited Mileage Available 17 Owned and Stand Alone workshop facilities ••• •Available at 30 remote locations Owned Stand Alone workshop • •17 17Available Owned and and Alone locations workshop facilities facilities 35 remote at Stand 30 •• Available Available at at 30 30 remote remote locations locations

STRUKTON

CONSTRUCTION

the first quarter of 2014. The project is scheduled for completion by the end of 2018. The total 85 stations will all be air-conditioned, and the trains will offer first class, family class and single class carriages. The city hopes it will transform the way people move around, reducing the sheer volume of traffic on the roads and the ubiquitous congestion.

Tunnel break through

Delivering transformation Riyadh today is one of the world’s fastest growing cities and our citizens deserve a world-class w w w. s t r u k t o n . c o m

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ISO 9001: 2008 Certified

SPECIALIST GEOTECHNICAL CONTRACTORS (FOUNDATION ENGINEERING & MARINE WORKS)

We are specialist geotechnical contractor for foundation engineering and marine works with over 40 years experience in this field of civil engineering.

We design and execute: PILING WORKS

 Bored piles

 Contiguous piles

 Secant piles

 Sheet piles

SHORING

 Diaphragm wall

 Ground anchors

 Dewatering

 Grouting

MARINE WORKS

 Maine piling

 Jetties

 Breakwaters

 Revetments

EARTHWORKS

 Deep excavation

 Site preparation

 Ground improvement

 Jet grouting

From design to turnkey construction – Züblin Ground Engineering is the internationally operating provider of construction services for geotechnically demanding projects. www.zueblin-groundengineering.com

Züblin Ground & Civil Engineering L.L.C., Gulf Towers, Oud Metha Road, P.O. Box: 111556, Dubai, U.A.E., Tel. +971 43344-324, mail@zueblin.ae

Dorat Al Tal Company

Dorat Al Tal Company is Specialized in: • Infrastructure (Civil, Electrical, Fiber and Telecom Work) • Pre-cast Materials (Manholes, Handholes, Ffoundations and Concrete Barriers) Tel 011 - 4660408 | Fax 011 - 4661016 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Email dorat@dorataltal.com 302 November 2015 Website www.dorataltal.com

SAUDI ARABIA: Palestine Street, P.O. Box 9530, Jeddah 21423 Tel.: (012) 6711141 Fax: (012) 6711156 E-mail: Jeddah@ammico.biz

QATAR: Bin Omran, P.O. Box 14330, Doha Tel.: +974 44886531 Fax: +974 44886507 E-mail: Qatar@ammico.biz

www.ammico.biz

Pre-cast beams

CONSTRUCTION

public transport system to enhance their quality of life, according to Ibrahim Bin Muhammad Al Sultan, President of ADA and Member of the High Commission for the Development of Arriyadh.

“The Riyadh Public Transport Project will be a major driver of employment and economic development,” he says. “It will also help to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality.

This is the biggest infrastructure project to be undertaken in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and is a cornerstone of the bold future we envision for our city.”

Considering Strukton’s impressive resumé, in-house expertise and ambitious growth strategy, it is an ideal partner of choice to deliver

6700k

Number of staff employed

by Strukton

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“Our experienced team has been involved in numerous tunnel projects, civil works and has broad knowledge in the field of rail systems. We are very pleased to have been selected by the city of Riyadh to support this major project to make public transport an attractive option” - Business Development Director, Chris Raijmakers

Riyadh Metro © 2014 Gitte Spinder Construction Photography

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such a transformational project. “Our mission is to contribute to the quality and safety of rail transport, road infrastructure and technical systems and buildings. We do so by making use of our integrated know-how and experience in the field of technology, civil engineering and cross-border solutions for rail infrastructure, rolling stock, mobility and information systems,”

CONSTRUCTION

Company Information INDUSTRY

Construction HEADQUARTERS

Utrecht, The Netherlands FOUNDED

1921 EMPLOYEES

6,700 REVENUE

EUR 1.8 billion PRODUCTS/ SERVICES

Railway & Civil Construction

says Raijmakers. “Our vision is an attractive, safe and reliable rail system. Our operational asset management approach helps to prove, demonstrate and realise the reliability of the rail system. This approach will help position the Riyadh Public Transport Project correctly for mass uptake, future growth, and city-wide transformation,” he concludes. w w w. s t r u k t o n . c o m

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