Saudi Arabia's Zamil family business continues to make headway in its various enterprises, two of the latest developments being the award of a prestigious contract to supply thousands of AC (air-conditioning) and mini split units to schools in the Kingdom and the successful completion of a project agreement with a shopping centre in Jeddah.
Zamil Air Conditioners (ZAC) is supplying more than 27,000 of its Classic brand room air conditioners and mini split units to the High Commission for Girls' Education in Saudi Arabia following a deal worth SR38.6 million ($10.29 million).
The other award, won by Zamil Glass, is to supply heat mirror green tinted glass with HRP 28 for skylight and frameless sections at front facades and shops in Jeddah's LeMall Shopping Centre. The company supplied 6,000 sq m of frameless glass for front facades, shops and 1,500 sq m of double-glazed glass heat mirror for skylights. The project's value was SR2 million.
"We are honoured to have been selected for this prestigious project which was expected to be completed in six months. However, Zamil Glass was able to complete all the required work within a record time of three months," said Nasim Abu Yousef, the company's sales and marketing manager.
Zamil Glass Industries operates one of the Middle East's largest and most sophisticated glass factories located in Dammam and having an annual output of more than 1 million sq m of all types of architectural glass for the building industry.
The contract to supply air conditioning equipment was in fulfilment of a donation by King Fahd, highlighting his interest in providing an optimum learning environment for young Saudi students.
"It's a great honour to have been chosen to implement this project. This by itself is recognition of the government's confidence in the high standards of our products, in this case the Classic brand, and the trust that we can accomplish the task in an efficient and timely manner with all the necessary support and services," ZAC vice-president Abdulla Al Zamil was quoted in the company's newsletter as saying.
"ZAC was awarded the contract after passing a series of rigorous tests for efficiency, safety and reliability that were conducted on the units by ETL Laboratories of Cortland, New York," said ZAC. This was in addition to normal tests carried out by ZAC's new testing facilities built by ETL itself in Dammam.
"The tests established that the ZAC units met the tough criteria set out by the Ministry of Education in terms of both cooling capacity and low energy consumption," said ZAC. Testing temperatures in the company's reliability test labs were done at an ambient reaching 50 deg C.
According to Al Zamil, the air conditioners are highly reliable in terms of performance and quality, guaranteeing low energy consumption with a cool, quiet microbe-free environment.
"ZAC has introduced new high-efficiency components, including compressors, fans and matching heat exchangers. Besides meeting the capacity levels, the energy efficiency level exceeded the requirements," Al Zamil said.
The units met other parameters including an electronic timer to prevent compressor restart in less than three minutes; a special face that has a control compartment door to prevent tampering with the control; anti bacterial filters and thermal overload protection.
"The heat exchangers and refrigerant circuit design make the units unique in the Gulf market while at the same time exceeding the energy efficiency levels required by the US Department of Energy," ZAC said.
Zamil Glass recently invested SR6 million in state-of-the-art technology to support its secondary line and to help reduce processing and delivery times.
The new glass technology will help maintain Zamil Glass' market leadership in the Gulf region and open new market opportunities internationally.
In 2000, sales increased overall by six per cent compared with 1999. Record growth in the third and fourth quarters of 2000 was 26 per cent higher than in the first and second quarters of the year.
"We have worked hard to maintain a high level of sales while reducing the stock inventory and total cost of sales to an accumulated figure of almost less than six per cent," said Abu Yousef.
A training centre has been established by Zamil Glass to increase the skills of the existing sales force to meet future training requirements and to assist in the promotion of heat mirrors through merchandising in shopping malls.
In recent months, Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC), the joint stock industrial powerhouse of three of the group's building services companies, ZAC, Zamil Steel and Zamil Glass, had announced the acquisition of Geoclima, an air conditioning manufacturing plant based in Italy. ZIIC will hold 70 per cent majority ownership.
ZAC's president Ahmed Al Zamil said the move promised to significantly raise ZAC's strategic growth and business acumen and enhance the company's evolution from its origins as a residential and light commercial AC manufacturer to today's provider of all-inclusive comfort solutions with a stronger hold in the last tier of the heavy commercial sector.
Following the acquisition, ZAC's air conditioning solutions now include a complete and advanced range of air-cooled and water-cooled chillers with capacities of up to 600 tonnes of refrigeration.
Earlier, ZIIC had added on to its portfolio Climatech of Austria, the air moving product manufacturer. The two developments have been cited as evidence of the aggressive drive forward to raise ZAC's position as a leading provider of quality industrial air conditioning equipment in the Middle East, Europe and North Africa.
ZIIC's expanded portfolio will add to ZAC's Saudi Arabian manufacturing infrastructure, in terms of combined R&D, a pooling of resources and a common platform for product technology, the Zamil group said.
On the occasion of the silver jubilee of the ZAC business, Ahmed Al Zamil recalled how the family stepped into the manufacturing field at a time when the only unit making ACs was in Bahrain. Friedrich's factory on the island had a small output, totally inadequate for the region.
The Saudi government granted soft loans and land to encourage people in industrial expansion. "In 1974 we paid back our first loan amount of SR1 million. I still remember the day, the loan was paid back in full in five years," recalled the president.
The company in those days was manufacturing room ACs only, doing 25 units per day. It took 15 to 20 minutes to make one unit against 48 seconds now to make a mini split or a room AC. The Friedrich units they manufactured were bulky and noisy. The hitch was overcome by using the best American compressors.
In 1998, Zamil Industrial Investment Company (ZIIC) was created, making the Zamil business even stronger. Today ZAC manufactures for Friedrich, completely turning around the situation that prevailed many years ago.
ZAC now produces up to 440,000 room air conditioners, 60,000 mini split systems and 36,500 central air conditioning systems per year, the only company in the Gulf to manufacture a full range of products. Fifty per cent of the local production is exported to over 35 countries.
Vice-President Abdulla Al Zamil said his company was aiming to position itself in the global market through its international brand Cooline and through joint ventures and acquisitions both at home and overseas.
About prospects for the next 10 years, he said ZAC would continue to introduce new products into the market regularly, pumping also more and more resources into research and innovation. "As far as the company itself goes, the Zamil family will remain major shareholders.
The business units themselves including Cooline, Classic, CoolCare, Climatech and most recently Geoclima will become totally independent, all individually contributing to the Zamil air conditioners' portfolio."
