Ibrahim Al Rashed, the general manager of Alupco, the kingdom's leading aluminium extruder, is both an engineer and an industrialist.

Born in Riyadh in 1959, Al Rashed has over the past 26 years witnessed Saudi Arabia’s industrial revolution which has helped develop the country into a major manufacturing force.
“I graduated in December 1980 with a degree in civil engineering and three months later joined Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (Sabic) as part of a team of engineers responsible for the construction of Hadeed,” says Al Rashed. “Once Hadeed was up and running, I moved into the procurement department and over the next 25 years developed a career that encompassed procurement, sales and marketing, product planning, quality assurance and logistics. I eventually became general manager commercial with specific responsibility for all these functions as well as for sales receivables.”
In 2006, Al Rashed left Hadeed to take up the position of general manager with Alupco. “I was delighted to move to Alupco as this gave me complete management control of a private sector company,” says Al Rashed. “Alupco had done well over the years but I was faced with a number of challenges in terms of human resources as well as sustained profitability.”
Al Rashed initially conducted a SWOT analysis on Alupco and within six weeks of joining, he presented his plans to a full board of shareholders. “It was a fast learning curve for me but I presented the situation as I saw it and laid out my expectations as well as the strategy to achieve them,” says Al Rashed.
Using his considerable experience at Sabic, Al Rashed reorganised and restructured the company. Initially, he merged various departments cutting the management count from 11 to six. Turning to the labour force, he then initiated a programme of creating multi-skilled human resources whereby, staff involved with operation and maintenance, for example, were trained to cover both functions. Finally, Al Rashed put into place plans to outsource certain functions such as IT, helping to achieve significant cost savings by placing the company’s IT operations in the hands of a specialised company.
“As a result, we reduced the number of IT specialists from 11 to just one and have also created individual IT focal points with the various departments,” says Al Rashed. “In addition, we are also developing a succession plan whereby all our senior staff has been charged to develop successors to ensure continuity in the case of either promotion or staff leaving.”
One of Al Rashed’s top priorities is to ensure that there are good managers available to take over the various departments. One of the challenges which is facing many companies is that of visas and for Alupco this is a particularly significant issue. “One of my plans is to change the company’s working profile to three eight-hour shifts,” said Al Rashed. “This will require a 30 per cent increase in manpower but I believe the change will have a positive effect on both productivity and quality.”
Al Rashed is also overseeing what he considers to be an important step for the company. “Alupco needs to diversify from commercial profile into more systems and engineering products,” he says. “Competition is getting tougher and I have in fact postponed proposals to add another press as supply currently exceeds demand in the region and this does not include the competition from China and Egypt with imported finished goods.”
One of Al Rashed’s main priorities has been to strengthen Alupco’s market share both locally and in export. Exports have been limited to the GCC but the company is now targeting other markets such as Europe, Africa and Yemen.
“We will concentrate on our established strategic markets and then expand into areas where we are 100 per cent confident of success,” he says.
Within the company, Al Rashed is also focusing on aspects such as safety. “We have recently conducted a study covering fire and hazardous areas and are increasing safety awareness,” he says. “Putting in a plan to ensure that all employees are safety conscious costs us money but we will see the benefits in the long run.”
Looking at the region, Al Rashed believes that the current boom has not yet filtered into his own sector. “The whole region is booming but we come in at a later stage,” he says. “I believe that 2008 will be an excellent year for our industry.”
Al Rashed also expresses concern on standards within the region. “We are trying to educate the market in respect of quality standards and are also trying to work with the government to implement these standards,” he says. “There is unfair competition with certain producers making thinner profiles to cut costs. Clients tend to overlook the significant difference.”
Al Rashed is working with the Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation (Saso) to introduce industry standards “but there is no government office or agency to enforce these standards, thus eroding implementation,” he says.   “International products can be policed but the same is not true of local products. We need to get the local owners and operators of extrusion plants to be convinced of the need for standards but they are under pressure to use savings on metal profile.”
Whilst Alupco’s reputation does help when it comes to the bigger customers, the majority of total consumption is driven by price. “Big customers and contractors have rigid and detailed specifications and therefore want to deal with a company that can understand and meet the standard,” says Al Rashed. “However this accounts for only 30 per cent of total consumption in Saudi Arabia and the GCC.”
His plan is to make Alupco less dependent on the commercial market and more focused on engineering and systems involved in mega projects. For example, Al Rashed points to some of the industrial engineering products such as aluminium light poles which can replace galvanised steel. New products are being introduced such as the company's new wood-finish profiles which come in a variety of different prints and also textures. Alupco has also introduced chemical brightening profiles which have the look of stainless steel and are an excellent product for the European market.
As part of the company’s ongoing technical improvements, Alupco will see the introduction of a fully automated anodisation plant that will provide extra-super-quality finished products.  “Currently our anodisation plant is semi-automated and next year we will fully automate the process,” he says. “We are also finding ways to control the scrap rate as part of our ongoing cost reduction policy.”
Alupco’s total staff strength of 600 between Jeddah and Dammam include many loyal and committed employees with 15 to 20 years of service. Al Rashed's focus on human resources and their development is indicative of the pride he has in his staff. 'We have excellent staff some of whom have been with us for over 15 years,” he says.
Al Rashed’s management style is one of transparency. “My door is open 24 hours a day and I believe that one must set examples,” he comments. 'Sharing views and plans is important and I look to input from my staff as well as their empowerment, allowing them to take on authority. Trust is an important element between management and employees.”
Looking to the future, Al Rashed has a three-year objective to establish Alupco as the most respected extruder in the region. The company’s current SR750 million ($200 million) turnover is, according to Al Rashed, less important than the underlying profitability and the company is targeting increased profitability as its main objective.
In addition, Alupco is also interested in expanding its footprint through mergers and acquisitions.