Al KIFAH Building Materials Company is going from strength to strength in Saudi Arabia having established itself as the concrete supplier of choice in the kingdom, according to its chairman Sulaiman Hassan Al-Afaliq.

“Since the early 1990s, Al-Afaliq has spearheaded its vendor relationships with many of the leading organisations and contractors across the kingdom including Saudi Aramco, Sabic and the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu. The contractors include Saudi Binladin, Saudi Oger and Sumitomo,” Al-Afaliq says, adding that Al Kifah has been a specialist concrete and service supplier to Saudi Aramco for more than three decades.
Al-Afaliq belongs to one of the leading merchant families from Al Ahsa in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province and for almost a quarter of a century he has strategically managed the development of the building materials company retaining a ‘hands-on’ approach that has seen the division increase in staffing from 100 to 2,000 during his tenure. 
The chairman has focused his energies on ensuring that Al Kifah is the concrete specialist par excellence investing heavily in technology and equipment to provide a range of integrated services to the company’s increasing client base.

These service comprise five components: readymix and blocks, batching plant, construction equipment, transport and crushers. Al Kifah provides all materials and equipment to produce readymix including batching plants, concrete pumps, transit mixers and concrete cooling systems including ice machines.  This includes producing concrete from more than 23 locations in the kingdom as well as readymix backed by a rigorous approach to quality control and quality assurance for its concrete facilities and batching plants.
Importantly, such is the scale of its operations that Al-Afaliq is involved with customised design, development and in-kingdom manufacture of specialist plant and equipment marketed under its own brand, KiCE. 
Al Kifah is also receptive to market requirements and has recently introduced transit mixers and is actively looking into new areas of readymix as well as upgrading its batching plants.
Al Kifah Building Materials is part of the larger Al Kifah Holding Company originally established by the late Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Al-Afaliq in 1977.  Drawing from his extensive experience in agricultural development and a 15-year career with Saudi Aramco, Sheikh Hassan embarked on the development of a construction, industrial, manufacturing and trading organisation. 

Saudi Aramco actively supported Sheikh Hassan in the early years when he was sent to Beirut to study agriculture and eventually established an agricultural business. 
This led to the establishment of a contracting company in 1978, a block factory in 1979 and then, in 1980, the company’s first concrete factory in Al Ahsa and education, printing and service projects.  Saudi Aramco again supported Sheikh Hassan in his endeavours when he opened his first block making facility in Al Ahsa. 
From these local roots, the Al Kifah group has built its formidable reputation for quality and specialist supply into a major kingdom-wide conglomerate handling construction, readymix concrete, building materials, trading, finance, printing and education. 
Saudisation is implicit with Al Kifah having introduced a centre for Saudis where training in operations, maintenance, mechanical, and driving are provided. 
The fourth of six brothers, Al-Afaliq joined Al Kifah to help develop and diversify the growth of the group of companies after graduating with a degree in industrial management from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals (KFUPM) in 1987.
“My father believed that all his sons should start at the bottom so I was involved in every aspect of the business from marketing to accountancy. This provided a great start and helped me understand the business,” Al-Afaliq says. He continues: “From when I first joined the company after graduation, I was involved in the purchase of the company’s first crusher and also began working in the concrete factory. Importantly, my father strongly believed in empowerment not only for family members but also for our employees, and when someone had earned his trust there was no limit or barriers to what could be done. This trust also made us feel responsible for any decision.”
Al-Afaliq also paid tribute to his education at KFUPM and the breadth of his academic studies and of the kingdom’s top universities.
“I am a great believer in education and am certainly proud of what KFUPM provided as an academic institution with the positive outcomes and capabilities of many of its graduates.  As well as the academic knowledge, I look back at my time very positively and value the character-building and confidence it provided in thinking and taking responsibility,” he adds.  
Al-Afaliq has presided over a massive expansion of his company, which includes the opening of its first concrete factory outside Al Ahsa in Dammam in 1991 following by a batching plant in Al Ahsa in 1993.
For Saudi Aramco, Al Kifah was involved on the prestigious Manifa oil field development where the company delivered more than 180,000 cu m of concrete in an extremely challenging environment required total logistical control.
Al-Afaliq cites many key projects with Saudi Aramco including Hawiyah gas plant, Khurais and many specialist ventures such as the forthcoming Saudi Aramco/Total refining and petrochemical company (Satorp) in Jubail. 
“We have built causeways to offshore fields involving dredging and great challenges and bringing in new technologies to meet the requirements. As a company, we make huge efforts with Saudi Aramco and all our clients to ensure that what we supply and provide is quality assured and we are constantly upgrading our operations, our systems and quality control,” he says.
The company also supplied concrete to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) at Thuwal, 80 km north of Jeddah on the road to Rabigh and was closely involved on the infrastructure development for the Shaybah oil field. At the Rub Al Khali Al Kifah supplied concrete at a location 650 km away from the nearest habitation in the harshest of conditions. Al Kifah was also sole supplier for concrete supply for the Northern Cement factory close to the Iraq/Saudi border.
Looking ahead, Al-Afaliq sees massive expansion in the next few years. Despite occasional contracts to prestige projects outside of Saudi Arabia such as Dolphin Energy, Al-Afaliq is very much part of the fabric of Saudi Arabia.
“We are seeing a massive expansion in education provision in the kingdom, which is complementing what was established before, such as KFUPM. This educational expansion is very significant and one of the best things that could have happened,” says Al-Afaliq, adding that Al Kifah will continue to play its part in the kingdom’s continuing development as one of Saudi Arabia’s leading business groups.