SAGER Shaheen of the Shaheen Group, a partner in Abrasive Technology Industries (ATI), has major plans for his venture in Saudi Arabia with the Nass Group and is confident that it will soon start producing under the label of a renowned brand to get recognition in regional and international markets.

The chief executive of Shaheen Group, and board member and vice-treasurer of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry, attributes the concept of the project to his friend Sameer Nass, group managing director of the well-diversified Nass Group, whose extensive trading portfolio includes cutting and grinding wheels.

Sameer’s proposal that they could set up the facility and aim for producing cutting and grinding discs for Hilti aroused Sager’s interest since his company is the Bahrain agent for the Liechtenstein-based global construction solutions provider. Sager believes that since Hilti outsources the manufacturing of its grinding discs to factories around the world, ATI stands a good chance of being the first in the region to produce the Hilti label.

But for that to happen, ATI will have to go into full operation first besides acquiring the OSA (Organisation for the Safety of Abrasives) certification in order to be able to export to the EU. “Once that happens, we will approach Hilti to evaluate our factory. If Hilti, which is already aware of ATI’s product offering, is satisfied with the quality of production, we will start producing for the company under its own label, which then can be distributed to 120 countries around the world,” says Sager.

He says that when the partners decided to build ATI, their aim was to produce high-quality products that could be exported across the world.

ATI is well on track to achieve these goals, he says, confident that it will start exporting outside the region as soon as the factory is certified. Sager is optimistic of winning business both in the region and outside, describing the market potential as “huge”. The company is aiming at securing at least a 10 per cent share of the abrasive cutting and grinding wheels business in the GCC before the end of the year. By 2011, it will be reaching out beyond the Middle East and hopefully Europe once the certification is acquired.

In fact, Sager says that ATI is aiming to export 50 to 60 per cent of its total production outside the region. There are plans to open an office in Dubai, which will be ATI’s export office.

ATI products cater to the various requirements of customers. Sager says that there are customers who prefer fast cutting speed. “They don’t care about the life of the disc. If they get 20 to 30 cuts per disc, it is enough for them. Such customers are mainly from Europe. They are concerned with other qualitative features of the disc, such as no vibration, strength and cycles per minute. In the GCC in general, customers don’t care about the cutting speed but are more concerned with the disc life, because labour costs here are cheaper.

“So we have to design according to customers’ preferences and requirements,” he says.

Moreover, the composition for different discs varies as well. Discs for cutting stones are different from those for cutting steel. To produce each requires different raw materials, curing cycles and different processes altogether. Sizes also vary from four to 16 inches.

When procuring machinery for ATI, he points out that a lot of homework went into buying the right technology and that there are many different machines used in the abrasive business.

Explaining the manufacturing processes, he says: “Generally, there are three basic processes in the manufacture of discs. The first is blending of the raw material after which the mixture is sent to hydraulic presses, where the discs are pressed and shaped. And the last step is curing, done in ovens. This can last between 18 to 36 hours depending on the size and type of disc required. So each step involves a specialised procedure and machines.

“We wanted the best, so we bought the blending machines and hydraulic presses from the Italian company, Maternini, a world leader in abrasive technology. As for the ovens, they were acquired from another renowned Italian company Nicem,” he adds.

There are almost certain plans for ATI’s expansion, he says. “When we were building the factory, we readied the entire ground. We have erected sheds because we believe we will be expanding very soon – not just in this category but also other categories of bonded and coated abrasives, such as abrasive papers.

“Both the Nass and Shaheen groups are open to new business ideas. If tomorrow we think that this business is good and we have enough expertise, we might set up a factory somewhere in the Far East,” says Sager with confidence.

He pays special tribute to his late friend and former ATI executive committee member, Khalid Al Shair. The two-man committee, with Sager himself as the second member, was entrusted by both the Nass and Shaheen groups with the responsibility of implementing the entire project.

“Al Shair made a big contribution to what the factory is today. We were the ones who actually implemented the project from A to Z, including purchasing of equipment and selecting the contractor, until the project was up and running,” he says.

Commenting on the reason for locating ATI in Saudi Arabia, Sager says: “Saudi Arabia is the biggest market in the region. It easily represents 60 per cent of the entire GCC market, and that is why we built the factory there.”

Other reasons for choosing Saudi Arabia as the location for the factory include government incentives, such as soft loans, land, and a very competitive cost of manufacturing.

The Shaheen Group was launched in 1958 as Awalco Group of companies. Over the years, it has diversified into many sectors and today amalgamates Gypsum Products, Gulf Services Company and Awal Products Company under its banner. The group offers a range of services in the electrical, air-conditioning, fire security and gypsum product sectors to the regional market. It also recently started a security systems business.

Commenting about the projects scene in Bahrain, Sager says that many of them are either on hold or cancelled. The group was also affected by this downturn. “There have been lots of problems in the market in general, like people not paying or delaying payments. Keeping all this in mind, we had to reorganise ourselves in terms of staff, budget, etc,” he says. “We have to contract and expand proportionally with the market – otherwise, it is hard to survive.”

However, he now sees some signs of recovery in the market. The group is also eyeing places outside Bahrain mainly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for growth.

One of its biggest projects currently under way is the Sofitel hotel, where its scope of work includes air-conditioning, plumbing, fire-fighting and gypsum works. Another project is the King Hamad General Hospital, where the group has supplied air-conditioning, gypsum board and fire-fighting equipment.

Besides these, Shaheen Group has also initiated three projects by gathering different Bahraini business families together. These are Asmak, which is a fish farming project; Bahrain Industrial Group; and, of course, ATI.