DRIVEN by a keen interest to diversify into manufacturing from purely trading and contracting activities, and backed by strong inter-family ties, the Nass Group of Bahrain has joined hands with the Shaheen Group to set up Abrasive Technology Industries (ATI), a highly-sophisticated factory to meet the demand for cutting and grinding wheels in the region.

ATI – which is yet to be officially inaugurated – will produce under its own label and is also open to manufacturing for other companies that would want to make use of its state-of-the-art facilities for their labels, according to Bashar Sameer Nass, director of ATI and general manager of Nass Commercial.

“Both our groups have a huge requirement for such discs. So we decided to set up a manufacturing facility for the purpose,” Bashar adds.

This apart, ATI is also keen to be a potential OEM (original equipment manufacturing) manufacturer in the region for Hilti, a leading international manufacturer of top-quality products for the construction and building maintenance industries which has a well-established cutting and grinding business. Here, Shaheen Group’s experience as the sole distributor in Bahrain for Hilti has been valuable.

ATI, which has already gone into production, has a technology-sharing deal with Grandinetti of Italy, which has provided ATI with advice on the layout, planning, mixtures, machinery procurement and quality-enhancement procedures.

“If there are any problems with our production, we send samples to them for testing. They then provide us with recommendations and solutions to perfect our mixture for producing the best disc,” he says.

Bashar ... new concepts.

About the factory location, Bashar says it was a tough choice between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. “Saudi Arabia is undoubtedly the largest economy in the region, and was considered a better stepping stone considering our future expansion plans.”

In Bahrain’s favour was the fact that the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) with the US would have allowed a tax-free reach to the American market, he adds.

ATI’s facility covers just half of its total land area, with ample room for expansion. “Hopefully in the future, we can expand by up to 50 per cent,” he says.

The demand for cutting and grinding wheels in Saudi Arabia is huge, he says. “Technically, even if we work at 100 per cent production capacity, we will still not be able to meet demand in Saudi Arabia,” he says.

However, the kingdom will not be its sole target. “We want to target many different countries. We want exposure in the Gulf countries and later on hope to export to European markets as well,” says Bashar.

Bashar, a young entrepreneur, was confronted with the effects of the global financial downturn in the early days of joining the family business. He started off with National Car Rental, a sister concern of Nass Group in 2007, just before the market felt the first tremours.

By the time he joined Nass Commercial, the market had started to slow down. Bashar considers the period an excellent experience for him to witness the good times and then the bad and is full of praise for the immense support from within the group.

He had a few ideas of his own to tackle the downturn. With buyers in Bahrain looking for easy availability of products to meet their requirements, Bashar brought in new stock, although at such times stockists generally stop buying and get rid of old stock to secure badly-needed cash. “The market trend in Bahrain is that if people don’t find the product with you, they will go to someone else. They just don’t like waiting,” he says.

Apart from this, the company also started offering financing options to clients considering their credit crunch, which helped in increasing sales.

Focus was also laid on customer feedback and after sales, which Bashar describes as the “heart of the operation”.
“This is a very important factor. I worked hard to build my after-sales team and sent them for various training programmes for different machineries to perfect our servicing. This is because it is the after sales that sell your next machine. While the salesman sells the first machine, the second, third and fourth are sold through the efforts of the after-sales team,” he explains.

Nass Commercial has also added new agencies to its already existing tally. Last December, the company signed an agreement with Sennebogen, a German manufacturer of crawler and telescopic cranes, to be its exclusive agent in both the Bahrain and Saudi markets.

And just a couple of months back, the company inked an agreement with Massey Fergusson for its power generators. It has already sold four of such units – one to the upcoming Muharraq Mall, two to Nass construction sites, and one to a private villa as a standby generator.

Nass Commercial is also the exclusive dealer for forklifts from Zhenjiang Hangcha of China in the Bahrain and Saudi markets and for welding machines and accessories from Esab of Sweden for Bahrain and Kuwait.

Bashar is convinced that the Saudi market has huge potential as compared to other countries in the region.

To cash in on the current boom in Saudi Arabia, Nass Commercial opened its first office, in Al Khobar, and appointed a sales manager to cover the market.

“Now that we have an office in the Eastern Province, I plan to open one in the Central region, most probably in Riyadh,” he says.

Already well established in Kuwait and Bahrain, the company is also looking at Abu Dhabi – where it currently has a representative office – as an option for future expansion. Bashar is hopeful that things will pick up in Bahrain, especially in view of new housing projects started by the government to meet growing demand.

Nass Commercial, a division of Nass Corporation, markets products from about 30 well-known companies from all around the world. These include Case (US) for excavators, bull dozers and loaders; Stetter (Germany) for transit mixers and batching and recycling plant; Schwing (Germany) concrete pumps; Kaeser Compressors (Germany); RCM (UK) for vibrator pokers; Elf Lubricants (France); Acipco (US) ductile iron pipes for automotive and industrial lubricants; Graceduty (Hong Kong) for welding consumables; Norinco (France) for ductile iron manhole covers and frames; Gondrexon (Belgium) for wire screens; in addition to ATI in Dammam for cutting and grinding wheels.

In addition, the company also markets and trades in pumps, valves, irrigation products and turf machinery, public seating systems, and golf cars and other utility vehicles.