DANUBE Building Materials, a leader in construction, building materials and shop-fitting industries, has added one more sales outlet to its vast network with the opening of a new showroom in Saudi Arabia.

Costing SR51.05 million ($13.61 million), the new integrated showroom and warehouse facility in the heart of the Jeddah Industrial Area is part of Danube’s strategic move towards creating a strong market presence in the Middle East’s construction industry and meeting its goal of achieving $1 billion in revenue by 2015.

The showroom was inaugurated by Jeddah Municipality director Ahmad Hamza Awadh recently.

“Opening our new showroom proves to be strategic and reflects perfect timing as recent reports have shown that Saudi currently has a 38 per cent share of the total construction projects in the region and has over $624 billion in current and planned projects for 2011,” says Rizwan Sajan, chairman of Danube Building Materials.

“The strategic location of the new facility, combined with our comprehensive product portfolio of essential building materials, gives us the opportunity to reach out to new target customers. The move is also part of our continuing efforts to consolidate our presence in the Middle East’s thriving construction industry.”

Danube’s new showroom is spread over an area of 5,000 sq ft while the warehouse, which is also the company’s first completely covered storage facility, measuring 150,000 sq ft. The new facility will feature a wide range of building materials that include plywood, timber, medium density fibreboards (MDF), steel, sanitary, hardware, gypsum tiles and boards, laminates, doors, wall panels, flooring, veneer and aluminium composite panels.

The showroom is located in proximity to target customers like wood joineries, steel fabricators and aluminium fabricators. It is equipped with state-of-the-art equipment and will be staffed with highly-experienced technical and sales personnel.

Danube’s move to open new showrooms across the region follows the impressive 25 per cent rise in its revenues in 2010. With the healthy activity across the region, the company is expecting to post similar growth for 2011 and increase its revenues to SR1.63 billion ($434.7 million).

The company has also invested $13.61 million in a new manufacturing plant in Dubai. The new facility, which is spread over 1.3 million sq ft in Dubai TechnoPark, will open by the middle of this year.

Danube started as a building materials supplier 17 years ago, later introducing its version of a one-stop-shop concept called Danube Buildmart in 2009 to target a diverse retail segment.

The company has recently added 10,000 new products to its portfolio for Buildmart to meet housing needs, bringing its total product portfolio to more than 25,000 products. The company now has a total of more than 26 global retail facilities.