THE Dubai branch of Sigma Paints is currently completing the last deliveries on the Al Falah Community project in Abu Dhabi, one of its largest projects in the UAE.

The development is among a string of projects that the paint major secured in Abu Dhabi, after having shifted its focus to the emirate during the global financial crisis, which had a major impact on Dubai.

Elaborating on the business strategy adopted by the company during the downturn in the Dubai market, a spokesman for Sigma Paints Dubai says: “As it was a well-known fact at the time that Dubai’s property market was overheated, we restricted ourselves to deal only with contractors with whom we had a long-standing relationship and were involved in projects for parties who had a good standing in the market with respect to payments. At the same time, Sigma spread its risk by starting to focus on the Abu Dhabi project market.”

Al Falah Community is a master-planned community development occupying a 12.5-million-sq-m area, located to the east of Abu Dhabi International Airport and Abu Dhabi-Dubai Highway. Under orders worth $4 million, Sigma supplied its products for the external facades of 2,083 villas built by El Seif Engineering, as well as internal paints for 1,083 of these villas. This entailed the supply of a whopping 1.3 million litres of texture paints and 700,000 litres of primer and topcoat for the massive development.

To ensure timely delivery, Sigma has supplied the paints directly to site by trailers from its Dammam factory and also by pick-ups from its warehouse in Dubai, thus maintaining 100 per cent delivery schedules as required by the contractor, says the company.

On an average, three to four truckloads were supplied each day at the peak of construction on the project.

Apart from the Al Falah villas, the company’s other ongoing projects in Abu Dhabi include Al Hilal Bank, three towers at City of Lights, Hydra Avenue, Financial Centre, and Adnic (Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company) building.

Sigma Paints Dubai is now seeing an upturn in Dubai with business levels getting back to normal.

“In general, over the past year, business has seen an upwards trend, although cyclical in line with the ups and downs in the Dubai market,” says the spokesman.

To remain competitive in the Dubai market, Sigma’s strategy has included restricting supply only to professional parties. The company has become a preferred supplier based on its professional approach in assisting its customers to secure projects, right from the design stage through to the execution of the developments.

“We provide this service through our well-trained and qualified sales staff, who are committed to on-time deliveries. We also provide technical support on site with our well-trained and internationally certified inspectors,” he says.

The spokesman says the protective coatings market accounts for the bulk of the company’s business in Dubai compared to the decorative and marine coatings segments, adding that its international range of high quality products for the oil and gas industry are among its most popular products.

While Dubai has been actively pushing for green projects, Sigma finds that the market is still very reluctant to pay higher prices for eco-friendly products and, as such, this market segment is still in its infancy.

“However, the company has seen increased interest from consultants in eco-friendly products, and we are sure it is only a matter of time before they become a success story,” the spokesman adds.

In terms of eco-friendly products, Sigma has seen its Sigmacryl Ecoplus Satin, a decorative product, specified on the Al Hilal Bank, while on the Yas Mall, it has supplied Sigmacover 410, a protective coating; and on a solar panel project at Masdar City, its Sigmacover 630 and Sigmacover 410 (protective coating) were supplied. It also provided eco-friendly marine coatings such as Sigmaglide 890 (marine) for the Al Tair Star and Al Nasl Star projects.

Over the past year, Sigma paints have been used on a number of projects in Dubai including the Medallion Tower at Dubai Sports City and army accommodation (decorative paints); Dubai Aluminium’s (Dubal) maintenance painting and petroleum storage tanks for Star Energy (protective coatings); and the P142 navy vessel and Lady Venus (marine coatings).

Its ongoing projects in Dubai include army accommodation and the Fairmont hotel, while in Fujairah it is involved in the supply of coatings for the Aegean and Socar Aurora tank farms. This apart, Sigma is supplying marine coatings for several vessels including Big Orange 25, Sabahia, Ikaria I and II, Qalhat and Zamil 10.

Sigma this year marks 22 years of operations in the Dubai market, having entered the emirate at the same time as it started operations in Saudi Arabia, its base in the region.

The company has a 25,000-sq-ft warehouse in Dubai Investment Park (DIP), which holds ample stocks of marine, protective coating and decorative paints and has extensive tinting facilities to serve the needs of the market. Sigma also has a sales office for marine, protective coating and decorative at Al Barsha Business Point tower, located near the Mall of the Emirates.