Hunter Douglas Middle East will be a repeat exhibitor at this year's Big 5 show, to meet and greet old customers and win new ones.

"We will be at the Big 5 to create possibilities for potential customers to see our innovative products, give our agents an opportunity to invite their customers to the Big 5 and present all Hunter Douglas products and create possibilities to increase sales," says Frans van de Laak, the general manager of the UAE-based firm.

He continues: "Hunter Douglas has exhibited at the Big 5 before. Our results from the previous exhibition were very positive. We acquired a lot of new contacts and some of them resulted in orders, which of course is the target of being present at an exhibition."

Hunter Douglas Middle East is part of the Netherlands-based parent. The group's origins go back to 1919, when Henry Sonnenberg, father of the current chief executive officer, started a machinery distribution and manufacturing company in Germany and later expanded the operation to Holland and the UK. At the outbreak of World War II, he moved to the US, where he founded the Douglas Machinery Corporation. In 1969 the group's management moved offices to Rotterdam in Holland.

The first office in the Middle East was opened more than 25 years ago. Since 1974, its regional head office has been based in the UAE, the first 23 years under sponsorship of the Al Rostamani family and since 1997 in Jebel Ali. The office in the Middle East has always operated only as a sales and marketing office. Hunter Douglas' main production facilities are based in Rotterdam.

Hunter Douglas as a group achieved a turnover in 2000 of $1.5 billion, of which $10 million of came from the Middle East. Currently, the group consists of 150 companies with 62 manufacturing and 83 assembly plants and marketing organisations across more than 80 countries.

Hunter Douglas manufactures and markets two product lines: window coverings and architectural products.

Its window coverings consist of Venetian, Rolo, vertical, wood, silhouette, duette and pleated blinds. Hunter Douglas sells these products through agents, who use Hunter Douglas machinery and components to produce various window coverings locally. Hunter Douglas' task is also to assist the agents in marketing and actual sales.

Its architectural products consist of aluminium and steel linear ceilings, aluminium cell ceilings, aluminium/steel wide panel ceilings, tiles and planks, exterior linear ceilings, sun louvre systems and aluminium facades. Again, its agents produce some of these products locally. Other products are produced at Hunter Douglas manufacturing units and shipped as made-to-measure products to agents. "The main advantage for our customers is that they can market a full ceiling programme without having to stock and produce all the many different ceiling types available," says Laak. "These products are both used in the commodity as well in the project markets."

At the Big 5 Hunter Douglas will be promoting its Luxalon range of aluminium ceiling and facade systems and its window covering products. It will also unveil its new curved linear ceilings, which was developed along with the machinery to enable curving, silhouette blinds and wide panel ceilings.

Business has been extremely good for Hunter Douglas' window covering products with a tremendous increase over last year. Architectural products, however, are slightly behind, but still quite satisfactory.

Hunter Douglas acquired several new companies this year, including an important manufacturer of sun louvres. "Besides a number of standard products, this company produces made-to-measure products," says Laak. "This means that we can translate an architect or consultant's design into an actual system."

In the UAE, Hunter Douglas is currently completing a prestigious contract for the new Dnata building in Dubai. "We have supplied the first curved linear ceiling ever supplied and installed in Europe and the Middle East ceiling for this project," says Laak. "The ceiling is a combination of curved 300C panels and 1,500 by 1,500 by 25-mm honeycomb lay-in tiles. These tiles, which are distinguished by their large size and flatness, allow a very high-gloss paint to be used. Also, the use of these panels for a lay-in ceiling is again unique."

Hunter Douglas Middle East is now expanding its reach into Iran and Sudan. "We believe that the prospects for the construction industry in the GCC are reasonably good," says Laak. "We have high expectations for Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Dubai and we also see a growing market in Iran."

Hunter Douglas will be at the Big 5 in hall 6, stand F281.