The UAE's Mammut Building Systems claims to have captured 60 per cent of the market for pre-engineered steel buildings (PEBs) in the UAE in the past 18 months.

The company, which claims to be the largest manufacturer of PEBs in the UAE, attributes its meteoric rise to be a result of several strategic decisions taken in the past couple of years.

States general manager Muayyad Khudairi, When I joined Mammut we made three strategic decisions: To recruit the best and most experienced talent in the PEB industry, to upgrade our building components to the highest standards in the industry and to increase plant capacity to levels that will enable us to deliver steel buildings in six to eight weeks.

We have achieved all of these goals. Today, our average monthly sales have increased 10 to 12 times the monthly average two years ago. Our monthly production capacity is approaching 3,500 tonnes and plans are under way to increase it to 6,500 tonnes, and we continue to seek and recruit the best talent in the PEB industry, Khudairi says.

Khudairi, who was appointed early this year, holds degrees in civil engineering and industrial management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and has been in the PEB industry for 30 years.
After spending his initial five years in the US, Khudairi moved over to Kirby Building Systems of Kuwait to function as its area sales manager, engineering manager, regional sales manager for Saudi Arabia, director of sales and marketing and finally as the general manager for eight years.

His next 10 years were spent with Saudi-based Zamil Steel during which he filled the positions of general manager and vice president of the pre-engineered steel building division.
Mammut is the only PEB manufacturer to offer the supply and erection of its buildings in the UAE and has its own erection staff of 50.

''And unlike other PEB manufacturers the company works closely with all contractors and undertakes the erection of its buildings (specially in the emirate of Abu Dhabi) thereby saving the general contractor the high markup on the supply that is often applied by specialised PEB contractors.

With fully-staffed sales offices in the UAE (Dubai and Abu Dhabi), Qatar (Doha), Oman (Muscat), Sudan (Khartoum), Bangladesh (Dhaka and Chittagong), Pakistan (Lahore and Karachi) and Sri Lanka (Colombo), the company plans to open sales offices in Saudi Arabia (Dammam), Bahrain (Manama) and Kuwait (Kuwait City) before the end of this year.

Mammut claims that its entry in the Saudi and Kuwait markets and its determination to acquire a high market share in these countries will be of great benefit to contractors, owners and developers as prices in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are artificially propped at much higher levels than in the UAE.

Khudairi continues: Our recruitment of only the top talent in the PEB industry has made us the best in customer service in this industry and the most attentive to details. Our response time to requests for quotations, to jobsite queries, is the fastest in the industry.

''More and more contractors in the lower Gulf are approaching us for new projects due to their disappointment with our competitors. We are continuously improving our operational systems with an emphasis on fast response to any query at any stage of the supply and/or supply and erection process.

The company's state-of-the-art factory was completed in March 2002 in Sharjah's Hamriyah Free Zone.
In December, the same year, it completed the upgrade of all its building components to the same level as that of the highest quality PEB manufacturer in the Middle East and since then has upgraded its product even further, he says.

Examples of Mammut's product superiority include the shot blasting of all its primary steel members prior to painting (versus brush cleaning or solvent cleaning); the application of 50 microns of alkyd oxide primers (versus 35 microns); the use of hot rolled sections for bearing end frames (versus light gauge cold framed members), 0.7 mm-thick eave gutters (versus 0.5 mm), aluminum-zinc coated steel cladding (versus galvanised or zinc coated steel cladding), hot dip galvanised anchor bolts (versus black steel),  1.5-mm-thick roof skylights (versus 1 mm or less) and a countless other features that make a Mammut Building superior to others, claims Khudairi.

Of all the competitive advantages that we have over our rivals the one we are proud of most is our people. We have picked people who sincerely perceive our customers' interests to be as important as our own interests. Our people remain our greatest asset and with their commitment and inspiration we will achieve our vision 2005, which is to become the largest supplier of pre-engineered steel buildings in the Middle East by the end of 2005, he concludes.
Mammut will promote its products and services at stand 2G61 at this year's Big 5 show.