For more than 20 years Alico has been working with Dorma, one of the world’s premier door control technology manufacturers and a global market leader in door controls, glass fittings, automatic doors and movable walls.

“Dorma provides top-notch fittings that meet and surpass quality standards of the highest order,” says Ben Shaw, regional director of Dorma Gulf/Arabia region. “Together, the two organisations have shared numerous successes and continue to help make the UAE a first-class destination, dominated by world-class structures,”
The Dh1.5 billion ($408 million) Emirates Palace project in Abu Dhabi speaks for its quality and class of structure. Scheduled for completion by the year-end, this is one of the projects on which Dorma and Alico have collaborated together. This Palace is a prime example of what this partnership can generate in the region,” he says.
An array of prestigious developments have drawn the two companies together over the years, including the construction of several complexes in Dubai Internet City, current upgrades being undertaken at the Dubai International Airport, the Dubai International Convention Centre – a major expansion undertaken at the Dubai World Trade Centre complex and completed in January 2003, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, and several Emaar towers at the Dubai Marina site, Shaw adds.
Out of Dorma’s five major divisions, its Door Controls division - which encompasses door closing systems, door fittings, furniture, locks and panic hardware - generates about 80 per cent of the total business it conducts with Alico.
“The outstanding technical credentials and absolute dependability and functional efficiency of our division’s product range have made it a popular choice among architectural and building professionals,” says Mahmoud Al Khayyat, head of Dorma’s Door Controls division in the Gulf. “Dorma’s ITS 96 door closer, used in the Emirates Palace project, is a prime example of the technological excellence that attracts interest and buyers.
“Our product lines combine design elegance, installation flexibility and functional reliability, making them second-to-none,” says Khayyat.
Peter Grove, commercial manager of Alico’s UAE headquarters points out that it is the quality of Dorma’s products that initially drew the interest of its representatives.
“Our clients demand top-quality products and we don’t make compromises in this regard, that’s perhaps the prime reason our relationship with Dorma has continued to strengthen over the years,” says Grove.
Working out of Ennepetal, Germany, the company has a worldwide workforce of 5,500, and has posted sales of 649 million euro ($827 million) in the fiscal year of 2003-04. Dorma is a globally active supplier of door technology systems and is the world market leader in the door control and mobile room partitioning sectors.
It is also considered to be second largest company worldwide in the automatic door systems segment.
Subdivided structurally into five divisions – door control, automatic, glass, security/time and access control (STA) and movable walls – the company’s main production plants are located in Europe, Singapore, Malaysia, China and North and South America.
Dorma’s UAE operations are based in Dubai, which also serves all GCC countries, North Africa and the Middle East region. Its two offices in Dubai – located in the Jebel Ali Free Zone and Garhoud – each employ about a dozen people. In addition, it has an assembly, production, sales and distribution plant in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, staffed by some 60 personnel.