Awide range of palace, hotel and shopping mall projects has been keeping Alarabi Decoration and Construction Company busy over the past year as the Jeddah-based interior decoration specialist continues to fill up its order books with similar luxury developments spread throughout Saudi Arabia as well as in the other GCC countries.

The company says its latest orders have come from both Saudi Arabia and Qatar and include the Mall of Arabia, Stars Avenue Mall and Equestrian Club in Jeddah, Al Hofuf Mall in Hofuf, Mall of Dhahran extension in Dhahran, Christian Dior outlets in Jeddah and Riyadh and Doha in Qatar as well as Louis Vuitton shops in Doha and various private villas in Jeddah and Riyadh.
“With the current boom in the construction industry and increased customer awareness of our services, we have registered a significantly higher turnover during 2007. With the tremendous impetus being given to infrastructure development in the kingdom over the next few years, we expect this trend to continue for a while,” says Renato Zimmerman, general manager of the company.
“A large number of high rise buildings and other developments are now rising on the horizon and these projects will shortly enter their finishing stages. Hence over the year, we will be focusing on maintaining our leadership position in the interior decoration market while enhancing our quality and range of services,” he adds.
Over the past 26 years, Alarabi has undertaken a variety of decorative gypsum works, special painting and artistic decoration works for numerous projects and clientele across the Middle East. Its expertise covers the entire spectrum of decoration works from gypsum decorative ceilings and walls to artistic painting applications; and from furniture and special woodworks to marble mosaic and tiling works for pools and murals.
“We plan to reorganise our company’s structure and increase the number of skilled workers, which will allow us to offer a better quality of service to cater to the increased demand from our clients,” he comments.
Alarabi has completed several major projects in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. Among its most recent projects in Saudi Arabia are the decoration works for Al Nour Mall in Madinah, Red Sea Mall in Jeddah, Sephora Rashid Mall in Al Khobar and the modification of various royal palaces for leading Saudi contractor Saudi Oger.
Some of its major ongoing projects include the supply and installation of gypsum suspended ceiling works in Makkah at the King Abdul Aziz Endowment development, gypsum ceiling and cornices (around 93,000 sq m) at Le Meridien Hotel and Towers, and fibrous gypsum works at the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs  HRH building in Jeddah, where it is also handling the painting works.
“We are also working on two subcontracts for the Riyadh-based Haifa Al Jazira. These include the Mall of Arabia in Jeddah, where we are supplying and installing Prodema ceilings as well as undertaking marble installation works; and the Mall of Dhahran, where we are responsible for the supply and installation of acrylic ceiling works,” Zimmerman says.
From its modest beginnings as a small establishment founded by Faisal K Adham in Jeddah in 1982, Alarabi Decoration and Construction has grown into one of the key interior and exterior décor specialists in the Middle East, with its head office in Jeddah and a branch office in Riyadh. It converted into a limited liability company in 2004. In the same year, it set up an office in Kuwait known as Arabi International for Decoration, which has continued to capture a growing market share of the decoration business in that country every year. More recently in January 2006, Alarabi established an office in Abu Dhabi – known as Alarabi Decoration – which has been involved in a multimillion-dollar refurbishment of Intercontinental Hotel in Abu Dhabi in cooperation with Kocache Enterprises.
Alarabi is staffed by a large team of qualified professionals that includes 800 craftsmen and has a 2,000 sq m workshop in Jeddah and a 1,500 sq m workshop at its branch office in Riyadh.
“The construction industry in the region is now reaping the benefits from a strong economy, surging oil revenues, government incentives and relaxed laws in the real estate business, which have led to the private sector launching an increased number of building projects. These include office and residential complexes, banks, shopping malls, schools, hospitals, hotels and resorts, among others. Besides the new buildings, there is also a constant requirement for upgrading, renovation and refurbishment of the existing ones. In addition, the standard of living of the population has been rising rapidly, with consumers focusing on good quality products, exclusive designs and durability. All these factors are fuelling the demand for the services of high end interior and exterior decor companies such as ours. Over the past few years, we have been continuously striving to firmly establish ourselves as a market leader in the decorative works sector while focusing on bettering our customer relationship – which we believe is a key to our success,” concludes Zimmerman.