Having achieved a whopping 25 to 30 per cent growth in business last year, Sigma Paints Saudi Arabia has set its eyes firmly on the Number One position in the regional paints market.

The paint major, which is now projecting itself as a multi-functional coatings manufacturer, has a series of expansion programmes on the cards that are aimed at propelling it towards its goals.
The company currently ranks among the top two paint manufacturers in Saudi Arabia and is one of the leading multinational paint manufacturers in the Middle East market, according to Mark Van Diemen, general manager of Sigma Paints Middle East, who is bullish about taking the firm to greater heights.
Van Diemen steers Sigma forward in the region with a passion that epitomises his character. Having stepped on board SigmaKalon/PPG more than two decades ago in 1987 at the decorative paints R&D application centre in Amsterdam, Holland, he has seen a career that has taken him through the challenges of setting up a greenfield paint manufacturing plant in China, then as a supply manager for marine coatings in the Far East, onward to India in 2002, to run to run Sigma’s operations there, before being appointed as manager of Sigma Paints Middle East, based in Dammam in early 2005.
Speaking exclusively to Gulf Construction, Van Diemen says: “Sigma has been consistently outpacing the growth of the Saudi paint market, which has been witnessing an annual growth of seven per cent. Saudi Arabia is the largest paint market in the GCC worth about SR2.8 billion ($747 million), with the decorative paint market accounting from more than 75 per cent of it.
“Having achieved a 25 to 30 per cent growth in 2007 compared to our sales figures for 2006, we have now set a target of a further 15 to 20 per cent growth for this year.”
“Over 2007, we have also invested heavily – Sigma’s highest ever – in production, logistics and warehousing. This investment in our production facilities in the Middle East has gone towards increasing capacity and enhancing the flexibility of our production,” he adds.
Van Diemen attributes the company’s success not only to the booming market conditions but also to its significantly increased research and development (R&D) efforts and customer focus.
Sigma Paints has traditionally been considered a decorative coatings specialist in Saudi Arabia, however, efforts are now under way to ensure market leadership also in the marine paints and protective coatings sectors.
“We are transforming from a technology-focused to a market-driven company and are exerting every effort to turn Sigma into a multi-functional, multi-market company. All three sectors – decorative, marine and protective coatings – are key to the company’s success and we aim to be the leaders in each,” he says.
“Our goal is to become the leading paint company in the Middle East – and I believe we are the leaders. Being a market leader does not necessarily have to be in terms of market share – because you can have the largest market share even though you supply cheap low-quality paint. For us, leadership means to be innovative, being ahead of the market, offering new ideas and solving customers’ problems.” he adds.

Innovation
To stay ahead in the market, Sigma has focused on innovation, quality and customer satisfaction. Van Diemen emphasises that paint should not only offer aesthetic benefits but also functional and technical advantages. Towards this end, Sigma has introduced a number of new products that include:
• Sigmacryl Premium ABF, an innovative anti-bacterial and fungicidal coating. This environmentally-friendly waterborne product affords vital additional protection in buildings by making ceiling and wall areas safer to touch. It also helps to keep rooms fresher by preventing bacteria and fungi that cause unpleasant odours from setting in, says Yanal Shekem, Middle East marketing manager of Sigma Paints Saudi Arabia. The product has been independently tested by Industrial Microbiological Services in the UK and is certified as 99.95 per cent effective as per the rigorous test standard JIS Z 2801. 2000: Determination of Antibacterial Activity, he states; and
• The new Sigmaflex Premium, which has been developed to provide protection and decoration to cementitious exterior substrates that are prone to cracking and concrete carbonation.
However, among the most striking new product developments in the protective coatings sector is a new technology to coat buried pipelines, known as “internal pipeline rehabilitation’.
“We are one of the few companies in the region that can provide this unique service which allows a pipeline to be coated while it is still buried,” says Van Diemen. “This in-situ cleaning and coating process provides a method to apply a coating to existing pipelines in order to stop corrosion processes and chemical attack. With this process, existing pipelines can be rehabilitated at a fraction of the cost of a new line.”
The “internal pipeline rehabilitation’ technology is already being employed in Sigma’s first such project in the region, which involves a 16 to 20 km stretch of pipeline in Kuwait. Having achieved significant success with the first order which it won a year ago, Sigma has also been appointed to undertake the second and third phases of this project, says Van Diemen.

Production & markets
Established in 1981, Sigma Paints Saudi Arabia is a consortium of Saudi businessmen (80 per cent) and the US-based PPG Industries, which has the 20 per cent stake that was previously held by SigmaKalon. PPG is now ranked the world’s number two in the coatings sector, following its acquisition of SigmaKalon early this year (see boxed item).
Sigma Paints Saudi Arabia has split production in Dammam with the bulk of the decorative range – almost all water-based – produced in the second industrial city. The solvent-based products are produced in Dammam’s first industrial city, the location of Sigma’s headquarters. Sigma has an annual capacity of 70,000 tonnes per year in the kingdom and is on a continuous quest to improve the supply chain, according to Van Diemen.
“It is always important to focus on improving the supply-chain and have a point of supply as close as possible to the customer, to ensure the highest level of service,” he says.
Hence, Sigma is now looking at expanding its production facilities as well as setting up new factories in the region. It intends to build a production facility in the UAE, a feasibility study for which has been finalised – the project is currently in the approval stage. Sigma also has plans to expand its Dammam factory as well as establish yet another factory in the GCC.
Sigma’s largest market in the Middle East is Saudi Arabia, followed by the UAE.
The company has one of the largest sales networks covering all the GCC and Levant countries as well as Egypt. It also has a production facility in Egypt – Sigma Paints (Egypt) Limited – which began operations in 2004.
Sigma currently employs a staff of about 500 highly-qualified and motivated people throughout its Middle East operation and manufactures its paints and coatings in compliance with local and international standards.
“The standards we had in place under SigmaKalon have been further enhanced under PPG. We comply with the relevant American, European and other internationally-recognised standards,” he comments.
Sigma has extensive R&D facilities for decorative, marine and protective coatings; a technical centre to develop colour for both the decorative and protective coatings sectors; and field technical services department with engineers on hand to train people on the field.
The paint manufacturer also provides a range of value-added services including training academies and technical seminars. Last year, training sessions were organised for a total of 1,200 third-party applicators while a further 550 in-house applicators received training during the year. In addition, technical and architects/consultant’s seminars have been held frequently over the past three to four years.
The technical seminars programme – which forms part of Sigma’s ongoing strategy for technical education and product awareness – targets and exceeds a total audience of over 2,000 every year. It includes six annual seminars for architects, consultants and contractors and 15 applicator seminars.
While these seminars are held in Saudi Arabia and more recently in Qatar and Egypt, Sigma is now looking at extending its coverage to include the UAE and the other countries in the region.
“Architect/consultant seminar topics have, over the years, covered a wide range of subjects from external specification considerations to quality aspects of coatings,” says Shekem. “Applicator seminars have both demonstrated and provided the opportunity for ‘hands on’ experience of a range of our decorative products.”
Another value-added service from Sigma Paints are showrooms dedicated for women in the Middle East, the first of which was opened in 2006 following market research that indicated the important role played by women in the decisions taken on paint colours and interior finishes. These centres have been well-received by the market and have helped in promoting brand awareness in the market, says Van Diemen.
Sigma is now in the process of launching new-technology colour-mixing systems throughout the Gulf, which will be in place by summer.

Goals
“Sigma’s motto is to ‘Deliver what we promise’,” continues Van Diemen, “not only in terms of supply but also in providing effective solutions and after-sales support to achieve the highest level of customer satisfaction.
“Our focus is on direct customer relationship and we strongly believe that a satisfied customer will spread the good word around. So if we do what we promise to do, it will strengthen our brand image and our reputation as a reliable paint company.”
“As part of our service, we aim to identify the problems that the market is facing from the end-user’s point of view, study the lifecycle cost of the paint and how we can reduce the customer’s maintenance cost and translate this information into paint development. We are on a quest to continuously enhance our services and are looking at the total concept, rather than just paint development, so that the market is served in a better way,” he says.
The market throughout the region has been affected by the rising cost of raw materials and the tumbling dollar and passing on the increased cost to the client is unavoidable, he says. However to offset these costs “we have increased our R&D efforts, fine-tuned our products to meet market needs and increased tremendously the efficiency of our sales and after-sales services,” he says.
Also, Sigma has not resorted to procuring raw materials that fall below its stringent standards in order to cut costs, he says, pointing out that “our core values are focused on the quality of our paint and service, which we do not compromise on.”
Commenting on the market, Van Diemen says: “While the construction boom will continue, we however notice that there is not enough attention paid to the quality of paint. The market is very price-conscious. Rather than looking at initial cost of a paint drum, it needs to be aware the long-term cost implications of paint quality. Our philosophy on pricing is based on cost/per sq m/year – as it is important to know how long the paint will last before you need to repaint again.”
Apart from the new-build market, Sigma enjoys a considerable volume of business from the maintenance market.
“The maintenance market is very big and is growing and the prospects for this market are very good but will depend on the local economy. What generally happens is that when the economy is in recession, among the first areas that suffer is maintenance, as people look at cutting costs.”
Commenting about Van Diemen’s leadership skills, an official of Sigma says: “He is a strong leader with a proactive approach, who does not accept any nonsense and practises what he preaches and hence commanding the respect of his staff. For example, when we have our staff evaluation tests, he is the first to take these tests, thus ensuring that none of his subordinates refuses to do so.”
Van Diemen’s motto for success is “passion” – and it is his passion for the paint business that is spearheading Sigma growth and helping motivate his staff. He believes in leading by setting an example.
“To succeed, you need to be passionate about what you do, be ready to admit your mistakes and learn from them, look for improvement, never be fully satisfied and work with a team spirit,” he concludes.