National Factory for Foodstuff Production (Al Waha) is pushing ahead with plans to increase capacity by introducing new products and entering new markets.
Established in 1973, Al Waha has been providing quality food products covering all Saudi markets and other Gulf states with 18 branches and a total staff strength of more than 250 experienced and qualified personnel.
The company, fully Saudi-owned and based in Riyadh, is one of the pioneers in the production of fruit juices, tomato paste and flavoured milk, says Zaki K Katanani, sales and marketing manager.
Al Waha is part of the Al Watania for Industries Company, which is involved in a wide and diverse range of business activities and is a member of Al Watania Holding Company.
Explaining the packaging process, Katanani says the raw materials are received, prepared, processed, homogenised and pasteurised. Then they are filled (hot fill for cans and cold fill for Tetra Pak), packaged, stored, handled and distributed.
The factory's current capacity is 60,000 tonnes per year (tpy) of juices; 62,000 tpy of tomato paste and 70,000 tpy of milk.
Currently the company is carrying out trial introduction of several multi-flavoured juices. [QQ]Al Waha also plans to introduce a specially selected range of products to the European market.
Last year the company's total production was about four million cartons, of which about 82 per cent was sold locally.
Our export sales have registered a reasonable increase, and we expect a continuous improvement especially after the opening of new markets and the introduction of the new products, says Katanani.
Commenting on the developments within the industry, he says the sector has shown continuous growth and becoming more sophisticated, thanks to the public awareness of the benefits of healthy beverages.
"Customers are becoming more demanding and this will put more pressure on sales margins," he says.
The market is facing pressure from imported goods of lower specifications which are sold at prices lower than the cost of the locally-manufactured products.
"We believe that even at a time when existing supply exceeds the demand, high quality standards and specifications are the number one concern," he says.
