Recent high-profile contracts secured by Arcoma’s material-handling division as well as new product launches and expansions announced by the division are making Arcoma’s golden jubilee celebrations all the more sweeter.

Some of the prime contracts the division won werethose from Al Safi Danone, one of the Middle East’s leading dairy products companies; oil giant Aramco, Jubail United Petro Chemicals Limited and Saudi International Petrochemical Company.
Arcoma also supplied material-handling equipment to Giant Stores, Banaja (Saudi Import Company) and Al Ghutmi.
“The names indicate a high degree of acceptability of Arcoma’s products and services among top-end customers in Saudi Arabia,” remarked division manager Farhan Shah.
The company exclusively represents world-renowned Crown (Germany, USA) warehouse forklifts in Saudi Arabia in addition to reliable BAE (Germany) forklift batteries, Combursa (Spain) docking equipment and locally manufactured storage systems (manufactured under licence from Nedcon of Holland). Arcoma’s material-handling division’s range of services includes the design of warehouse and site facilities; total warehouse solutions in the form of cost-effective material handling, storage systems and docking solutions; operations optimisation and warehouse management systems.
“The company is marking its 50 years of existence in the Saudi market with major plans to upgrade its product line and services by introducing state-of-the-art high-tech equipment and solutions,” said Shah.
“Arcoma has a very strong presence in the local market and is an established supplier of industrial automation and packaging solutions. The company represents various world-renowned brands in this sector and offers high-quality products and dependable services.”
The company’s strong product range was bolstered with the introduction of a new product from Combursa - industrial doors and docking equipment.
Combursa develops and produces reliable, durable, safe and economical docking equipment such as dock levellers, dock shelters, overhead sectional doors, speed doors and PVC curtains, among other things. “The product is of the highest quality and ensures fast, cost-effective and, most of all, safe material handling during loading/off loading operations,” comments Shah.
The contract with Al Safi Danone involved the supply of Crown’s very sophisticated Very Narrow Aisle Turret trucks for operations inside their state-of-the-art self-supported warehouse at Al Kahrj, Riyadh.
“These machines operate in an aisle of a width of only 1,900 mm and can reach a working height of 12.5 m. The decisive factor behind Al Safi Danone’s purchase of Crown trucks was their robust design, stability with a four-point suspension system, reliability and a proven track record with customers in Saudi Arabia and GCC countries,” said Shah.
Al Safi Danone industrial buyer manager Khaiser Ahmed observed: “Crown is definitely not the cheapest option.  We carried out an extensive study before selecting these heavy-duty turret trucks. We visited a number of very narrow aisle installations of various forklift brands but were impressed with the level of satisfaction indicated by Crown users.”
In a rare achievement, Arcoma’s material-handling division received an achievement award for the third consecutive year for equalling and exceeding sales targets, becoming also the strongest Crown equipment distributor in the region.
  “Our success is due to our strong team of very focused sales engineers and after-sales support staff who are well trained to improve the uptime of the equipment supplied by us,” says Shah, who is the driving force behind the division’s achievements.
 Arcoma offers rent and leasing services as well as fleet management of material-handling equipment.
 “Our ‘rent-a-lift’ department offers forklifts of all kinds on a daily, weekly, monthly or long-term basis at very reasonable rates. The company has been making strong strides in this segment with more and more customers opting for renting material-handling equipment,” says Shah.
Arcoma is spreading its wings to meet growing demand. The company has announced it will shortly open a full-fledged branch including a showroom, workshop and parts stores in the fast-growing Al Jubail industrial area. Ahmed Al Saggaf, the area manager of Arcoma’s Eastern Province operations, is confident the new facility will substantially boost business in the region.
The company has already acquired a large showroom in the Al Khodairy area of Dammam where material-handling products along with packaging solutions products will be showcased. This facility will also sell parts to cover various product lines.