The Saudi Arabian Glass Company (Sagco) plans to expand its plant capacity through two additional glass furnaces that will be built during 2007 and 2010 to meet the growing demand for glass containers in both local and foreign markets.

Glass is the most eco-friendly form of packaging for beverages and food products as it is made out of natural materials. Saudi Arabia presents an ideal site for the manufacture of glass, as most of the raw materials are freely available. Silica sand is the primary raw material and is available in abundance in the central and the northwestern regions of Saudi Arabia.  Likewise, limestone is also available in various parts of the country. The only primary ingredient that is imported is soda ash.  Natural soda ash is imported from the US where it is mined from natural sources and shipped to Saudi Arabia. 
Glass manufacturing is an energy-intensive process but energy prices in Saudi Arabia are among the lowest in the world. For these reasons, Saudi Arabia is a natural environment for the manufacturing of glass products. Sagco was established in 1985 by Turner Associates specifically to take advantage of the availability of the necessary primary ingredients and the low energy cost for the manufacturing of glass containers.
Today Saleh and Abdulaziz Abahsain own 95 per cent of Sagco. They acquired control of the company in 2004. Al-Marbae Company, Jeddah, holds the remaining shares.
From a modest start of 60 tonnes per day capacity through a single furnace and two production lines, Sagco expanded its capacity 10-fold by 1996 to reach 650 tonnes per day. Sagco also added online labelling systems and to satisfy the changing needs of the bottlers added the largest printing facilities. Today, Sagco can label, sleeve and print the bottles. It boasts the best Quality Control systems equivalent to any glass plant in the world and added on line the most versatile machines to meet the quality standards set by multi-national bottlers.
Sagco’s annual export of more than 7,000 forty ft containers to a variety of international customers also contributes significantly to the local economy.
The company achieved the ISO 9001:2002 mark and the HAACP certification during 2004 and is on course to finalise all the pre-requisites for the ISO: 14000 certification.
The factory is located in the Jeddah industrial zone near the Jeddah Islamic Port employing 550 employees.
Sagco has a strong customer base in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Italy, Spain, the US and Canada, in addition to clients in the Middle East and Africa.