Esab Middle East, a leading manufacturer and supplier of welding and cutting equipment and consumables, has affirmed its commitment to deliver global solutions with a reassuring level of environmental awareness while opening its newest facility in Jebel Ali Free Zone South.

It is one of the first commercial buildings in the region to be certified to Leed Platinum - the highest possible environmental certification of any man-made structure that requires having to meet very stringent criteria and assessment.

The 6,500 sq m facility was built on a 10,800 sq m plot under the guidance of the Middle East Centre for Sustainable Development, ensuring its design, construction and sourcing of raw materials adhered strictly with the United States Green Building Council under its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (Leed) programme.

The Leed programme is an internationally recognised green building certification system that provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all environment-related metrics that matter most: energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Top-priority issues
“Environment, health and safety issues are top priority to Esab,” said Johan Fransson, managing director, Esab ME, adding that the company was proud to be among the first in the region to have a commercial facility that bears a platinum certificate from Leed.

Esab has been operating from Jafza for the past six years and within the region for the past 29 years.

As a purpose-built facility, an added value for its customers is the convenience of finding most of Esab ME’s commercial activities such as warehousing and logistics, equipment demonstration, train- ing and office functions under one environmentally friendly roof. And as a strong candidate to be amongst the region’s earliest Leed Platinum-certified commercial structures, the facility employed a solar-powered cooling system with hollow core tubes. For lighting, the facility utilises natural light and a motion-controlled lighting system which switches on and off automatically. In addition, it made use of wood that came from recycled materials or from renewable forests. For its water consumption, the facility also has its very own water recycling treatment plant.

Long history
Esab ME is part of Esab Group’s long history of market-leading invention and innovation in welding and cutting technology and in related equipment and consumables. First established in 1904, Esab Group has since 1994 been owned by Charter International plc - a company listed on the London Stock Exchange with a current stock market valuation of approximately £700 million. Its core business activities involve welding and cutting (Esab), and air and gas handling (Howden). In 2009, Esab Group’s total sales were £1.031 billion ($1.64 billion).

With operations in a large number of countries and a worldwide work force of 8,500, Esab is a world leader in the production of welding and cutting equipment and consumables.

The regional office was established in Dubai, UAE, in 1981 with eight staff. In 1995, the company shifted its office to the Al Quoz Industrial area as its customers continued to increase in number and a much bigger space was required to meet growing demand. Today, this facility serves as Esab’s dedicated after-sales centre.

In 2004, Esab Middle East FZE was formed as the company opened its second UAE office – this time inside the Jebel Ali Free Zone. In 2010, with its fast-growing business resulting in a 10-fold growth in staff, the company shifted to a new, bigger and purpose-built location within the Jebel Ali Free Zone.

The new facility has been specifically designed towards providing better quality sales, training and warehousing and logistics capabilities. More importantly, its spacious Process Centre provides customers a first-hand opportunity to receive a preview of some of Esab’s state-of-the-art and market-leading products.

For each discipline within its area of specialisation, continuous development of methods, materials and know-how is being directed to meet the challenges posed by a diversity of industry sectors, the company says.

“Esab is organised to deliver efficient, high-productivity solutions to meet the customers’ requirements in a manner that exceeds their expectations. The sectors served by the company include nuclear energy, oil and gas storage, pipelines and pipe mills, wind towers, process plants, offshore, transport, shipbuilding, mining and repair and maintenance of railway lines,” it adds.