Model Business

Ahmad Matar
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Benjamin Roberts speaks to Al Arrab Contracting Company chief executive Ahmad Matar about how its electro-mechanical business exemplifies the company’s appetite for growth and ongoing challenges.

Any company that launched in Dubai in 2006 would have since experienced something of an exciting start, given the market fluctuations between then and now. But in June of that year Saudi Arabia-based Al Arrab Contracting Company launched its electro-mechanical business, Al Arrab Electromechanical Engineering (AEME) in the UAE, to capture the market opportunities for electrical, mechanical and telecommunication systems.

AEME is a good example of Al Arrab Contracting Company’s strategy, in which new subsidiaries are quickly set up where there is sufficient business to create a pocket of expertise and compete with specialist rivals. At the helm is Matar, who is into his fourth year at the company and his thirteenth in Dubai.

“We do everything electro-mechanical, including lighting, power supply, standby generators, evacuation systems and lightning protection systems, as well as drainage, water supply, air-conditioning, plumbing, heating and ventilation,” says Matar.

Market conditions have not been the only change for AEME and Matar. In the last quarter of 2007 the company already established an office in Qatar – a move which now seems astute given the shift in big business toward the gas-rich state.

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By the middle of 2010, the company has a substantial business line in the country, most notably seven of the Porto Arabia Towers in the nascent Pearl Qatar development, located offshore from Doha’s West Bay area. The contract for the construction of the first three towers had been won by the parent company in November 2006. Two of the seven have so far been handed over.

The Pearl Qatar is a familiar concept to any who followed the development of Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah, though with elements of unique design and layout. The island, developed by United Development Company, will house 35 000 people and will contain three large bays and ten precincts, as well as shops, schools and restaurants.

The differences between the projects go further, however. To an extent the latter project has learnt from the former, which was built in the haste of an overheating property boom. It is a question of a better process, explains Matar, and central to this, is the timing in which different companies are brought in to do their portion of the work. “The two projects have a similar philosophy as ‘island’ projects. Perhaps the first suffered technically as they started the infrastructure at the same time as the compaction and backfilling.

“In Qatar, it is more organised and scheduled, as there is the finishing, the backfilling, then the infrastructure, then the building. The project has learnt from the experience of Palm Jumeirah, and in doing so it has added value,” says Matar.
He adds that, when he visited the site to start construction, the compaction and backfilling had been finished, “so it was a lot less of a headache for us.” For AEME’s specific line of work, there are a number of intricate details in the towers, in particular a fire alarm system that includes a voice evacuation system, heat detectors, speakers, sounders and an emergency lighting system with a central battery.