Doing business in the KSA: Geoff Sanderson

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Geoff Sanderson, principal, Green Concepts Landscape Architects (GCLA), offers his take on doing business in Saudi Arabia.

What projects are you working on in Saudi Arabia?

In Jeddah we’re working on the Metropolitan Park, part of the proposed open space network that is an east-west park network that connects Jeddah’s waterfront to the mountains on the other side of the city. The part we are working on is 12km long and we’re doing that in a joint venture with Zuhiar Fayez, a very large consultancy in Saudi Arabia. We’re also doing three other sizable projects in Riyadh at the moment. That’s a fair start and these projects have all come in the last three months.

Did your company make the move to Saudi Arabia as a result of the slowdown?

Not as a result of the slowdown, we planned this a long time ago in anticipation of a significant slowdown in Dubai and started our move here before that actually happened, hence we’re already up and running. Our office is almost ready to open in Riyadh, we may also open an office in Jeddah and in Bahrain in the long term. Our company is part of the Packer Group in Australian and so we are well managed and well financed. We just started a major project in Tunisia and so there is also a chance of opening an office there as well. Our resources where such, that a move to Saudi Arabia was not only manageable, but it was a logical step for us to take.

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How has your business been affected by the slowdown?

Well some of our staff are currently on leave because 18 out of our 22 projects in Dubai were put on hold and that had an awful effect, except that some of our really big projects were outside Dubai. Nonetheless we had to downsize to a small extent, but we’re now rebuilding again and will be hiring some new staff next month.

Do you have any advice for people coming to the region on difficulties they may face in setting up here?

The reason it took us quite a while to come into the Saudi Arabian market is that we took our time trying to find the right sponsor. You must find a sponsor that is compatible with your business and highly regarded in the market. Our sponsor is the ABunayyan Group and they are just delightful people. I had meetings the managers of some of the companies that they already sponsored and everyone spoke very highly of the ABunayyan Group. Those companies were also very successful enthusiastic. I met with so many others that were only half interested and I knew that their agenda didn’t match ours. That’s the key piece of advice. Those that are hasty to get into the market might make very expense mistakes when it comes to choosing a sponsor. Our sponsor has opened so many doors for us and made it relatively easy for us in a way.

The second piece of advice is that it’s not an easy market unless you’re very well financed – you have to spend money to make money. You’ve got to expect to spend a lot of time without a cash flow. There may be some small or medium-sized consulting firms that think this is the new Makkah, but it comes with a lot of risk, the same as setting up in North Africa or Eastern Europe.