Sika plans to conquer Saudi market

Sika has big plans for the Saudi market

Construction chemicals giant Sika plans to be in the top three chemicals companies in Saudi Arabia within three years according to marketing manager Hesham Magdy.

Sika formed its own Saudi Arabian entity at the beginning of the year which is owned in fifty-fifty partnership between Saudi investors and the Swiss parent company.

Speaking to Construction Week at the Sika stand at this year’s Saudi Build exhibition in Riyadh, Magdy said Saudi Arabia is the main priority for the global company.

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“The Latin America region and the India Middle East and Africa (IMEA) regions are the two leading regions globally and Saudi Arabia is leading in the IMEA,” he said.

“It is amazing, the Saudi market is a booming market and the Swiss are putting a lot of investment into Saudi since the recession hit Europe. They are transferring the knowledge, experience and money into this booming country because we know that Saudi had dedicated a lot of money towards construction."

“We expect the government to invest US $106.6 billion (SAR 400 billion) into construction and around 1% of that will go towards the construction chemicals market - that’s around $1.2 billion, and of that, Sika currently has a market share of about 10-15%.

Magdy said he expects 50% of the turnover from Sika’s IMEA region will soon be coming from Saudi Arabia. Facilitating this will be the construction of a 40,000m2 chemicals plant in Saudi Arabia’s Western Province city of Ragibh, the largest plant in the IMEA region.

Construction started two months ago and will be completed over stages. Costing $13.3 million, stage one will cover around 30% of the site and is expected to be completed in one year from now. It will produce liquid and powder products.

Stage two will produce apoxy products and will commence construction according to market demand, said Magdy.

Sika management will give a presentation tonight at 8.30pm at the Al Maqsor Meeting Hall opposite the Riyadh International Exhibition Centre where Saudi Build is taking place.

The presentation will discuss the history of Sika, the new company in Saudi Arabia, the new factory as well as the company’s products and sustainable solutions.