RMD Kwikform eyes gap in Saudi market, says GM

The general manager of RMD Kwikform Saudi Arabia says there is a huge gap in the Kingdom’s formwork market when it comes to product innovation and technical support.

The UK-based formwork company set up its Saudi Arabian entity in July and is planning to open three offices next year, one in the Eastern, Central and Western provinces.

General manager Brian Street said he believes the company’s target of 30% market share within three years is achievable considering the state of the competition.

“We see a huge gap in the market because, with the exception of one Austrian-German company, there is very little product innovation and very poor service levels in Saudi Arabia.

“RMD provide certain levels of service as part of a package and if we just meet our minimum requirements we’re going to be doing much better than the rest of them. It is a great opportunity for us.”

Street said educating the market about the benefits of using a formwork system opposed to simple traditional formwork will be a main priority.

“We are not the cheapest company around but when we look at a project, we look for the right products to solve an engineering problem,” he said.

“The market here is highly labour intensive and our job is to demonstrate how engineered formwork systems will get huge savings in other areas such as labour savings and time savings.”

Since starting its Saudi operation RMD Kwikform has been awarded several contracts with Al Khodari and Sons, Krimmley Contracting and Saudi Binladin Group.

The company specialises in heavy civil construction and has been operating in the UAE for 30 years and also has offices in Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait.