Zamil Food Successful Equation

Traditional values combined with modern technology are behind the success of Zamil Food Industries in the frozen food market in the Gulf RANJITH DE SILVA, Sales & Marketing Manager Zamil Food Industries Ltd IN the port city of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, sits a massive industrial complex that is a symbol of the Kingdom''s vision of the future development. It is the site of the world''s largest petrochemical complex and many other industries that have contributed to the country''s wealth and stature not only in the Arabian Gulf but also the world. Not all of the plants operating in the complex are behemoths, of course. This is not to say that they are less important or insignificant. Indeed, these smaller companies fulfil and sustain the basic requirements for potable water and food. One such company is Zamil Food Industries Ltd, which specializes in frozen foods, value-added and readyto- eat meat and poultry products, and ice cream. It began just over 30 years ago as a catering operation. "Zamil Food Industries started in 1978 as a joint venture partner to support with food items for catering services in labour camps," explains Sales & Marketing manager Ranjith De Silva. In the three decades since, Zamil Food has become one of the leading importers of frozen food items, mainly beef, mutton, lamb and poultry as well as fish and vegetables, from all over the world. This wide variety of frozen food products from worldwide are distributed and marketed throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition, Zamil Food imports all meat, poultry and dairy that it processes at the 3,000-metric ton facility in Jubail Industrial City. This food processing division produces meat products such as burger patties, chicken nuggets and sausages for institutional, commercial and catering industries as well as retail markets throughout the Gulf. It is the same for company''s dairy plant, also in Jubail, which makes various popular flavours of ice cream that are packed in retail formats (cups and tubs) as well as institutional packs (4-litre tubs and 10-litre pails). "Zamil Food products are sold both in retail and trading, but mostly we sell in bulk," Mr De Silva says. "At present the company has a share of 3% - 4% of the retail market for both Dairy & Meat." Compared to other food processing firms, Zamil Food may not have the market share of its competitors and the volume of Saudi Arabia''s leading companies but it does have a legacy that it shares with its parent firm, the Al Zamil Group. The Al Zamil Group, among the most well known family-controlled conglomerates in the Gulf, is widely acknowledged in the region as one o f t h e most successful merchant families to diversify and expand its industrial and commercial interests. An Entrepreneurial Legacy The Group traces its beginnings to a trading house founded in the 1930s by the late Sheikh Abdullah Al-Hamad Al Zamil, a Saudi Arabian entrepreneur who e stablished a modes t trading entity selling food items and textiles in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Later, he expanded his business successfully into real estate investments in Saudi Arabia. By the early 1970''s, the sons of the late sheik took advantage of the industrialization program of Saudi Arabia and the government''s support for the private sector to continue their father''s entrepreneurial legacy. In a region where families run 75% of leading businesses, the family is now one of the Gulf''s most influential merchant families and Al Zamil is now one of the Kingdom''s largest private enterprises with business interests that include petrochemicals, plastics, construction, food processing, steel fabrication and travel services. The founder''s 12 sons are all active in running these various businesses and the Group is now active in over 55 countries. In 1998, they foVapormax