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Introducing the worlds largest dairy! Almarai Dairy, Saudi Arabia Four D-75 parlors |
A long commitment to quality and freshness! Almarai means 'green pastures' in Arabic, a name that has now become synonymous with freshness, quality and service across the Middle East. The Almarai success story began in 1976, when HH Prince Sultan bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Kabeer recognized the potential to transform traditional dairy farming in Saudi Arabia in order to meet the needs of a burgeoning domestic market. Under his visionary guidance and patronage, numerous agricultural projects were developed towards achieving this objective, and what began with the processing of fresh milk and laban soon expanded into modern dairy farms and state-of-the-art processing plants. In the early 90s, Almarai entered into a restructuring and reinvestment phase moving away from a decentralized to a centralized structure. The first Central Processing Plant was commissioned replacing 5 decentralized plants. Almarai also established four large dairy farms in the central area replacing ten decentralized small farms. This set up Almarai as the low cost producer in the region. Since then the Company has continued to invest heavily in technologically advanced production facilities and equipment. A second and larger Central Processing Plant incorporating a new cheese plant was commissioned in late 2005. A new super farm has been commissioned and a second one is currently under construction. Today we are capable to serve more than 34,000 customers within the GCC on a daily basis with high quality products. The success of Almarai is not only due to its sophisticated farms, Central Processing Plants and its well established distribution network within the Gulf countries which together focus on maintaining the quality of Almarai’s products from cow to consumer but is also the result of our continued focus on customer satisfaction as well as the commitment, passion and motivation of our employees. In August 2005, Almarai entered into a new phase, moving from being a privately owned company to a publicly listed company. The objective is to continue to deliver high quality products daily to our consumers and to satisfy our 125,000 new shareholders. During the first quarter of 2007, Almarai acquired 100% of the shares of Western Bakeries Company Limited and International Baking Services Company Limited through the issuance of 9 million new shares. The share capital amounts to SAR 1,090 million divided into 109 million shares with a par value of SAR 10. This acquisition expanded the product range of the Almarai Group to pastries, cakes, breads and other bakeries products. Almarai has since become one of the foremost food companies in the Gulf. The dedication of the company's employees and the leadership and direction of management has been the cornerstone of Almarai's success. Nowadays, Almarai is an integrated organisation spanning the food supply chain from dairy farms and arable farms through to retail outlets in six gulf countries, with expected sales of SAR 3.8 billion (US$ 1 billion) a year. |