(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Danube group plans first real estate project; expansions eyed.
danube group chairman rizwan sajan.
billions of dollars worth of infrastructure commercial and residential projects helped boost the building material business in the middle east especially in the uae and it will continue to grow danube group chairman rizwan sajan told khaeej times in an interview.
world expo 2020 has created a lot of positiveness in the uae especially in dubai sajan said adding that the government has announced some mega projects and the construction sector started booming again after years of a slowdown that boosted the demand for building material products.
in addition to its core business of building materials the group is planning to launch its first real estate project worth half-a-billion dirhams next month by its brand ambassador and cricket legend sunil gavaskar through a new sister company.
“it’s a new venture for us and that’s the reason we’re starting with a mid-priced project. a plot has been bought in al furjan and it will be all villas. its planning is under way and it will be launched next month or maximum september this year” sajan explained.
established in 1993 as a small trading firm danube building materials has grown into one of the largest building materials company in the region that provides more than 25000 products in stock and in-house value-added services in all of its multiple set of showrooms across the region and india.
danube operates a total 30 building material outlets and 10 retail stores across the gulf countries. it also works in india with a franchisee model. sajan said that the company imports products from different markets such as switzerland canada and italy among many others. china still contributes up to 40 per cent of the products he added.
in terms of building material supply the company was involved in almost all iconic projects in dubai such as burj khalifa the dubai metro burj al arab and other big hotels in the emirate.
“the building material market is very good. there is a huge demand coming during the last six months because of a lot of new projects and also some stalled projects re-started. overall i see a lot of positiveness in the market and it’s not just construction sector but some other sectors thanks to world expo 2020 in dubai” he explained.
sajan said that there is an impression that all of this booming sentiment is related with expo 2020.
“i believe that dubai will survive after the mega exhibition in 2020 as people have reasons to come to dubai and the uae” he said.
talking about competition he said: “yes it’s increasing but the volume of business and share is also increasing. for us we have a large variety of products and no one else deals in more than 25000 products in the region. there are some big players but they mostly deal in one two or three products like steel or cement only.”
until last year danube was looking for an initial public offering but the company has dropped the plan. “so far there is no plan for the ipo” he confirmed.
outlook
since the market is booming in almost all directions and especially for the building material business danube expects at least a 15 per cent growth in its sales for 2014 compared to last year. the company reported dh2 billion sales for 2013. “we see a strong pipeline of projects under development across the residential retail leisure and hospitality sectors which has also been one of the major drivers for the company’s growth in the region” sajan added.
daunbe home expansion
earlier this year the company rebranded its retail business of danube buildmart to danube home by introducing bollywood actress juhi chawla as a new brand ambassador.
giving reason for the change sajan said: “it was made to look like a building material company and everybody was feeling that danube buildmart was selling steel cement wood etc which is not true.”
“actually it’s just a change of name and the business will be as usual. we will continue to focus on interior products such as lights ceiling garden etc” he explained.
the company is planning to open five new outlets for danube home. “these will be located in qatar riyadh oman and the uae” he said. the group will open its first danube home in riyadh saudi arabia in september this year with a total investment of dh30 million on 75000sqft of space. another danube home will be in sharjah by september this year and that will be about 14000sqft worth dh30 million.
the company will also expand the reach of its core business with the opening of three new danube building outlets — one in oman and two in saudi arabia according to the chairman.
“during the last 12 months we opened 10 building material outlets in saudi arabia with total investment of dh150 million” he informed.
— abdulbasit?khaleejtimes.com
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