Almarai, the Middle East’s largest dairy foods and fruit juice company has unveiled a major US$667 million (SR2.5 billion) investment plan with more than US$50 million earmarked for its supply chain management (SCM) and information technology.
The company, whose name means green pastures in Arabic, has unveiled the wide-ranging investments to strengthen the company’s market position and enhance productivity. According to Almarai’s marketing manager, John O’ Kelly, the company will spend US$34 million (SR130 million) for its supply chain management, which includes sales centres and distribution networks and US$16 million (SR60 million) for information technology and networking.
Almarai, the 27-year Riyadh-based company is also one of the largest integrated dairy food companies in the world and the leading dairy foods company in the Middle East. A major chunk of the investment drive will be in manufacturing, transportation, renovation and new dairy farms, which are scheduled to operational in 2005.
The Saudi company is one of the largest IT users in the region having recently achieved the BS7799 certification for its ERP (SAP R/4) implementation and also one of the early adopters of IP telephony for its operations.
With more than 4,000 employees the dairy farming company claims more than 40% market share in the GCC. A large part of its revenues come from the production and distribution of milk, laban, yoghurt, juice, butter, cheese, cream and dairy desserts.
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