World-class test lab opens in Dammam
MILESTONE: Alturki Group Executive Director Rami Alturki, Exova Group CEO Grant Rumbles, left, and other company executives at the inauguration of a high-tech laboratory in Dammam recently. (AN photo by Imran Haider)
Published: Mar 16, 2010 00:30 Updated: Mar 16, 2010 00:30
DAMMAM: The Alkhobar-based Alturki Group and the UK-based Exova Group have joined hands to launch an SR25 million high-tech testing laboratory in Dammam’s Second Industrial City. It is being described as largest private-sector laboratory in the Middle East.
The UKAS accredited laboratory is spread over 3,600 square meters and is capable of providing a wide range of testing and analytical services.
“The laboratory will play a key role in the expansion of UKAS accredited testing services throughout the Kingdom,” said Alturki Group Executive Director Rami Alturki.
“The new facility is the latest extension of the Exova global network which already extends to over 130 locations in 25 different countries. We are confident that this laboratory will play a major role supporting Saudi industry to meet the highest international quality standards,” he said at the laboratory’s inauguration recently.
“The new facility will initially offer environmental testing-monitoring services, metallurgical testing and analysis, microbiology testing services and civil engineering testing,” said Grant Rumbles, CEO of Exova Group.
“This new flagship Saudi facility is a further addition to a well-developed network of 14 UKAS accredited laboratories extending throughout the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region,” he said. Since 1993 Exova has been the testing partner of choice for many of the high-profile private- and public-sector projects in the region, including Emirates Palace Hotel, Dubai Metro, Burj Khalifa, Atlantis Palm Jumeira, Dubai airport expansion and the YAS Island Hotel located on the newly opened Abu Dhabi F1 circuit.
Alturki Group is a leading family-owned investment company, which has been operating in Saudi Arabia for more than 35 years. The group’s subsidiaries and joint-venture companies are involved in contracting, trading, manufacturing, consulting and investment in the major industrial sectors of construction, oil and gas, real estate development, and environment and clean technology.
Rumbles said the decision to come to Saudi Arabia was very easy to make. “Saudi Arabia is where the action is. This is a country with a large population of nearly 26 million and Saudi Arabia is looking for quality services. We have a network of laboratories across 25 countries.”
On why should companies in Saudi Arabia come to Exova, he said: “With Exova they get a number of things. One, they get an internationally quality recognized laboratory. There are many testing companies, but they might not give you the same quality that somebody like Saudi Aramco would expect. So quality underpins everything we do at Exova. Second, it is the level of expertise that we have in the organization. We have 3,500 people across the world, and so we have a wide pool of expertise that we can draw upon for any solution. We know the region very well having been in Abu Dhabi now for almost 30 years now.”
Exova will welcome all comers. “We test everything,” Rumbles said. “Whether it is a turbine blade for an aircraft engine or checking a weld on the pipeline or the water we are drinking or the fish that we are eating - we test them all according to international standards.”
Rami Alturki said his group mainly concentrates on oil and gas, construction and environment.
“Environment is the new area we are into now,” he said. “When we decided to get into the environmental sector we realized one of the key areas was testing, and we did a market study and realized that Saudi Arabia is in need of a very high quality, very sophisticated world-class testing laboratory. So we started searching around and found Exova, and we joined hands. This is the first lab. Maybe we will have another one within the next few years in the Western Region.”
Rami Alturki sees a huge potential for expansion.
“We just got Aramco approval. Large Saudi organizations, such as Saudi Aramco, SABIC, the Royal Commision, Ma’aden, will need this kind of high-quality testing.”
