ALKHOBAR, 13 January 2004 — One of the major business groups in the Eastern Province, Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi & Bros., has entered into a joint venture with the American Crown Group, to set up an aluminum can manufacturing plant in Al-Aqba, Tunisia.
According to Saud Algosaibi, managing director of A.H. Algosaibi Group, the SR146 million project will go on line in January 2005 and will produce 500 million aluminum beverage cans annually. He said production from the new unit will meet the demands of Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco and may expand to other markets in the future. Work on the project has already started, he added.
The soft drink market in the Sub-Sahara region has been growing, driving the demand for aluminum cans.
Ahmad Hamad Algosaibi is the bottler for Pepsi Co. products in the Eastern Province. They already have four can manufacturing units in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the UAE.
John Clinton, first senior vice president of Crown Group, said the new venture has very healthy prospects. He said the last plant Crown Group set up was in Spain which started production 10 months after being commissioned. He said Crown has other can manufacturing units in Greece and Turkey.
The soft drink market in the Kingdom has also grown enormously during the past 5 years and despite an initial boycott of American drinks over the Palestinian issue, a 5 percent annual growth is projected.