Set up in partnership with Huntair, global leaders in airflow management, the first-of-its-kind plant in the Middle East will help drive the group's current market share of 20 per cent in Saudi Arabia's SR9 billion home appliances and air-conditioning sector.
The new plant will produce 1,200 units annually, said Nawaf Al-Masoud, CEO of Alessa Advanced Projects and managing director of Huntair Arabia.
Al-Masoud pointed out that there had been a growing demand for such units that comply with green building standards and help decrease energy consumption by 70 per cent.
“Backed by the expertise brought in by Huntair, we are confident our innovative, cost effective solutions to airflow management will help us further expand our market presence in the region."
According to recent reports, the cooling industry in the GCC region has grown nearly 20 per cent in comparison with the same period last year, with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar witnessing the highest growth.
In addition to the burgeoning construction development, the hot weather, high purchasing power and the increased population growth are factors that contribute to the escalating demand for world-class cooling units.
Alessa Industries Group supplies air conditioning products to 40 countries including Iraq, Egypt, Syria and Jordan, said its managing director Abdullah Abdul Karim.
“We are currently pursuing a development strategy to expand our presence in the North African market," he said.
“As part of this ambition to cater to a wider market, we have increased the size of our warehouses over the Kingdom by 57 per cent from 86,000 square meters to 135,000 square meters.”
Abdul Karim said the demand for cooling units would increase further in the coming years following the boom witnessed in infrastructure and urban planning sectors.
“It is important for the GCC countries to agree on a unified set of environmental-friendly benchmarks that comply with design, building and construction regulations and endorse common standards,” he added.
Abdul Karim said: "The cooling manufacturers in the region are facing fierce competition from Chinese industrialists who enjoy a lower production cost due to subsidies offered by their government. A mutual agreement must therefore be reached among the GCC governments to safeguard local products manufactured by the region's home-grown companies across all sectors."
The air-handlers produced by the new manufacturing unit will be embedded with innovative technology to reduce noise pollution by about 40 per cent.
The cooling systems are also designed with a number of small fans that can be selectively turned off during periods of maintenance or in the requirement of lower cooling and thereby avoid a complete system shut down.
Developers and contractors in the Gulf region are increasingly becoming aware about the importance of adopting sustainable and environment-friendly products and solution.
In the UAE, Alessa Industries has won an AED30 million contract from Masdar for air-handlers and similar units worth US$83 million were used at the King Abdul Aziz University in Saudi Arabia.
