A business administration graduate from California State University-Los Angeles, he is the son of Nasser Alsorayai, co-founder of Abdullah and Nasser Alsorayai Company for Carpet and Rugs.
The company has over the years turned into the multifaceted Alsorayai Industrial Group.
Soon after his graduation, Alsorayai joined his family's company and was appointed director of financial management.
In this role, he played a key part in the 58-year-old company's decision-making process. In 2007, the group went for restructuring, and Saleh Alsorayai was appointed the chief executive officer. Now he is the group's managing director and member of its board of directors.
Among Saleh Alsorayai's many important contributions is the approving and supervising, with the consensus of the group's partners, the transition of the Alsorayai family business into a publicly-listed company on the Saudi stock market (Tadawul).
He supervises the group's day-to-day business operations and is responsible for managing and directing more than 2,000 employees.
The group is the largest manufacturer and exporter in the Saudi carpet industry.
In this exclusive interview with Arab News, he reflects on the many aspects of Saudi carpet industry and explains the group's forays into different sectors, especially the burgeoning real estate business.
"The Saudi property and construction sector offers the best investment opportunities in the region," he says.
"Over 285 real-estate projects are under design or execution stages.
"They are valued at a massive $260 billion (SR975 billion)."
Following are excerpts from the interview:
The journey began 58 years ago when Alsorayai Trading and Industrial Group was incorporated in Makkah as Abdullah and Nasser Alsorayai Company. Since then, the company started importing hand-made and machine-made carpets from across the Middle East and the Near East. The board is chaired by Abdul-Aziz bin Nasser Alsorayai and I am the managing director. In 1985, our company inaugurated the first carpet and rug production facility aiming to meet and satisfy the demand of the local market with the highest standards of quality and luxury that match and surpass imported products. The company, with its high quality, and luxury philosophy and the determination of its management on being the only full production cycle across the industry, has opened a number of production facilities, including the Synthetic Thread Factory in Jeddah (which produces polypropylene and nylon threads in order to give this factory a wide variety of the high quality and beautiful threads that are used in manufacturing carpets and rugs) and the Matex Factory (producing the raw materials used in carpet and rug industry). Owing to the company's keenness to upgrade its manufacturing establishments and to support them with state-of-the-art equipment, the company achieved topnotch certifications one of which was the ISO:9001 certification, That attest to the effectiveness of the quality and production system Alsorayai group implements.
In Alsorayai Group, we have always been looking ahead; we made many plans to develop our business in the Kingdom. Several case studies have been developed with a view to expanding the business, both locally and internationally. However, they remain under future considerations and study.
Our real-estate investment operations will include trading in land plots and development of residential, commercial and service complexes and industrial or commercial galleries and storage facilities for the purpose of sale, purchase or management on behalf of the group or any third party. In addition, our activities will also focus on general contracting inclusive of construction, maintenance, refurbishment, restoration and demolition. We attribute this step to the annual growth the Saudi real estate market is realizing (exceeding 7 percent) driven by strong local demand on residential and commercial developments in addition to the growth in the hospitality industry, as projects in this field are valued at more than SR2 trillion. The Saudi property and construction sector offers the best investment opportunities in the region. More than 285 real estate projects, valued at $260 billion, are currently in their execution or design stages across the Kingdom. This is besides those projects that have been completed during the past few years. Support and logistic service operations to be undertaken by the group will include transportation, shipping, storage, customs clearance, and corporate mergers and acquisitions. Logistic services sector revenues exceeded $13 billion in 2010, and are projected to exceed $20 billion by 2015. Being the largest GCC market, Saudi Arabia has a massive purchasing power, and thus a fertile ground for logistic service providers to prosper in the Middle East. The two new areas of activities will be proposed before the special general meeting, after obtaining official approval from the competent authorities for the addition of these activities and for holding this special general meeting; that is in order to amend the provisions of Article No. 2 of the group's Articles of Association to accommodate this expansion.
As I said before, we are always planning to develop our business as a publicly-listed company. Raising the capital in the future is a possibility, but it is our board that will take a decision on this.
The carpets and rugs industry has a long standing in Saudi Arabia. In the last three decades, it has evolved dramatically. Saudi Arabia is now the third largest country in the world in terms of production and export of carpets. As you know, we export our products to more than 65 countries around the world, including developed countries such as China and the United States. We currently occupy the 14th rank for the largest rare plants in the world; we seek to become No. 10 in the next five years as the largest factories in the world.
The first Home Style business project was launched in Jeddah this year, entitled THE HOME STYLES. It is the first step for a long-term investment in this segment. We have planned to launch a number of branches in the Kingdom in next few years because Saudi consumers now like to find everything they need at one place. So our main target is to reach Saudi consumers everywhere in the Kingdom.
Our group has reached high levels of Saudization. Saudis have proved themselves in various roles, especially in management positions. However, we still need young Saudis to work in the factories' heavy-work department. As for Nitaqat, I think it is an important national project. The idea is to encourage companies and Saudi businessmen to tap on to young Saudi talent.
The Alsorayai Group is greatly concerned with CSR; we have developed many programs in this respect. Last year we launched a series of Islamic awareness messages through various media outlets. They dealt with the propagation of Islamic morals. Also, we have signed many agreements with vocational training institutes to educate Saudi youth about the industry. And we started training for them at our factories.
Robust growth will be seen in Saudi Arabia's economy this year and next with the Kingdom remaining a key destination for foreign investment. The outlook has turned even more bullish on medium-term prospects with political stability remaining intact and fiscal stimulus spending firmly under way. Saudi Arabia's relative political calm in the midst of the regional crisis would encourage greater levels of fixed investment, with growth forecast rates of 12 percent and 10 percent in 2011 and 2012.
