Magnificent Achievement for Al-Waleed Co. in Kuwait
Sa’ad Dereya is the manager of Al-Waleed stone factory and one of the most active members in Stone & Marble cluster. He is self-motivated, result-focused and has strong teamwork skills inspiringothers to be dedicated and productive. “My adventure started in 2015 when I had the opportunity to participate in the Palestinian Industries Exhibition in Kuwait. My passion for change and previous involvement in other exhibitions encouraged me to take the risk to invest in new markets, I prepared my products in order to attract customers and share the Palestinian stone with international investors.”
Unlike other exhibitions, this one combined many kinds of products which need more planning and risk management. Most of the customers were interested in Palestinian stone, Dereya met a Kuwaiti architect who works on 3D designs for buildings. The designing process includes scanning for the actual stone in order to provide the customers with a prototype of the design. Sa’ad said “the architect loved my products, and considering that there is a gap in his work, we decided to establish a selling point which included diffident kinds of stone. There were many obstacles in managing it financially, unfortunately Kuwait policy does not allow foreigners to invest in their country without partnering with a Kuwaiti citizen.”
The store was established in 2015 This golden opportunity of opening a selling point internationally has not only widened the chances of thePalestinian products to flourish abroad, but also led Al-Waleed company to have up to 15% increase in their sales the year after this store was opened. This has also inspired other companies to consider participating in potential future exhibitions after acknowledging the huge success the exhibition had on the development of the local businesses.
Participating in any international exhibition is not a waste, it is a great opportunity to access international markets and expand their production horizon since a lot of money is spent on production and improvement but not on marketing. Despite the difficulties in exporting due to the Israeli occupation which imposes many constraints on the Palestinian stone, Al-Waleed succeeded to export their stone productions to the outside world.
Stone and marble cluster is supported by the Private Sector Development Cluster Project (PSDCP) implemented by Ministry of national Economy, in partnership with the Federation of Palestinian Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture and funded by the AGENCE FRANCAISE DE DEVELOPPEMENT (AFD).