It was no surprise that Al Jazeera Paints received the Green Seal certification as the first paint company to receive it from outside the United States of America.
Since the company was founded more than thirty years ago, the ambition of the partners was limitless, and their attention was focused on providing a distinctive product that takes into account health and environmental specifications. The Al Jazeera Paints partnership is considered one of the pride of the Saudi industry, and a pioneering experience worthy of study and emulation.
Amlak newspaper had this meeting with Mr. Abdullah bin Saud Al-Rumaih, General Manager of Al-Jazeera Paints Company, who talked about the company's origins and stages of development, the company's expansion plans, the innovations it has introduced and the technical techniques used.
He also touched on the modern trends of choosing home colors and the healthy paints produced by it
He also dealt with fraud in paints and the methods required to fight it, and talked about the company's sales outlets in the Kingdom and abroad.

First we want to start with the company's expansion plans, innovations and technical techniques used.

In the beginning, we would like to share with the reader a brief introduction to Al Jazeera Paints Company and the stages of its development? We are pleased to welcome you and thank you for this hosting in Amlak newspaper, this newspaper that was born with its teeth and was able to embrace success from the first issue
As for Al Jazeera Paints Company, it was founded in 1979 by the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaih and Sheikh Saud bin Marshoud Al Rumaih, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors.
The beginning was shops in the city of Riyadh, and the ambition of the partners grew, so the trend was to open a paint factory ... and due to the suspension of granting licenses at that time, the move was made to the UAE, so the first factory was opened in the city of Sharjah in 1986, and most of the factory's sales were in Saudi Arabia.
Attempts continued to take a permit to establish a factory in Saudi Arabia, and this was done by the grace of God in 1991 after the partners were given the choice between three cities (Asir - Dammam - Jeddah) and Riyadh was not among the options because it was sufficient, after visiting the Asir region, it was found that it is an emerging region and there are no paint factories, so the factory was opened in Khamis Mushait in 1993. Production started with 4000 tons, then production was expanded to reach 40,000 tons in 2000, and now we produce more than 170,000 tons.

[What does it mean to you that the company has obtained the Green Seal certificate? Green Seal is a non-profit organization that sets and audits standards and criteria for products that preserve the environment, it includes all materials and paints are one of the materials covered by the Green Seal organization.
Al Jazeera Paints is the first paint company to receive this certification outside the United States of America.

[How did Al Jazeera Paints obtain the Green Seal certification? The orientation was by us to this organization, we have had environmental responsibility for a while, but we applied it after we obtained the ISO 14001 certificate, it is a specialized certificate for the environment that ensures that products are free of harmful substances, including lead. As a Saudi company, we are not only interested in selling, but we are more interested in the interest of the country and the development of the national industry.

So we went to look for centers that give standards and be compatible with them, but unfortunately Saudi and Gulf specifications and standards do not have specifications and standards to protect the environment,
The only one that exists now in Dubai is the Green Building Council, but so far it has not been completed. So we had to go abroad. In America, the Green Seal organization is the strongest non-profit organization, so we started with a test of our own products from 2008, and there are substances that they asked us to remove them not because they are dangerous, but they care (the quality of the product - the percentage of harm to the environment) and asked us to add some substances, so we were in the development process for two years, including surprise visits and a comprehensive audit of the production process that resulted in granting the company this international certificate ...

[What is required from the Standards and Metrology Authority to promote the national product? The Standards and Metrology Organization has not failed in the specifications and plays an active role in this regard, and Saudi products are distinguished internally and externally, Saudi Arabia now exports many products to the Gulf and Arab countries, and the Saudi product has a great demand, for example in Egypt if the Saudi product is preferred over many products.

Perhaps what is required is only cooperation with national factories or we cooperate with them in the tests, if they need specifications from us, we can study them all, such as environmentally responsible products, products free of harmful substances, harmful substances exist, but they must be minimized, among the specifications is that there are products that are not harmful to humans and paints are one of the most difficult materials because they are chemical.

What are the investments in Saudi Arabia?

[How much is the size of investments in the Saudi paints market? There are no accurate statistics, but we are working on formulas to be a way for us in marketing, but I think it touched three billion riyals with state projects.

[Do you think the existing paint companies and factories are enough to cover the Saudi market? Sufficiency is not in quantity, the projects now demand special specifications, if there are factories capable of special specifications this requirement, as there is no use of factories that are not competitive neither in prices nor in quality, I see that the paint factories now in the Saudi market regardless of their quality are able to cover the Saudi market, if there are expansions in the factories.

[What is the volume of imported paints and homemade paints? Imported is negligible, but there are special paints that are imported, such as industrial paints that are not made locally, so there are no clear statistics, but I believe that the imported in relation to the local does not constitute 5%.

Island Paints Company is one of the leading companies in innovations, what are your new innovations and technologies used? We have a plan from 2005 to be our innovations are all technical, we went to decorative paints, we have created more than 13 products, including fantasy, chamois, velvet and marmo, which are very popular in the market, they have quality, beautiful appearance and colors that add beauty to the home.

Among the technical services, we are the first paint company to put the service of downloading the catalog from the company's website, where the customer does not need to go to the branch.
Five years ago we worked on modern technologies that there are no national companies working in it and globally few companies, so we worked with nanotechnology from a year and a half, and nanotechnology in short gives the product a longer life, for example, the product ends in 20 years gives it a life of 40 years, and a memorandum of understanding was signed with King Saud University regarding the exchange of experiences and expertise.

We have a product (fire retardant) that reduces the spread of fire for two hours so that the fire does not reach the iron so that the building does not fall, and we will take a certificate from America on this product, but only 5 international companies have obtained this certificate so far. There is also a technology (silver ions) that uses this technology in operating rooms, we have cooperated with an American research center and with this center we came up with the formula for this product, using silver ions eliminates all microbes in operating rooms.
Since 2005, the company has witnessed 8 expansions between the addition of new machines and the addition of production halls and the largest expansion started this year and will be completed, God willing, by the end of next year so that the factory 100% automatic production without human intervention, moving from raw materials to the final product.

[What are the recent trends in home color selection? The majority went to decorative, but colors are still in demand, it depends on the area of the house and the height of the ceilings, but we see that people started in dark colors during the last five years more than the first.

[The company talks about the healthy paints you produce, are your previous products not healthy? No, of course, the ratios are ratios, every year after year these ratios are reduced in international organizations, but unfortunately there is no reduction of these substances for us, we are lead-free products now ... Since we started 4 years ago, our products are lead-free and this substance is present and still in the products of many paint companies, it is a carcinogenic substance, we have removed this substance, so being a step forward means that we were bad in the past on the contrary, we are proactive for international health standards.
For example, in 2002, there were low standards for volatile solvents, now the situation has changed and companies have started to reduce, we seek within five years to make our products healthy 100%.
Our desire at the beginning is to be environmentally responsible, the issue of opening a drum and leaving it open outside is harmful to the environment or the waste of paints left to pour into the valley and go to the groundwater is harmful to groundwater, we made a desalination plant that cost more than 2000,000 riyals or called recycling of these materials to reduce the harm of these materials to the environment so that they do not harm groundwater, all that we do is responsible for it and we do not stand out in the media and all the achievements that we highlighted are dedicated to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

What we do is considered responsible and we do not stand out in the publicity and all the achievements we have highlighted are a dedication to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

[Do the prices of sanitary paints differ from normal paints? The cost is higher for us, yes, but our approach is to make the price the same as it was and we bear the difference until others turn to the healthy direction.

[Is there adulteration in paints and how is it remedied? Yes, there is a lot of adulteration / paints that do not comply with Saudi specifications are considered adulteration and low quality is considered adulteration. There are unlicensed factories, they represent 25% and their sales were 40%, but with the awareness of people, the percentage of adulteration has decreased.

The treatment requires the Ministry of Commerce to tighten control, as there are unlicensed factories in the Shafa neighborhood in Riyadh, as for the island paints, the purchase must be from the island paints store and the company bears any packaging, we are heading to combat refilling, as we have now produced plastic bottles and its advantage is that if it is opened it does not close again, but we did not record any refilling this year and before, and we receive complaints on the complaints email and give We fall into an issue where some painters come and fill half of the barrel with water, the material loses its strength, the implementation is part of the paint, we have set 7 centers in the Kingdom to combat the issue in the painting process, as for the alkaline and wet that is in the wall, we distributed in all regions of the Kingdom devices to measure moisture and alkalinity in the wall and indicated the specific limit of moisture and alkalinity.
We have opened free training centers for painters for those who want to learn to paint, come to the island's paint centers and we give them a certificate.

[What are the best-selling regions in the Kingdom and do you have exports outside the Kingdom? We have 360 branches in the Kingdom and we divided the Kingdom into 7 administrative regions, there is no doubt that the Asir region is the best-selling region because the factory is stabilized in it, followed by the central region.
Yes, we have a foreign export to all Gulf countries and Yemen in addition to Lebanon, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt, for sale we can not specify, but in general Egypt is the most demanded from foreign exports.