If local companies want to develop and thrive, they have to apply innovative ideas
Abdullah Al Balushi,
Founder & CEO,
Gulf Advanced Industries
What do you make?
We design, develop and produce our own high quality sanitary ware as well as environmentally friendly water and energy saving bathroom and kitchen fittings. We have also developed an overall plumbing system using the latest technology to deliver sustainable and high quality services within the Sultanate.
Where are your markets?
We focus mainly on the market in Oman for our design and development services. However, we have received orders from GCC countries and have exported to UAE and Qatar. We very much hope to expand the export side of our business.
Tell us about yourself
I am an engineer who initially entered the retail business without any experience at all. I imported products from China and Turkey. Even though the products were selected carefully, the specifications were very high and I supervised everything directly during the manufacturing process, the market did not really accept our products because of where they were made.
Have you had challenges?
Financial losses started mounting but I was determined not to give up. I decided to stop importing and start manufacturing in Oman with the expectation that customers would accept locally made products.
After an enormous amount of hard work we found prospective investors to establish an assembly line here in Oman and I found a few customers. We opened a small workshop and started our operation.
Unfortunately, luck was not on our side again. We found operation costs were higher than we anticipated and we just could not succeed in our attempt to start a new assembly line in Oman. This second failure was very hard for us to bear.
Did you get local support?
We went to the Industrial Innovation Centre (IIC) to look at how we could develop our products before introducing them to the market and in that way make a difference. We first met them in 2017 and got support through their Company Innovation Program. But our concept did not meet their requirements as it did not have innovative value.
Happily, IIC, asked to speak to us again and encouraged us to keep going. They gave us invaluable advice and put us on the path to innovation, marketing our products and selling them.
They told us to focus on market pain-points and provide innovative solutions to problems customers faced. We took this on board and went back to them with new ideas.
Today, I am proud to say we locally produce items with features that no-one else in the market offers. The company is moving in the right direction and doing well.
Local Green Innovation
An eco-conscious, energy-saving bath and shower mixer is one of our innovations. By providing easy access to the cartridge of the faucet for future replacement if needed, we solved the problem of changing the whole body.
This means clients can easily maintain the mixer without the help of a plumber or a third party. This is great news for the environment as it reduces demands on Earth’s limited metal resources and reduces the amount of items put into landfills.
The mixer is also environmentally friendly in terms of the way it is produced and its low energy and water consumption.
The new aerator/nozzle has been developed with a minimal and stable flow rate to save both water and energy. This provides a high efficiency wash with maximum savings by limiting the water usage up to 30 per cent of normal taps.
What’s been the local response?
The Omani market wants products like this. We get lots of positive reactions. But I do think people need to be made more aware about just how necessary resource, energy and water innovations like this are. They are kind to the planet and wallet.
Any advice?
Innovation is the future and innovation will make a difference. In the coming years lots of businesses will close and leave the market if they are not aware about the importance of innovation. If local companies want to develop and thrive, they have to apply innovative ideas. To entrepreneurs, I would say work hard and be innovative and never give up even if you find extreme challenges. To green entrepreneurs in particular, I would say keep going – our planet needs you.
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