Making Big Strides in a Small Market – and Beyond

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oman Printers & Stationers (OPS), is a highly respected commercial printing company with a rich history of delivering exceptional services in Oman and the GCC for more than 40 years. In response to market demands, OPS has recently expanded to include carton packaging printing. This enables it to cater to customers across diverse sectors, including FMCG, pharmaceuticals, detergents, poultry, dairy, and tissue box manufacturers.

 

Recognising the importance of meeting local demands, OPS has invested approximately 1 million Omani rials to upgrade its technical infrastructure. These investments have empowered OPS to acquire cutting-edge printing equipment from the renowned manufacturer Heidelberg. OPS now possesses a state-of-the-art six-colour printing machine with UV printing and coating capabilities, ensuring top-notch print quality. In addition, OPS has acquired high-speed die-cutting, folder-gluing, and window-patching machines. We spoke with General Manager Mehdi Al-Abduwani about the present and future of OPS.

 

 

 

 

Ben Daniel (BD): If you could, please give us a brief about your company.

 

Mehdi Al Abduwani (MA): Oman Printers was established in 1975 as an LLC, but then there was a kind of acquisition by CSI Computers. I served CSI as Chairman from 1995, and in 2021 I stepped down to become a board member of CSI and CEO of Oman Printers. The idea was really because our previous General Manager had resigned. During the pandemic period, bravely our shareholders decided, after a deep and thorough feasibility study, to invest in the packaging sector. Oman is a small market with heavy competition. We have more than 60 licenses for printing with different scales and in the regional market, but the majority are small digital printing services with no proper setup, no heavy costs, no recurring costs and they are a big challenge for us on the competitive side of it. We are known as one of two or three big printing houses in Oman, and known for the quality – we are ISO-certified and we have a professional facility. All our investments in our machines are from Heidelberg.

 

We called for offers from different packaging print-converting equipment manufacturers-suppliers and we ended up with Heidelberg because the machines are very reliable and we get good support from them. We started with our normal Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 machines, but the new investment is in the CX 104, which is much faster (15,000 impressions/hour). Business-wise, we started production and commercial operations last on this press in November.

 

We have hardly six-seven months in operation and packaging. We see potential is there, growth is there but same time competition is there, as is normal in any industry. We are already engaged with some good corporate and FMCG companies who are utilizing our machines.

 

BD: What is the percentage of your commercial printing and how much of it is packaging?

 

MA: The commercial segment is really slowing down, but we are on 70/30 commercial/packaging as of today. We are getting good support, but again, price and all those external factors, we cannot control. We always try to have direct contact with the paper and board mills/manufacturers just to avoid the traders, but sometimes the challenge is that mills already have arrangements with traders, and they are referring back to traders, but the business relationship is growing between us and the paper suppliers as well.

 

 

 

 

BD: Let’s talk about that 30%. How much of this is demand from Oman and what percentage is from outside?

 

MA: We are 100% into the Omani market because we want first of all to do our showcase locally and then we can expose our services to our neighboring countries.

 

BD: Oman is a small market with many players. What are the main opportunities for you?

 

MA: We are engaging with government companies. We have a proper QC department, which is very important in the packaging industry, but sometimes we do have papers coming from different sources and therefore we do have some challenges with dust and this increases our printing process time. The good thing is we have a good connection with our customers because they need faster, and we deliver on time. They don’t get that from small printing shops. Oman is heavily dependent on oil production and on prices. Our debt especially for the past two years was almost reaching 60% of our GDP, which was alarming, but with the help of the government’s new programs, we will be growing much faster from 2024.

 

BD: Can you explain a bit about this Financial Equilibrium program?

 

MA: There were two scenarios. One was that our debt ratio would increase from 60% to 80% by 2024. Another was that if we implement all these financial measures, which are VAT, lifting the subsidy from all the utilities, oil, benzene, etc, then we will come up with these ratios, and Oman was rated very badly by the international rating agency. So, the government has adopted this program. With the help of oil prices, the government debt was reduced from 21 billion rials to 17bn. GDP growth is expected again in 2023 at around 4%, which shows the future is improving for Oman. As for business, the industry has suffered because of these new measures implemented by the government, but that is life, challenges are there. We have come out of two years of the pandemic and we are stronger.