“Demand is through the roof,” says Ghurm A. Moraisel, Managing Director of the
Al-Osais Group. With interests in civil engineering, power plants, telecom, manufacturing, steel structures, road construction and equipment rental, Al-Osais is a truly diversified private business. Thanks to the oil boom, and the industrial surge in both China and India, demand looks set to continue to increase for the time being. “We foresee growth until 2010,” says Mr. Moraisel. “After this, maintenance and operation will come into play; there will be room for international companies dealing with this kind of technology to form joint ventures or partnerships and lead in the field,” he adds.

Al-Osais Group’s formula for success has been to appoint different managers to lead in every area. A family business, it is the sons who are running the various aspects of the company, backed up by business and engineering studies – quite often from the U.S. Hashim Al Moraisel, with an MBA from the University of Colorado, runs affiliate company Anabeeb Industrial Services; Mohamed Moraisel works as Deputy Managing Director for Al-Osais Contracting Co., having qualified as an electrical engineer at the University of Northern Arizona. “We began this company as a small operation that has expanded over the years. We would like to see this growth continue for our future generations and the country as a whole,” says Ghurm Moraisel.

GHURM A. MORAISEL Managing Director of the Al-Osais Group

The family’s U.S.-based studies highlight that on the Saudi front there is a lack of qualified engineers and technicians as well as other professional staff. One solution is to increase the involvement of outside investors who can provide human as well as technological resources. “The most important aspect in a business is its human resources; you cannot work without having the capacity to do so,” says the managing director. Given the current state of demand and the fact that Al-Osais has to turn work down, any companies working in these areas would be most welcome to the kingdom.

Al-Osais has also made inroads in other countries. “Our expanding cycle of service investment crosses the borders to most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region – Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman,” says its head. The company’s key word is excellence, and it is honesty, responsibility, and dedication to doing work well and on time that has made the firm’s services so sought after at home and abroad.