The project is 50:50 Joint Venture between Saudi and Bahraini business partners and will help Olayan Kimberly-Clark Arabia Company to tap $300 million family care and tissue paper industry segment in the GCC. At present the company enjoys 30% of the market share in both family care and tissue paper segment.
Along with a new multi-million dollar tissue production machine, the company also announces that it is investing several million dollars in the upgrade of two additional converting machines and associated logistics improvements at its mill in Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
The event was held under the auspices of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce Kingdom of Bahrain. Celebrating the largest capital investment in the company’s recent history with key local distributors, partners, government dignitaries and employees His Excellency Dr. Hassan Fakhro Minister of Industry and Commerce Bahrain; Lubna Olayan, deputy chairperson and CEO Olayan Financing Company; Thomas J. Falk, chairman and CEO Kimberly-Clark Corporation; and Robert W. Black, group president Kimberly-Clark International.
“OKA’s latest investment in its Askar and Dammam mills is expected to triple production capacity as well as enable the company to significantly improve the quality of paper products produced within the two facilities,” Lubna Olayan, said.
Additionally, she added, it will alleviate OKA’s dependence on third-party hard rolls and allows the company to directly cater to the continued growing needs of customers and consumers for its brands, including Kleenex and Viva.
“The capital injection demonstrates OKA’s commitment to sustaining the continued growth of its market share, generating improved returns and supporting rapid business expansion in the region,” she explained.
“Olayan Kimberly-Clark acknowledges the support of the various Bahrain government ministries, including Industry and Commerce, as well as expressing gratitude to its shareholders and employees who made this milestone investment possible,” she added.
Olayan affiliations with Kimberly-Clark date back to 1955 when the General Trading Company began importing the famous Kleenex brand facial tissues to Saudi Arabia. Later, individual manufacturing agreements were made to produce Kleenex tissues, then Kotex feminine napkins and, in 1989, Huggies diapers. Olayan Kimberly-Clark Arabia Company (OKA) and the National Child Care Products Company (NCCP) were established in Al-Khobar to locally manufacture these world-famous products for both the Saudi market and export.
The Olayan Kimberly-Clark relationship advanced to a new level in 1994, when the joint venture partners opened a tissue mill in Bahrain. The ultra-modern plant will not only supply feedstock to the tissue-converting operation in Saudi Arabia, but will also export tissue hard rolls elsewhere in the Gulf and beyond.