Gulf Printing and Packaging, CEO, Mohamed Abou Khalid, elaborates on the reasons behind setting up base at Abu Dhabi and Dubai while discussing expansion plans for the brand with GN Focus.

The parent company is in Kuwait and this venture was undertaken to move out of Kuwait for expansion purposes. They had started operations in March last year, with the packaging unit catering to groups mainly in the food market.

He added stating that the strategic location of their plan helps them to easily connect to a large number of international shipping destinations, and enjoy world-class infrastructure and dedicated investor support.

They are looking for a larger scope into the UAE market in the food packaging sector, as well as other aspects of packaging, which they may expand into in the future such as cups, buckets, labels and more.

What they are targeting right now are high-growth areas; food is one area that they are actively pursuing and the FMCG sector is another.

They are mostly into folding export boxes for packaging, whether it is directly to the consumer or packaging packs and directly contact food companies. You will find these with fast food chains. This company is the provider of packaging materials for McDonalds as well as other leading brands in the Middle East.

Their facility will also make folding paper packaging and printing products for other leading brands in the UAE, in addition to other markets both regionally and internationally including Saudi Arabia Africa and Europe. Export-import will be done via Abu Dhabi Ports’ flagship port, Khalifa Port.

The facility operates in one of the most efficient printing and packaging units in the world with equipment from Heidelberg, Bobst, Kohmann and other leading names in the field.

Khalid pointed that “We understand how important sustainability is and we are working with certain manufacturers in Europe who are now producing boards, which do not have plastics.Boards that either need to be refrigerated or require to be used in processed food are coated with plastic” This tied up with manufacturers in Europe is mainly to produce highly sustainable boards that are easily recyclable and reusable.

They have already launched the product in the UAE market and shown it to many brand owners and hopefully this packaging will be seen in the UAE very soon. They are very conscious of the environment and use products that are FSC certified by companies that are very particular about not causing ozone depletion or migration.