Tell us more about your business.
An effectively integrated chemical raw material distribution group that had its incorporation in January 2011, Dia’33 made a humble beginning from Dubai and spread to 12 nations and four continents in a short span of five and a half years. Today we have 12 subsidiaries and associate companies focusing on specialty additives for coatings, construction, adhesive, plastics, etc. Dia’33 made a quantum leap by diversifying its businesses into various industry sectors like personal care, cosmetics, pharma, fertilizers, and lubricants.
What products and services do you offer?
We provide our customers with solutions to their chemical needs, whether it’s a recipe of an innovative end product or the chemical raw material required to produce a finished product. Currently, we serve industries such as paints, coatings, adhesive, construction, plastics, lubricants and others by assisting customers to develop or supply products, stock or manage logistic, and provide free of cost technical consultancy to their R&D.
What main markets do you cater to?
Our fully integrated infrastructure across India, China, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia, enables us to spread our services to neighboring countries. And with plans in place to convert our existing sales and liaison offices in UK, Canada, Kenya, Philippines, Bahrain and Pakistan into full-fledged distribution and operations hubs, we are targeting to further boost our penetration into these countries and their surrounding neighbors. We are also planning to enhance our presence in South Korea, Germany, Sri Lanka alongside other locations.
Have you got any plans to expand in the Middle East and globally?
We have been doing extensive work for the last three years and now we are focused and prepared to cater to economies having collective populations of over 1.2bn, where awareness of quality material has risen to standards. Asia, in specific, would remain conservative considering the changing dynamics of economy, which works well for our strategic expansion in such markets where long-term projects are being unveiled.
With our consolidated expansion plans, we foresee doubling our workforce within the next three years along with acquiring marketing rights of new complementing products and backward integration with key manufacturing partners to create dependability, reliance and a one-stop-shop for the industries in focus. We foresee promising development in the construction and infrastructure industries in the UAE and the Middle East and we can assume it as the impact of Dubai Expo 2020 announcement.
How has business been for the past 12 months?
The past 12 months have been relatively challenging as compared to previous years and as we understand the dynamics of our business, oil has always been influential and integral part of chemical and ancillary industries. Continued low oil prices have definitely affected budgets but they are a good opportunity for the region to reinvent its economic structure to strengthen its core objectives. We feel that the region would thrive back into prosperity with unified banks, corporates and SMEs, as they all together constitute a solid backyard for any thriving economy.
Do you expect business conditions to improve in the short to mid-term?
Development of the chemical distribution market continues to general consumption growth especially for specialty chemicals. The business sector remains exceedingly divided. However, a few organisations are effectively joining organic and inorganic development, giving themselves a reasonable aggressive edge. We expect the genuine development rate in the chemical distribution sector to slow from 7% to a steady 6% annually within the next five years, mostly due to underlying economic challenges that will reduce chemical consumption. The tailwinds that have driven the development of the chemical distribution market are slowing, and a higher offer of future development is required to originate from expanded value-added services.
