Khalid Al-Hazaa, Third-Generation Member & General Manager, Al-Hazaa Investment Group. Iraq. Picture: Al-Hazaa Investment Group[/caption] Khalid Al-Hazaa, one of Al-Hazaa Investment Group’s third-generation members and the General Manager of the Group. He recently participated in an interview with ‘Grain Feed & Milling Magazine’. The magnetic part of his interview is mentioned here for readers of ‘Grain Feed & Milling Magazine’. Grain Feed & Milling Magazine: Will you say about your educational background & experiences? Mr. Khalid Al-Hazaa: I graduated from the University of Baghdad in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in law. I also attended number of training courses in the Swiss Milling School in Uzwil, Switzerland which belongs to Bühler Group. Since then I worked at my family Group that specializes in the field of grain milling in addition to other fields such as plastic industry, pasta and noodles production, renewable energy sector, grain storage and animal feed. GFMM: How you to get involved yourself with this business? Mr. Khalid: I make sure to keep up with the industry trends and various developments, I attend and participate in many events and exhibitions. In addition to our long-term relationship with the leading company in the field of food and feed production and safety, the Swiss company Bühler AG. We have benefited a lot from our relationship and projects with Bühler, and we look forward to always keep this great relationship and improve it as we are their agent in Iraq, and all our projects are supplied by them. GFMM: Will you say something about your business start-up? Mr. Khalid: As said before we are an Investment Group that started operation in Iraq in early 1940s with only one flour mill. The Group’s founder, late Mr. Sharif Al-Hazaa established the basis and draw the guidelines for our development and expansion. Nowadays, our CEO Mr. Jamal follows his footsteps and uplifted the Group to become today one of the leading companies in this field in the Middle East. GFMM: Tell us about the current status or range of your business and company. Mr. Khalid: Our main business is grain milling and grain storage. The Group operates ten wheat flour milling facilities in the Middle East. We also have one feed mill in Jordan, which is one of the biggest feed factories in the region. The Global Feed Mill has a total production capacity of 480 tons/ day for pelleted feed. The mill was fully equipped from the Swiss company Bühler with the latest technologies and machinery in this field. The mill also has a separate production line for compressed corn flakes feed for cows with a production capacity of 240 tons/ day. In addition to our other factories for the production of pasta, noodles, and woven polypropylene plastic bags. GFMM: What kind of product do you produce? Mr. Khalid: We have a wide range of products including: Wheat Flour, semolina, gluten free maize flour, maize grits, poultry and cattle feed, compressed corn flakes that is special for the milking cows and fattening calves, packing bags for flour, feed, rice, sugar, fertilizers and pulses in addition to pasta and noodles. GFMM: Tell us about the quality of your product. Why buyer will buy it from ten people’s product? Mr. Khalid: Al-Hazaa Investment Group which is one of the leading companies in in the region has more than 70 years of experience in the field of food and feed production, we are focused on delivering consistent products and services that meet the highest standards of quality and innovation. Al-Hazaa Investment Group constantly invests in the latest technologies and in training its personnel our managers have the requested knowledge and expertise. Moreover, we only work with trusted partners that offer the highest quality such as Bühler that supply us with the best machinery, equipment and technologies needed.
Picture: Al-Hazaa Investment Group[/caption] GFMM: Compare your industry/company with respect or the top class to the world market. Mr. Khalid: We consider ourselves as one of the biggest companies in this industry in the Middle East with a total milling capacity of 4,000 ton per day. We exchange yearly an amount of 5 million tons of different types of grains including wheat, corn, soy meal and barley between milling, trading and storing. GFMM: Tell me if you have any problems or challenges with this business. Mr. Khalid: Our constant challenge is to produce products with the highest quality standards that are in accordance with the highest hygienic scales in the fields of food and feed production and that are price competitive. GFMM: How did you deal or overcome these problems / challenges? Mr. Khalid: We focus on research and development and use the best equipment and machinery available in the market. GFMM: Will you say about your management style? Mr. Khalid: We are a family group, so our business operates depending on the traditions and values that we inherited throughout the generations along with the modern management systems that the Group relies on. For instance, Al-Hazaa Investment Group uses the SAP System in all its businesses and cooperates with KPMG, one of the big four accounting organizations in order to audit all the financial activities of the subsidiaries owned by the Group GFMM: Say on your service categories. Mr. Khalid: We are active in several sectors, in the food sector: including flour, pasta and noodles production and grain storage, in the feed sector: including pelleted and flakes feed and feed storage: including barley, corn and soy meal, in the plastic sector: woven polypropylene bags, in renewable energy sector and finally in the banking sector. GFMM: Who are your clients? Say something about them. Mr. Khalid: in the food sector our clients are: chips, biscuits and cake factories, bakeries, hypermarkets, etc. In the feed sector our clients are: animal (poultry, cows and cattle) breeders. In the plastic industry our clients buy packing bags for flour, feed, rice, sugar, fertilizers and pulses. GFMM: Tell me about your staffs or manpower education and experiences. Mr. Khalid: Al-Hazaa Investment Group employs 2500 employee worldwide. We care a lot about our workers and ensure that they receive the necessary training, as it is the main goal of Al-Hazaa Group to train its workers and improve their abilities. Training is mostly done in cooperation with Bühler. Our workers are trained in the Bühler’s training center in Uzwil, Switzerland and in the Swiss Milling School. We also send trainees from our companies every year to take courses in the African Milling School, since its establishment, which is Bühler’s milling school in Kenya. Moreover, we cooperate with local universities in Jordan for the goal of research and development. GFMM: Which is your significant achievement so far?
Picture: Al-Hazaa Investment Group[/caption] Mr. Khalid: Our best achievement is the renewable energy plant. All our facilities in Jordan operates using clean, eco-friendly energy that is supplied from our renewable energy factory, Al-Hazaa Company for renewable energy. All our mills and factories fully depend on that plant for their electricity needs. GFMM: Say something about yourself as a human, as a successful industrialist. Mr. Khalid: I would say that our most important values that ensured our success and position the Middle Eastern markets have been inherited from our parents and we wish to transfer them to the next generations of Al-Hazaa Group to be able to work while maintaining their social responsibility and task towards the society. GFMM: How is the middle eastern market compared to the developed world in this sector? Mr. Khalid: The markets that we operate in are very promising. The Middle Eastern region is constantly growing, they have a high growth rate and therefore are always offering new opportunities in terms of feed and food needs. GFMM: What will it take for such industries to be fully developed in Jordan? Mr. Khalid: The Jordanian market requires innovative yet economic ideas and projects. A business must offer new technological innovations that provide distinctive and economic results. GFMM: Say something about Jordan beyond your business. Mr. Khalid: Jordan is a productive environment, suitable for investment. The country helps and motivates companies to invest here. GFMM: Will you say about your future plan? Mr. Khalid: We have significant future plans that are in accordance with the vision of our CEO, Mr. Jamal Al-Hazaa, we have taken steps to extend and build new mills in different countries, in order to be present on the main seaports of the Middle East, which are the Red Sea, Arabian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. This will increase the Group’s competitiveness and will help it in covering the growing flour demand in the region of Africa and the Middle East. GFMM: Thank you very much on behalf of ‘Grain Feed & Milling Magazine’!
Comment Now