From humble beginnings, Jeddah Graphic Center has grown into one of Saudi Arabia’s major print and packaging providers – and is now aiming for the very top
Starting out back in 1975, operating from a 3,000 sq m facility in Jeddah’s Old Makkah Road with just 30 employees, Jeddah Graphic Center (JGC) has grown steadily ever since. What began as a humble printer of booklets and brochures has grown into a major packaging brand in Saudi Arabia, with its sights set on becoming the kingdom’s leading printer-converter.
JGC is surely on course to achieve this ambition, if its current premises are anything to go by. The company now occupies a two-floor facility boasting 36,000 sq m per floor, and employs some 450 people from 10 countries working a shift pattern that enables operations to run 24 hours a day.
It has fashioned itself as an end-to-end solutions provider for folding carton-packaging print, continuing to invest in new equipment, technology and manpower. JGC describes itself as a “conscious, quality-driven packaging print service provider” offering high quality customised products and services.
Packaging MEA Editor-in-Chief Ben Daniel met JGC Sales Manager Abdullah Yusuf at the company headquarters to learn more.
Regarding the tech at JGC’s disposal, Mr Yusuf explains: “For finishing and embellishment, we specialise in embossing, stamping, lamination, die-cutting, varnishing, and so on.
“As you have seen in our factories, we have nine state-of-the-art multicolour sheetfed offset presses with inline and offline coating and embellishment facility. All our machines are from Germany – Manroland. We also have one Heidelberg press.
“As for die-cutting and allied converting, we have eight Bobst die-cutting machines, four lamination machines and eight folding gluer machines. Everything is done in house and all of them are from Bobst.
“For coating, we use high-quality food grade boards and PE coated boards where the job demands such a barrier. We supply just the finished boards to our clients and they procure the caps and closures from outside. But we can also do stamping and embossing.”
As for who JGC’s customers are, Mr Yusuf says: “We get a lot of work from Dubai, Yemen and Egypt. Sector-wise, we have customers from perfumes and cosmetics who print big volumes with us. This covers the luxury packaging print category.
“We have a few customers who rely on us for their entire print requirements from start to finish. Success in these jobs has led to increased orders.
“Our volumes are on the increase. We also have a new facility where we do more work. In one month we produce around 3,000-4,000 tonnes of finished carton print. By God’s grace we are getting a lot of orders. I hope we do well this year, and we are looking at even more work in the years ahead.”
JGC deals with some major players, perhaps most notably Nestle. So, what is the biggest consideration for customers, in terms of packaging production?
“Price is the main consideration,” says Mr Yusuf, “followed by the quality of our products. Earlier, quality was the main consideration, but now everyone is aware of the quality we produce, so it is all about the price now”