Glass as a building material delivers beauty, visibility, and a very high tech look to the building and due to its versatile nature, has become the most popular building material.
Emirates Glass LLC is a renowned name and an innovative company that has made its name by providing the highest quality of architectural glass and helping bring countless architectural fantasies to life.
Emirates Glass was established in 1997 by Mr. Khalid Bin Kalban, that later became the leading provider of energy-efficient architectural glass in the Middle East. The company has been an integral part of Dubai’s growth and evolution, having supplied glazing and expertise for many of the most iconic buildings across the city.
Emirates Glass has also expanded its international presence and are proud suppliers of their glass solutions to GCC countries such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Kuwait, and also to Azerbaijan, Turkey, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, East and South Africa and Canada.
“We are committed and dedicated to drive innovation throughout the Middle East and beyond and strive to be closer to the new trends within architectural industry.”
All the products are developed and manufactured locally in the UAE. Within their own group of companies, Emirates Glass combines the entire supply and value chain of glass – from raw glass manufacturing in Abu Dhabi, over coating in Dubai Investment Park, to processing, laminating and fabrication of insulating glass units in Al Quoz; having all of this under one roof is absolutely unique in the region.
Standing Apart
Establishing and maintaining any sort of differentiation and competitive advantage is a challenge in any market.
Emirates Glass prides itself on being a home-grown UAE company, so everything made and supplied by them is a contribution to the local economy and industrial landscape of the country. Being ‘local’ means Emirates Glass is geographically close to customers and their projects which means being able to provide immediate personal support during design and construction periods but also shortest turnaround and lead times as well as delivery.
The company is providing glass solutions as a one-stop-shop, so that their customers have a single point of contact for every element used and every production step taken. This eliminates the oftentimes tedious search for a responsible party should any of the customers face issues with the products supplied.
Products and Expertise
Emirates Glass LLC’s product range includes more than 400 different in-house developed performance coatings, from hard and solar control coatings to low-emissivity single and double silver coatings across the entire color spectrum to meet even the most challenging requirements that the company receives from consultants and architects in terms of performance and aesthetics. Other than that, Emirates Glass produces a wide array of double or triple glazed insulating glass units.
Emirates Glass has also unveiled the EmiKaplux Series which includes Mashrabiya, diffusers and mesh products – an exciting array of laminates, interlayers and inserts that increase performance and create fascinating visual effects to reflect UAE’s heritage and ability to integrate traditional elements in modern and contemporary architecture. Emirates Glass has also provided ‘ARMAX’, their very own anti-reflective coated glass to The Address Sky View Project. The Skyview has a cantilever walkway that extends out of one of the towers more than 50 floors above ground and its entire walls, roof and floor are made entirely out of the company’s anti-reflective glass, allowing visitors an omnidirectional view of Dubai’s skyline with minimal reflections from the glazing.
Emirates Glass also offers SmartLite – the state-of-the-art switchable glass, which changes its state in just about 400 milliseconds at the flick of a switch and turns from a clear to an opaque glass panel to create on-demand privacy while also allowing for plenty of natural light whenever needed.
Bullet resistant glass is also manufatured by Emirates Glass which is a multi-layered laminated glass with a combination of glass lites and polycarbonate sheet to give the glass the required ballistic resistance.
Leader of the Innovators
Mr. Rizwanulla Khan, a name synonymous to the Glass industry in Middle East, is the Executive President of Emirates Glass LLC, Saudi American Glass and LumiGlass Industries.
He joined the Company on September 20, 2005 as Senior Vice President – manufacturing and operations at Glass LLC. Since assuming the Executive President position for three glass subsidiaries on December 23, 2013, Mr. Rizwanulla Khan has been responsible for the company’s overall vision, strategy, and financial objectives.
A loving and caring leader, who has inspired hundreds to perform and achieve results; under his leadership, Emirates Glass has delivered record sales and profits of more than 50%. All this was not possible without the support of the multi-disciplinary teams that have worked together and synergized to produce best results.
In his current role, Rizwanulla Khan emphasizes on company’s long-term strategic plan, which is focused on increasing geographic penetration in the global and regional glass industry and delivering sustainable, long-term, profitable growth.
Mr. Rizwanulla Khan is a knowledge powerhouse who is strategically focused and a result-oriented leader with unparalleled enthusiasm, passion, and energy. A maestro of the art of management, he is the living embodiment of the phrase ‘lead by example’.
Leveraging Technology
Business and technological developments always go hand in hand. Given the company’s emphasis and keeping up to date on customer needs (in terms of environment protection and sustainability) and the technological advancements that take place within the glass industry, Emirates Glass has updated its plant with new jumbo size high-efficiency machines that will increase the production at operational efficiency.
Sharing his opinion on the importance of aligning one’s business with the latest technological developments, Mr Khan says, “companies that do not evolve and develop based on current market trends are facing the risk of having their technology (and products) obsolete as compared to the market. This challenging situation could have an adverse impact on the business. The company personnel are also expected to be equipped with highly professional technical knowledge thus playing their part in the decision making. This all will help us in acquiring greater market share for the company which will ultimately result in the growth of company’s profits and revenue.”
Bequeathing the Keys to Success
We asked Mr Khan on his advice to budding entrepreneurs who aspire to enter the glass manufacturing space, to which he says, “many entrepreneurs start businesses to seize short-term opportunities without thinking about long-term strategy. To be a successful entrepreneur, one, however, needs to make the transition from a tactical to a strategic orientation so that they can begin to build crucial capabilities and resources.”
“The options that are appropriate for one entrepreneurial venture may be completely inappropriate for another. Entrepreneurs must make a bewildering number of decisions, and they must make the decisions that are right for them. Entrepreneurs need to analyse the situations in which they find themselves, establish priorities among the opportunities and problems they face, and make rational decisions about the future.”
“An entrepreneur who wants to build a sustainable company in the glass industry must formulate a bold and a more explicit strategy. The strategy should integrate the entrepreneur’s aspirations with specific long-term policies about the needs the company will serve, its geographic reach, its technological capabilities, and other strategic considerations. To help attract people and resources, the strategy must embody the entrepreneur’s vision of where the company is going instead of where it is. The strategy must also provide a framework for making the decisions and setting the policies that will take the company there.”
A Bright and Shiny Future
As the region continues to grow, Emirates Glass’ prospects are promising. Looking forward, the company will further expand its footprint across the GCC and Middle Eastern region. The company is both enthused and determined to drive innovation throughout the Middle East and beyond and strive to be even closer to the new trends in architectural industry. The surging demand for EGL’s eco-friendly glass further reinforces the growing commitment towards sustainable development and green building principles. With such quality products, Emirates Glass is aggressively aiming at increased market share in existing and new geographies.
The goal of Emirates Glass is not only providing the full range of high-performance large glass panels, but also guarantee the highest quality standard available in the glass world.