< Previouscommercialinteriordesign.com February 2022 20 Saudi Crown His Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has spearheaded initiatives to change economic and societal rules as part of his Vision 2030 plan to diversify the country's economy. One of the programme's aims is to increase women's participation in the workforce to 30%, a goal that has now been achieved. KRISTINA ZANIC CONSULTANTS Kristina Zanic Consultants is one of the Dubai-headquartered interior design companies spearheading a drive into Saudi. The company's Saudi offi ce opens this month and business partner and executive director Amani Al Ibrahim, a Saudi national, will be based there. The studio's founder Kristina, a notable name in the region's interior design landscape, has years of experience working on interior projects in Saudi, while Amani, who holds a Master's in Interior Design and Project Management, can count in her portfolio key projects including Renaissance Hotel Riyadh, KSA and Hyatt Andaz, London, UK. Commercial Interior Design met with Kristina and Amani to hear how they're making a name for the studio in the Kingdom. CID: What motivated Kristina Zanic Consultants to expand to Saudi? Kristina: Establishing a presence for us in Saudi is just something that makes complete sense. I've worked in Saudi Arabia for over 15 years, so the market is very familiar to me. I've always liked going to new places and exploring opportunities for design. We're also very excited about the country's 2030 vision and know this is something we want to be part of. In addition to the growth potential and business opportunities for us in Saudi, I think there is a general excitement about the country's development drive because the approach is so ambitious and fast-paced and the nature of projects is very interesting from a design point of view. At the same time, Amani and I were We're very excited about Saudi's 2030 Vision... A suite at a new Riyadh hotel that's inspired by local fashionCover feature 21 February 2022 commercialinteriordesign.com lucky to meet almost two years ago and Amani came on board as a partner in the business towards end of 2020, so opening in Saudi was always going to be a natural step for us. Whilst we already had much work in Saudi in the past, with Amani as a partner we believe this local talent will help leverage our opportunities and relationships and provide a more informed view of the local culture and way of life. Amani: Having a team on the ground here is important considering the number and scope of projects we're involved in locally. I'm permanently based in Riyadh and have been working on some of our projects from here, but with an offi cial presence and a larger team, it will only help serve our clients better as our business hopefully grows further. Also as a Saudi designer, I think it's vital for us to be here. Having physical presence, really being part of the local design community and developing relationships is important to doing business here. In these Covid times, we've all had to adjust to remote communication to some level, but building trust and meeting people face to face and having a team that understands the culture is still especially important in Saudi business culture. There is a valuable opportunity for us to really be at the forefront here to develop the local interior design industry. CID: Why did the expansion take place at the time and date that it did? Kristina: Actually, we have been discussing this expansion and opportunity for almost three years. We were in the midst of fi nalising our partnership when the Covid situation began and it just prolonged the set-up due to travel restrictions and government offi ces not working normal hours. This didn't deter us obviously. Although the administrative things have taken a long time, Amani has been with us for a full year now and we are adding the fi nishing touches to our offi ce that should be completed in February. CID: What services will the new offi ce provide? Kristina: At the onset we will be servicing our existing clients in Saudi. It will be great having a team on the ground to realise our vision for several projects, Visual for an Italian restaurant at a fi ve-star hotelCover feature commercialinteriordesign.com February 2022 22 which are currently in the tender or construction stages. We hope to develop this post-contract team into a design offi ce as well to service new clients where some projects need to be serviced immediately and in person. There is nothing like being on a project with a client in person. Whilst business communication may have changed due to the pandemic, we are seeing business going increasingly back to more personal contact. We love to work this way. Communication is much better when you get to have direct and personal exchanges with the people you're going to work with. CID: In addition to Amani, were any of the key architects from the country or company being recruited to the specifi c offi ce? Kristina: The plan is for the short term to have some of our Dubai management team move to the Saudi offi ce for intervals of time to support on projects. This will continue as we expand the team organically there and work on recruiting local talent. We're also very involved generally with the education sector in the Middle East and helping nurture local design talent. That's something that we'll continue in Saudi because we really enjoy doing that as a team but it also introduces us to fresh talent and opens up recruitment opportunities. CID: How will the new offi ce amplify services for your existing client base? Kristina: It will defi nitely amplify our post contract services as we have several projects now in the post contract phases where we need to be on site to ensure the design of the projects is being realised and quality maintained. For some of the projects we have been involved in, we really need to have very experienced teams on the ground to ensure our technical reviews are on par with expectations. In this way we can stay on top of things more and ensure a great end result. Amani: Close communication and being present on site really helps with the project coordination and making changes quickly which is key. In addition, with a senior design team present this will help us also deliver design for projects locally from the offi ce. CID: Are there any physical or corporate constraints to expanding amidst a pandemic? Kristina: It's been a slower process than what we may have wanted but we have kept going at a pace which is still reasonable. Having Amani on the ground obviously helped speed up the process. We have also been fortunate to have a good contractor on board and many of our business partners and suppliers have been very supportive and willing to give us a hand to ensure things happen on time. But the offi ce is still opening at a good time because many of our major projects are coming into post contract phase this year, which our team's presence will be good for. CID: Does the location inspire a change in the design process? Kristina: As a company we've worked in over 20 countries, and found that each part of the world brings its own fl avour to projects and opens up our thinking and creativity in different ways – it just keeps things interesting for us as a design team. With all our projects we develop design narratives that work with the vision of the project, whether it be a heritage inspired design or a coastal resort or an urban setting. When we design for different locations, it's important to understand them from a local perspective and really delve into the culture. Travel is a big part of our culture at the company and we love weaving in ideas, colours and materials from the surroundings into our projects. We draw inspiration from the location and work that in with the client brief, and where appropriate, then try give it that modern and international twist. For Saudi Arabia, we're hoping to be involved in projects that require local Saudi design inspirations with some of the bigger developers. Amani: There is demand for a whole variety of design styles here, from contemporary to heritage inspired. I think Saudi projects are placing a lot of value on refl ecting Saudi identity and heritage but doing this in a subtle way and with a contemporary twist that blends in with a more international style. We're also very open to collaborating with the local design community, whether that be suppliers, designers, or artists. CID: Any new projects that the offi ce is working on at the moment or in the upcoming year that you can share with us? We want to be a designer leader in Saudi...Cover feature 23 February 2022 commercialinteriordesign.com Kristina: In the past we've worked on quite a wide variety of projects in Saudi like resorts, international hotels, museums, mosques, universities, and also residences. At the moment, we are working on two resort projects in the Red Sea which are both exciting and one is now in the construction stage. There are a few other projects in the design stages: a large luxury male spa, a SO Residence in Jeddah as well as a Marriott Renaissance Hotel. We also have some large private residential projects that are in the construction stage. We've also been lucky to get the opportunity to work along with some incredible international architects on some of our projects in Saudi. Amani: We are also working on the new St Regis in Riyadh which is moving at a fast pace. I am involved in coordinating now all the FF&E queries with the selected contractor to ensure our design is realised by them. CID: Tell us more about how Saudi women are entering the workforce. Amani: It's become increasingly normal to see young Saudi women wanting to work, have careers and be a part of the country's development. Although this has been growing over the past decade, it's become more prevalent in the past few years. There are a lot of local organisations and startups growing from the ground up, in addition to international companies working here. The art and design industry in particular is becoming quite vibrant, with young Saudis – men and women – playing an active role in creative sectors and defi ning the country's modern identity. Kristina: We want to nurture this growth and be a design leader in Saudi as well as the region. We would like to do more with the design community as well as encourage local manufacturing and local design. It starts with some involvement with the universities and inspiring the new talent out there. It's not something that can be done overnight. But being physically present within the design community will help us start this journey. On-trend lobby concept for a new fi ve-star in RiyadhCover feature commercialinteriordesign.com February 2022 24 Saudi's Expo Pavilion was designed by boris micka associates Image credit: ALECCover feature 25 February 2022 commercialinteriordesign.com ALEC FITOUT In Quarter Four 2020, ALEC Group announced it has opened its fi rst offi ce in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Speaking at the time, MD Barry Lewis said the new offi ce opening was part of ALEC Group's commitment to supporting the development of the Kingdom and the wider region. The huge construction company also has offi ces in Dubai, Oman and Ethiopia and specialises in delivering complex projects. As well as a design and build capacity, ALEC also offers clients a complete turnkey solution with fi t-out, MEP and more. CID sat down with Laurent Farge, the GM at ALEC FITOUT and Alexis Bayle, ALEC FITOUT's country manager for Saudi Arabia, to learn more about the development. CID: What made you decide as a company to move into Saudi when you did? Laurent: We registered our legal entity in Riyadh in 2019. It took us some time; basically one year to set up, because of the pandemic; it took us time to get visas, we had to recruit a few employees and then people were not able to go and visit clients. So the start was slow. But we are up and running now. We're just rented a new big offi ce and we're active in the market. In Saudi at the moment, there is a lot of opportunity, with the country's Vision 2030 [a strategic framework to reduce Saudi Arabia's dependence on oil]. The King Abdullah Financial District was especially a good opportunity for us as there are many buildings complete to shell and core, but no interior fi t-out. When the main contracting parties fi nish the façade, they are looking at the fi t-out contractors to come and do MEP, fi nishes & FF&E, which is exactly what we are looking for. These banks, multi-national companies and government ministries coming into KAFD will require a fi t-out contractor for six, seven, eight fl oors or even the full building. We needed to fi nd a market where we can look at direct opportunities, so it's good for us to be here. It allows us to go quickly into the market and get projects that can be awarded straightaway. So, at the moment, we are pricing a couple of jobs here. CID: What's the market like there at the moment in terms of your peer group? Have a lot of fi rms from the Middle East moved into Saudi or is it more homegrown? Laurent Farge Laurent: In terms of the fi t-out industry, there are many older companies and some of them have been here for the last 10 years. The competition is there and there's also a lot of opportunity. We are careful in our approach – we decided to start with one project and we decided to execute that project, which will be fi nished in the months of July or August. Then slowly we are targeting new tenders. For us as a business, we want to do one project at the beginning, we want to execute it, we want to get a good reputation out of it and then slowly we grow our portfolio of clients. However, if we wanted to have six or seven jobs at one time at the moment in Saudi we could. CID: Specifi cally what services are provided from your Saudi offi ce? Laurent: We do similar to what we do in Dubai, so we do design and build and obviously we do full fi t-out. There are some A lot of opportunity is here in Saudi...Cover feature commercialinteriordesign.com February 2022 26 specifi c niche markets and we want to look at large scale projects. In the jobs that we are doing here at the moment, we are doing a complete design and build and we are doing the full construction. So, we are doing the civil part, the MEP part and the fi t-out part, including all the audio visual, with a joint venture partner that we have. There are many opportunities for us but for fi t-out at the moment, it's mainly luxury hospitality and corporate head offi ces. Potentially, we also looking at museums and immersive cultural exhibition fi t out projects. CID: What's the timeframe for most of the projects that you're working on now? Will they be opening this year? Laurent: All of this will be built within three to four years. We have a lot of boutique hotels, which typically offer 40 to 50 big rooms with very luxurious interiors. This works very well for us, but can take longer as it may include build as well as fi t out. We also started some work with a client on a museum in Riyadh, but then there was some redesign, so it was stopped and we are waiting for the design to be fi nalised. CID: What have been the main challenges of working in Saudi and are there any challenges that are unique to the country? Laurent: As a company based in the UAE, we rely on our supply chain in the UAE, so we work with our marble supplier and we work with our joinery contractor who we've been working with for the last 15 years. They are strategic partners and they like our company, understand our culture and they understand the quality that we are looking for. We are also looking to extend our engagement with our partners that have worked on the AV elements of the Expo 2020 Dubai pavilions. In Saudi at the moment, we are facing challenges to fi nd the right partners, so what we did in our fi rst project is bring them with us from the UAE. So we are importing our joinery and we are importing our marble and the main component of the fi t-out is being produced now in the UAE. CID: Can you see that situation changing and developing over the medium to long term? Laurent: Yes, we want to use Saudi engineers and we are in that process. Our joint venture partner on our current project is a local Saudi company. We have approached the local supply chain and will grow our network over time. CID: What can you tell us about the Saudi projects you're working on? Alexis: We're expecting a lot of tenders to be out on the market in the second quarter of 2022 for luxury hotels, corporate offi ce and also museums, as part of the Saudi’s Vision 2030. We can basically do the same things we do in the UAE, but it’s important to have a base here so we can meet the clients face-to-face. As Laurent mentioned, we're searching for long-term, reliable, An escalator inside the Saudi Pavilion It has the latest AV installations Alexis BayleCover feature 27 February 2022 commercialinteriordesign.com Scott Cairns, MD of Creation Business Consultants Saudi Arabia remains an attractive market. Foreign investment licenses issued in Saudi increased by 38% year-on-year (YoY) to 478 in Q1 2021, by 264% YoY to 575 in Q2 2021 and 333% YoY to 1,330 in Q3 2021. In Q4 2021 Ministry of Investment Saudi Arabia issued 2,056 licenses to foreign companies. For those looking to expand into the Kingdom, there are two common entity types to consider. A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is the most preferred structure by foreign investors. LLC’s may be eligible for 100% foreign ownership, subject to selected activity and paid-up capital requirements. Branch structures enable a foreign company to setup and operate a 100% foreign owned entity, however the parent must have been trading for 3+ years. Regarding licensing, a commercial license covers trading of goods. An industrial license enables the manufacture of goods, ie building materials. Service licenses cover professional interior design services. Selected activities may require additional approvals from regulators and proof of experience such as qualifi cations and portfolio of completed work/ projects. New market entrants need to be aware that under the Saudization scheme, they will be required to employ Saudi nationals starting at a 1:3 ratio. Making the move trustworthy subcontractors and suppliers, so it's important to have a presence in Riyadh. CID: As a company ALEC also worked on 22 projects across the Expo 2020 Dubai site, including the Saudi Arabia Pavilion. Was that helpful in you making inroads into the Kingdom? Laurent: Yes, for us it's a massive business card. We've shown clients and potential clients a video from the design team and everybody's very impressed. It's maybe one of the best pavilions at Expo and if you look at the projection screen and AV that was involved, it's a fantastic, fantastic result; it's one of the best, and most-visited pavilions at Expo. CID: What were its challenges? Laurent: Number one was the time frame. 17 months from start to finish was very fast track to build and fit out the complete pavilion. We would have been ready for the original 2020 opening. It was difficult to get materials from all over the world as a lot of factories at that time [during the height of the pandemic] were closed. A lot of the AV comes from Asia, so we had problems with getting a firm date from the supply chain. However, the coordination with the client and with the designer was fantastic. CID: What's the most positive thing so far to come out of the ALEC expansion into Saudi? Laurent: For me, as an individual, Saudi is much more open that it used to be. Now you can go to an office and see women working and people are interacting, which is important. You can see women driving when you are out in the street. It's becoming very free and I think it will become more free, then they will have all the tourist attractions that they want to do and will attract people to come from all over the world. 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