With a 40% higher capacity than Hempel’s existing production facility in Safat, Kuwait, the new €13 million factory in Mina Abdullah will help the company meet growing demand for its coatings in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. The new factory will be fully up and running by September 2017, and Hempel’s existing factory in Safat will close later in the year.
Karsten Pedersen, Group Vice President of Hempel Middle East (West), commented, “The new factory is a state-of-the-art facility that will produce coatings that are trusted across the region to provide long-term protection to industrial assets, large buildings, homes and infrastructure. We are looking forward to continuing to be the market leader in the region, while increasing production and making our operations cleaner, faster and more energy efficient.”
Built to ISO 9000 quality management guidelines, Hempel’s Mina Abdullah factory is designed with sustainability in mind. It includes a solvent distillation unit that recycles solvents to reduce hazardous waste, as well as a water treatment plant that ensures much of the factory’s wastewater can be reused for vegetation and cleaning.
The factory is also the first coatings production unit in Kuwait to include a regenerative thermal oxidiser unit, which removes volatile organic compounds during production to prevent atmospheric pollution.
Hempel Group President & CEO Henrik Andersen commented, “Today, we celebrate an important milestone in Kuwait. Our customers are increasingly looking for green building solutions – and we are proud to be abl e to provide those through a production facility designed to reduce the environmental impact of coatings production.”
