Interview with Mr. Hany Amin – Export Director, Oriental Weavers Carpet Co.
The Oriental weavers company was established in 1979 by Mr. Mohamed Farid Khamis.
The founder, Mr. Mohamed Farid Khamis, established the company on the 10th of Ramadan city in Egypt, which is a famous industrial city in Egypt.
Oriental Weavers had the vision to become the leading manufacturer in the industry and the company started to be vertically integrated where it produces most of its raw materials. The company grew over the years to be the largest company in the world producing machine-made rugs and currently exporting to more than 130 countries worldwide.
Which kind of Carpet and flooring you produce in Oriental weavers?
The company specializes in producing machine-made woven rugs and carpets made mainly of polypropylene, but also produces rugs made of other materials, like polyester, wool, cotton, acrylic, viscose, and other blends.
Oriental Weavers is one of the biggest carpet and flooring producers in the world, how was the pandemic effect in your export market and how do you evaluate 2021 and the upcoming years?
The pandemic has a negative effect on the short run, especially at the beginning of the first wave, however, demand started to rise again starting from July 2020 and the markets witnessed huge demand due to the reopening of retail shops beside the big increase in demand coming from e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic.
Overall, OW managed to use the pandemic time for its benefits through catching new opportunities arising from increased demand, and also implementing new digital and development ideas to communicate more effectively with customers.
Oriental Weavers is a creative design carpet manufacturer, how you follow carpet and flooring market trends and how select your carpet designs?
In OW, we have a big in-house design department and a very dynamic R&D team. We try to keep up with new trends through participating with different trade publications, joining virtual exhibitions, communicating with customers in different markets, and working closely with consultants and freelance designers and trend developers.
Designs are created mainly internally through our designers who work with the R&D team and also by selecting and buying some designs from external design houses. The feedback of the sales team for designs helps to select the right designs for each market or region.
How many percent of your products use in Egypt domestic market and how many percent export to international markets? Tell us more about your export destinations.
About 65-70% of the production of Oriental Weavers is exported and around 30-35% is sold in the domestic Egyptian market. We export to more than 130 countries worldwide. Our main export markets include USA, MENA region, Germany, Japan, Brazil, UK, Australia, and Africa.
How do you evaluate the Carpet industry in Egypt?
The carpet industry in Egypt is very competitive due to the fact that government supports the industry through providing several incentives, like tax-free incentives for free zone areas, export rebates, etc.
Also, major costs associated with the industry, like labour costs, utilities, etc., are very competitive when compared with other countries in the world. Oriental Weavers is the leading producer in Egypt with a market share of almost 90% of what is produced in the country.
We should rely more on sustainability and green products, how we can improve sustainability in Carpet and flooring industry?
Sustainability themes and projects are very important to add more value to the industry in general. There should be more focus on introducing more and more rugs made of recycled yarn and would help enhance the concept of the “green economy”. Also, improving sustainability should involve reducing pollution outputs related to the industry and using more sources of clean energy.
Oriental weavers is a leading company in the production of green and sustainable flooring, what is Oriental weavers policy and plans for improving sustainability in final products?
It is very important for Oriental Weavers to start developing and introducing rugs and carpets that are made of eco-friendly material. Such rugs would be recycled, recyclable and traceable in order to help with the concept of the ‘green economy’ with the main focus on sustainability.
Also, using clean energy sources, as much as possible, is implemented gradually in OW, like using solar panels, solar lightings and working to decrease carbon dioxide emissions. Introducing rugs made of harmless and eco-friendly material is one goal among OW’s long term strategic goals.
What is Oriental Weaver’s main strategy to maintain its position as the market and industry leader?
Oriental Weavers is a very dynamic company whether in terms of production, development, sales, or other related activities. The company has aggressive plans to expand its capacity for production of yarn and rugs extensively with main goal of improving service level offered to customers and enhancing the concept of ‘economies of scale’ more efficiently to keep developing and offering the best quality rugs with the highest possible value.
The company also has plans to hire and train its workforce and invest in the OW team as part of the company’s belief in the importance of human capital as a main pillar for the advance and growth of the company. Finally, there are ambitious plans of OW to expand in both domestic and export markets through adding new showrooms domestically and gaining higher market shares in major export markets.
