Guardian Industries Corp. recently debuted a video that outlines the company’s two-decade presence and ongoing leadership in one of the fastest-growing, most architecturally innovative regions of the world.
“From the Sand: Guardian Glass in the Middle East” tells how and why Guardian Glass is providing essential products and services for these booming urban areas that have some of the world’s tallest, most dramatic glass-clad buildings.
With one of the youngest populations in the world, the region is changing very quickly, and Guardian is able to bring value to that growth, according to Wissam Kazzaz, Director of Marketing, Middle East, Guardian Glass. “Guardian develops the perfect products for the region – one of the most unforgiving climates in the world – that really take into account what the local architects are trying to achieve, instead of just picking out products from other parts of the world and seeing what fits,” he says. “We’re helping provide the glass to make lives better and fuel the growth in a more efficient and comfortable way.”
“The future of glass in the Middle East is tending towards bigger facades, bigger units, high light transmission,” Jabr Doshan, General Manager, White Aluminium, explains in the video. “A company like Guardian is very important because it offers support to glass processors on high-end projects.”
There are three Guardian Glass float glass plants in the region: GulfGuard, which was the first float glass plant in the Middle East, launching in Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia in 1995; Guardian Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, which launched in 2006; and the Egyptian Glass Company, located outside of Cairo.* These plants ship to more than 40 countries in and around the Middle East, extending as far as Australia and New Zealand.
And to further increase its value and product portfolio to customers, Guardian recently installed a state-of-the-art sputter coater – the largest of its size in the Middle East – in a facility adjacent to its float glass plant in Al Jubail. This important investment allows architects in the region to build more energy-efficient projects by incorporating high performance glass.
Firoz Kachwala, Director, Future Architectural Glass, emphasizes this point in the video. “The clients like to have buildings completely cladded with glass,” he says. “With that kind of cladding, you bring in a lot of heat. And to achieve this you need high performance products … Guardian has the right mixture of products to reach the requirements of the architects.”
Accessible from Guardian’s redesigned website, “From the Sand” is part of a series of videos and pages that illustrate Guardian Industries – from its products to its people. To watch, visit the newsroom videos at guardian.com.
About Guardian Industries Corp.:
Guardian Industries Corp. is a privately held, diversified, global company headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. Guardian, and its family of companies, employ 17,000 people and operate facilities throughout North America, Europe, South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia, with a vision to create value for customers and society through constant innovation using fewer resources. Guardian Glass is a leading international manufacturer of float, value-added coated, and fabricated glass products and solutions for architectural, residential, interior, transportation and technical glass applications. SRG Global is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of advanced, high value coatings on plastics for the automotive and commercial truck industries, providing solutions for greater surface durability, structural integrity, functionality, vehicle efficiency and design flexibility. Guardian Building Products is a leading U.S. based distributor of specialty building products. Visit www.guardian.com.
*GulfGuard is a joint venture with The National Company for Glass Industries (Zoujaj) and Eastern Company for Industrial Investment Ltd.; and Guardian Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates is a joint venture partner with The National Company for Glass Industries (Zoujaj) and Zamil Group Holding Co.