Starlinger bags major contract in Oman

Starlinger won the contract for a 4.56 million Euro machinery project for Omani flour producer Salalah Mills Co.

Contract award with great ceremony: In the exclusive setting of the Business Opportunities Forum in Muscat, Eng. Abdulrahman Awad Abdullah Barham Ba Omar, board member of Salalah Mills Co., and Hermann Adrigan, sales director of Starlinger, signed the sales contract for machinery for producing hot-air-welded AD*STAR® block bottom valve bags and sewn woven bags made of polypropylene tape fabric on November 17, 2015. About 200 small and medium sized enterprises, a number of important large companies from Oman and many foreign companies with business interests in the sultanate attended the forum which was organised by the Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OCCI) for the third time in 2015.

"Oman does not only have a lot to offer as a tourist destination, it is also an attractive economic location", says Hermann Adrigan from Starlinger. "We are delighted to work together with such a renowned business partner as Salalah Mills and will do everything we can to make this project a success."

With this investment, Salalah Mills Co. lays the foundations for their own packaging production plant. Currently, the flour producer is buying the packaging for its products from internal and external suppliers. "We have great ambition to be the biggest packaging company in Oman and the area of the Gulf Cooperation Council", says Ahmed Alawi Al Dhahab, CEO of Salalah Mills Co.

The installation of the machinery is planned for mid-2016. The scope of delivery comprises the entire machine range for woven plastic packaging production: a tape extrusion line, winders, circular looms as well as lamination and conversion lines. The plant is scheduled to take up production towards the end of 2016. The company will also be the first producer of AD*STAR® bags in Oman.

Salalah Mills uses mainly sewn woven polypropylene bags for packaging and transporting the various white and wholegrain flours and semolina it produces. The bags are food-safe, have high strength and tear resistance, and protect the content against pests and environmental influences.

Being the biggest flour producer in Oman, Salalah Mills Co. has a production capacity of 1500 tons of flour per day. The company is based in the seaport city of Salalah on the west coast of Oman and exports about 30 % of their entire production to Yemen, the countries in the Horn of Africa, and Tanzania.

AD*STAR® is a registered trademark. AD*STAR®-sacks are produced exclusively on Starlinger machinery.