Eighteen months in, Doha’s Orient Pearl restaurant is drawing the crowds

Eighteen months in, Doha’s Orient Pearl restaurant is drawing the crowds

Orient Pearl, the Qatari capital’s largest single restaurant venue, has seen weekend attendances outside of Ramadan max out its combined indoor and outdoor capacity of 1,500 seats

On January 17, the Orient Pearl in Doha officially opened its doors a 1,500-seat outdoor event. Today it is a bustling hive of life and laughter with a warm ambience, live music and great food.

Operations director Maher Abu-Alnaser, who has handled proceeding since November, says the concept was to deliver an upmarket but modestly priced experience, from between 150 to 250 Qatari riyals per person, so that it is accessible and can be visited by all customers .

Abu-Alnaser notes: “We have two different restaurants: Joury, which is a combination of Lebanese and Syrian; and, Nayrabeen, which specialises in shamiyat, so foul, fatteh, hummus, falafel and which has a big outdoor play area unlike any other in Qatar.”

Mohamad  Moataz Al-Khayat , CEO and founder of the Orient Pearl said: “Due to the scale of the venue, we decided that this would be our signature restaurant. As a landmark on the corniche, we believe this will be the beginning of a bigger franchise to come, not just in Qatar, but in the international market.”

Offering a distinctive difference between Lebanese and Syrian cuisine, the core difference can be found in the method of cooking and the spices. As the largest restaurant in Doha by area, it is still impressively packed out, in particular during the weekends.

Even now, the indoor Joury and Latoscana is bustling, with colourfully-garbed staff offering Tamarind juice and portly waiters ever at hand to keep the seamless experience moving forward.

The basics like the humus are all spot on, the fatteh delicately spiced, the meat tender and specialities like the plump and syrup-drizzled kibbeh are impressively flavoured and presented.

Orient Pearl is also elegantly decked out, with artistic detail visible in every corner, from the patterned gypsum panels in the roof to the marble flooring and crafted furniture. The food then does these surroundings more than adequate justice, and with attentive service to boot.

In the evening, and as stomachs begin to feel the strain, live music also kicks in at 9.00-9:30pm, completing the experience, though in Ramadan the timing begins a little later, at 10.30-11.00pm.

Outside of summer, Khayyat adds, the corniche location enjoys a sea-view, and the outdoor experiences beautiful weather, with the fragrant smells of shisha and live-cooked shawarma mingling on the light breeze. So in fact the perfect place from which to enjoy Doha.

KCT emphasises local supply and subcontracting agreements

KCT emphasises local supply and subcontracting agreements

Khayyat Contracting & Trading says Qatari supply is key as it looks to maximise its local consumption and minimise imports from other countries for its projects on the peninsula.

Khayyat Contracting & Trading (KCT) is picking up a growing number of projects in Qatar and though there is pressure on the supply chain the company says it will stand firm in encouraging local supply, which will ultimately save on time and money in the market.

Mohamad Moutaz Al-Khayat, CEO of KCT, notes: “We are emphasising local supply, because the best way for you to save is to source your materials from the country you are in, and in Qatar this will prompt the creation of a market which can accommodate everything that is going on in the country.”

“We need to move at the same pace as the vision for Qatar, and as the market has not yet shown the strength and cohesion to provide all the commodities and trades for construction, we need to support it to ensure that local business doesn’t get left behind.”

KCT is also setting up both warehouses to enable the purchase and storage of local materials in bulk, and is also considering fixed period supply agreements with certain local companies.

Issam Atef, procurement director at KCT, details: “We have opened warehouses for all the materials that we are going to be using on a regular basis in order to streamline our supply chain. When it’s needed, it’s there, and it’s bought at a price that beats the market given its quality.”

The only caveat comes when the order is so huge that it simply cannot be bought locally, “but otherwise we are looking for the future to verify certain proven companies to work with us that,” adds Atef, noting: “We are now making limited one-year agreements.”

The contractor in particular hopes that with time it will be able to identify the reliable suppliers in the market, and to eliminate any non-effective parties employing opportunistic tactics.

“We are very pleased with the achievement of putting the procurement department on the track, and to be moving away from short-term agreements. The procurement department is not there just to pass papers,” nods Khayyat.

“We do not want a bureaucratic kind of dealing – it is supposed to be effective in controlling cost, and in ensuring the supply of materials, the timeliness of supply and that the payment is there.”

A final point is to ensure that the internal procedures of local projects do not make correct procurement a secondary matter in order to accommodate the pace, so KCT is focusing its efforts on streamlining its processes to confine costs while accommodating all of its sites.

KCT drives operational efficacy in procurement

KCT drives operational efficacy in procurement

As part of ongoing efforts to deliver the highest quality construction, Khayyat Contracting & Trading is adopting a strictly controlled and technology-led approach to its procurement

Khayyat Contracting & Trading (KCT) is implementing rigorous procedures through an expert team in order to ensure the highest standards in its procurement in Qatar and has plans to form a database on all subcontractors and suppliers providing services and materials to the market.

Mohamad Moataz AlKhayat, CEO of KCT, notes: “Procurement affects the company dearly – it is one of the backbones of the company and determines whether we make a profit in many situations. Our strategy is to run it like a machine, to the benefit of ourselves, subcontractors and suppliers.

According to Issam Atef , procurement director at the company, KCT’s strategy to implement the strictest controls hinges on a tight-knit team that only requires a handful of personnel to procure for 24 sites, and which can rapidly adjust to changes in its procedures.

“We are working with the minimum staff anywhere, so we are very efficient as a department, and self-conscious about not wasting of time and money,” Atef says. “We have a lot of work coming in, but we hope to get to the point where processing will become a matter of hours.”

A specific aim for the near future is to see 90% of its supply chain going through the proper channels, which will control “the cost, timing and quality of supply.” This will be supported by the implementation of the database to better benchmark quality and pricing of procured services.

For this purpose KCT is inquiring upon all of the suppliers and subcontractors in the market, and through this process, the company will soon be pre-qualifying vendors to work with the company.

Suppliers are also being given the opportunity to apply directly to qualify with KCT through an online portal – a selection tool that will become increasingly useful as efforts turn towards LEED, QSAS and environmentally friendly vendors that are already leading this field in other markets.

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Further information about Khayyat Contracting and Trading

Khayyat Contracting and Trading  (KCT), is one of the largest main contractors in the State of Qatar, providing a wide range of construction services to both the local and international markets. Having built a reputation for delivering projects on time and on budget, KCT’s recently delivered projects include the Orient Pearl restaurant and the Lekhwiya Stadium. KCT is currently working on the Mall of Qatar, which once completed will be one of the largest indoor shopping centres in the world.

www.khayyat-qa.com

KCT unveils ambitious plans for its supply chain in Qatar

KCT  unveils ambitious plans for its supply chain in Qatar

For Khayyat Contracting & Trading and other Qatari firms to achieve the maximum benefit for both themselves and the country, they first need to realise an effective local supply chain.

In a bid to move away from the Qatari construction market’s dependence on deliveries from other Gulf nations Khayyat Contracting & Trading (KCT) is rapidly developing its own in-house factories for processing materials, and is searching the globe for the best suppliers to stock with.

“As a group we are building towards having a self-sufficient company in many areas: We already have factories for marble, aluminium and gypsum,” says Mohamad Moataz AlKhayat, CEO of KCT.

“Any company that we set up will serve the entire community – it’s not just going to be a service for KCT, but for anyone in the country – that’s the competitive spirit of the industry.”

Once they are fully scaled up these factories will deliver some of the highest quality materials and components in Qatar to KCT projects and will also enrich the competitive supply market.

Looking beyond the region to the global supply market there are also still many gaps between what is on offer in some specific regions, such as Europe, and what is available in the Gulf.

“Our strategy is to rely on the world market, not just the Gulf or Arab markets, in order to bring new material into the country,” Khayyat adds. “We are particularly interested in Europe, where there are many fresh alternatives, and we are keeping track of developments at building fairs.”

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Hiring across the board

Hiring across the board

Qatar based main contractor KCT engages in massive recruitment drive.

Construction leviathan, KCT, or Khayyat Contracting and Trading is about to commence a massive recruitment drive, aimed at attracting the very best from the construction sector, according to a recent statement from the company.

With jobs ranging from managerial positions, through to blue collar labourers, KCT has good reason for expanding its workforce. While the rest of the world continues to recover from the hangover of the global recession, Qatar has enjoyed healthy levels of economic growth for some time.

Representing a unique case altogether, Qatar’s immense resources and strategic governance has seen its meteoric rise to becoming the wealthiest country in the world per capita within only a few decades of its independence from the United Kingdom in 1971.

KCT, like many companies in the country have been quick to capitalise on the high levels of infrastructure demand, not to mention liquidity, which are currently transforming this previously quiet peninsula, into a highly cosmopolitan destination within the Middle East.

Representing a number of construction projects ranging from stadiums to hotels, chief executive officer Mohamad Moataz AlKhayat commented; “It is an esteemed privilege to have the opportunity to support Qatar’s national development through a variety of projects and we are excited to be expanding our operations in the second half of this year.”

KCT’s human resources director said, “An important feature about working in Qatar is you must prove your specific qualifications for the job in question. As an example, a project engineer will not get a project engineer visa unless he has the relevant degree in engineering.”

Certainly with a lengthy list of projects to work on, Qatar has the requirements to meet both a FIFA World Cup in 2022 and a National Vision by 2030, meaning that for those who are interested in the long haul, the capacity for work is almost never ending, most likely a breath of fresh air for a number of the European economies that are still gripped in high levels of unemployment.

KCT takes steps to enhance planning protocol

KCT takes steps to enhance planning protocol

Qatari contractor takes inventive leap in planning capabilities to meet the demands of the market

The number, size and scope of projects in Qatar is presenting new challenges to contractors in dealing with the volume and complexity of planning requirements,and KCT is making certain to streamline procedures and technology to bring ail of its capabilities up to the mark.

Mohamad Moutaz AlKhayat, CEO of Khayyat Contracting & Trading (KCT) says: "One of the first things we did was to recruit individual planning engineers for each of the KCT projects, allowing weekly updates of the time schedules in order to precisely measure any delay in each program."

Samir Sakka, senior planning manager at KCT, notes: "My role is to establish tools to control and monitor the projects, and the planning engineers under me play a crucial role in highlighting any changes in the pace of progress, or areas of concern on the projects."

Further to this, the contractor has standardized the forms used to prepare its reports and begun to feed the inputs into a common KCT web reporting system that allows ail of its directors and senior management of the company check up on any project at any time and from anywhere.

The focus on conveying this information is all about time, as a day delay on a big project means a day of salaries for often thousands of employees.

Sakka continues: "[ have never seen something like this at any contracting company in this region, and this is just one of our tools. Communication skills are very important in our field and this website is a means of communication – it's a new way of communicating our report data."

Finally, in the role of the planning department as the lead in technical tender submittals, tools are being developed to enhance process of communication, coordination and collection of the tender components from the different departments.

Mohamad Raslan AlKhayat, company founder, in 1983, summarizes: "We are ever

Developing new software and tools to facilitate our work, and my future vision for the planning department is to enhance these tools even further to manage all projects to an even greater degree of detail in terms of time, cost and the risk management."

Big plans for IDCC

Headline:

Big plans for IDCC

Stand first:

Qatari based design and development firm outlines its existing plans for Doha and beyond

Copy:

IDCC is in the process of finalising designs, which are now ready for submission, according to a statement from the company. Having worked along side parent company Urbacon, IDCC has produced a number of designs that are now ready to move from technical drawing to reality.

Offering a broad range of services, IDCC’s process begins with market research, before conducting feasibility studies and finally designs. The company also offers master planning and design management as part of its extended services.

Speaking with parent company managing director, Ramez Al Khayat, he said; “While we have made headway with a number of projects designed by IDCC, I believe that what we have in the pipeline, will involve some of the most exciting projects in Qatar to date.”

With an almost unparalleled level of activity in its construction market, Doha’s skyline has become an architects canvas, and with the recent announcement that the national construction sector has grown at a rate of 11.7%* so far this year, it is clear that national development, both public and private, is not showing any signs of slowing down.

Al Khayyat continued to say that, “IDCC will continue to feed our contracting company with the designs that fulfil market requirements and continue to support the development of Qatar.”