Pearl Polyurethane, the leading system house covering the Middle East and North Africa, has appointed a new CEO as part of an ambitious growth plan to double the size of the Dubai-headquartered company and expand internationally over the coming five years.
Former Bayer executive, Martin Kruczinna, who took up the CEO’s role in February 2021 recently oversaw a buyout deal which saw Dubai-based parent entity, Pearl Overseas Industries Ltd, sign an agreement to acquire the remaining 51 per cent shareholding in the company, taking ownership control to 100 per cent, acquiring the additional shareholding from its former German joint-venture partner, Covestro AG. the deal was completed on July 26, 2021 with Pearl putting a long-term supply and technical service agreement in place with manufacturer Covestro to ensure consistency of supply to existing and new clients.
The newly independent company, now known as Pearl Polyurethane Systems LLC, is poised to leverage its past successes under the growth plan detailed by Kruczinna. Operating for over 25 years, the company has supplied polyurethane insulation foam systems for several trailblazing projects in the Gulf region, including Palm Jumeirah, Downtown Dubai and Ski Dubai in Mall of the Emirates.
Detailing the five-year growth plan, labelled PearlX2, Kruczinna outlined the structured strategy which relies on five main pillars:
- Geographic expansion: Successfully moving beyond Pearl’s established region and gaining significant share of new markets outside the MENA-region, supported by further investment into Pearl’s international footprint to accompany this growth
- Diversification: Entering and growing new business fields to complement the current core business catering to insulation applications
- Strategic partnerships: Forge partnerships with stakeholders at all stages in the value chain to leverage strategic value through international cooperation
Other aspects of the new growth plan focus heavily on people together with a significant investment in R&D:
- R&D initiatives, sustainability & new product development: Focusing on R&D and sustainability as evidenced by the company’s recent R&D Initiative launched in May 2021 aimed at improving sandwich panel insulation performance by 20 per cent. The company also plans to launch a new range of Pearl branded PU products and in doing so increase its market share in existing industries served
- Talent acquisition and corporate culture: Recruiting and developing talent through ongoing mentoring and training initiatives to further build on the company’s reputation for providing industry-leading technical advice and personalised customer service, while further entrenching the entrepreneurial spirit and solutions driven ethos that Pearl has become known for
“Key drivers positioning Pearl as market leader in its field has been the company’s ability to combine the best of both worlds: the thoroughness of a global player paired with an unwavering commitment to personalised customer service and the agility of a dynamic, entrepreneurial business to maximise value for our customers. Instead of changing this highly effective formula, we want to roll out our unique and successful business model into new markets, both geographically and also in terms of the scope of activities into new industry sectors,” commented Kruczinna.
“The newly structured entity of Pearl Polyurethane, combined with the reconfirmed long-term relationship with Covestro, enables us to create win-win solutions for our existing and new customers, suppliers.”
He added: “Our new growth plan is aimed at doubling the size of our company over five years. While we plan to further increase our market share in selected MENA countries, the real leverage will come from moving beyond those borders and launching innovative new products. Our advantageous location in Dubai as a regional trading hub puts several attractive markets within easy reach. We expect our unique value proposition of being able to reliably deliver high quality service and products at competitive prices should be valued in new international markets. We intend to capitalise on these growth opportunities and position Pearl as the preferred polyurethane solutions partner for customers in a growing number of industries, not only in the Middle East but also internationally,” concluded Kruczinna.
Pearl Polyurethane offers a comprehensive range of polyurethane formulations and prepolymers for the production of high-performance polyurethane foams and elastomers.