Grankraft was established in the year 2000 as an engineering and manufacturing company specialising in the creation of bespoke structures, architectural glass, and metal works. It uses a wide variety of materials, architectural steel, weathered steel, stainless steel, aluminium, glass, and special alloys. Grankraft continues to redefine the future of contemporary architecture and craft excellence from design to execution. It has expanded its portfolio to include fit-out projects that encompass bespoke fixtures, furniture, equipment (FF&E), and general construction services. This gives Grankraft a competitive market position with solid expertise across the GCC with footprints across Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Over the years, Grankraft has adopted projects that broke records with their unique fabricated masterpieces. These have included bespoke structures such as the Museum of the Future, Oman Across Ages, Bab Al Nojoum Resort, and Sheybarah Resort to name a few.
“We are currently the main architectural metal, fit out and MEP contractors for recognised projects globally. We carry out turnkey executions from concrete to the façade, and metal to landscaping,” states Suhaila Al Najjar, Grankraft’s CEO.
A Unique Eye
Grankraft has built an innovative and idiosyncratic approach to producing unique architectural projects which positioned it as the go-to supplier.
Al Najjar says, “We have a team of architectural, and structural design specialists across the world, including 85 people in the UAE, an office in Germany and a business hub in the Philippines. We think outside the box to find solutions and generate creative ideas for our unique clients. Our engineering team studies every single detail and works in parallel with our clients from planning to execution until delivery and maintenance.”
The Sheybarah Hotel, part of the Red Sea Development, is a perfect example of that approach in action. The hyper luxury resort consists of multiple overwater and inland villas positioned on the uninhabited Sheybarah Island – 30 minutes from the mainland by boat. Grankraft’s main approach to building the design was to use an entirely jointless construction method, building the modules and then shipping them out to the location.
“It started from the design,” Al Najjar says. “We were transporting a full build from here to Saudi on a barge. Our team of specialists designed the structures with its smallest details to take the load because the whole unit was being moved from one location to another. The challenging part was ensuring that the sensitive cladding stainless steel is not affected by movement and did not need to be rectified when it was delivered and installed in Saudi Arabia. However, our engineers and production team innovated an in-house machine to form up the shape of the steel according to the client’s design requirements. Our machinery’s effectiveness stood out against competitors’ rival solutions,” Al Najjar points out. “We created four of these machines in-house to fill the order for the duration project and added a polishing machine for a brush finish.”
Stainless Steel Talent
“Our wealth of in-house expertise facilitates the delivery of our unique masterpiece projects. Over the years we have built ourselves to process all requests in-house. We start with the earliest calculations required, going on to create the initial concept received from the designers, who we collaborate with to ensure the visual concept matches the final shop drawings as they envisaged it. From there we go to the process of fabrication,” Al Najjar states.
Grankraft’s CEO goes on to add, “Yet, this does not mean we do not draw expertise from elsewhere when required. We collaborate with consultants from the design stage onwards, and work with the client to develop ideas to take the project from design to construction. However, Grankraft’s reservoirs of multinational in-house talent remain crucial to the company’s success. This is why we place a great deal of importance on the human connection, starting with the smallest weekly incentives, to training and development, to monthly gatherings and evaluations and our overall flat organisational structure.”
Attracting talent has never been hard for Grankraft, precisely because its projects are so challenging.
“We have an in-house team of fully capable and creative specialists that admire the challenges and the global opportunities of the projects we handle. We have built strong, reputable company that strengthens its employees’ capabilities and achievements.”
With a motivated and talented team on board, Grankraft’s end goal is to take over all projects that offer the opportunity to exhibit its talent for creating unique metal structures.
“We emphasise developing our team as they are the key factor in our continuous success. We are always improving our software, conducting training sessions, and bringing the latest machines for robotics and laser cutting to our factories. We are also adopting a modular construction system to deliver fully rigged units,” says Al Najjar.
Throughout the whole interview, Suhaila Al Najjar sounded excited by the prospect of innovating new techniques and technologies such as 3D printing, as they have already started to use locally within the UAE. Al Najjar is expecting modular or 3D printing construction to be the future and stated that they have extended their offices to KSA where these activities can be carried out fully in-house instead of going with third parties.
Al Najjar concludes, “Our long-term goal is expanding our geographic footprint across Europe, Asia, and Africa, as we are in serious discussions to start architectural metal and modular systems there. We always exceed expectations and have secured a position as market leaders. We ensure that the production of these projects will be unique, because our special clients deserve a unique service.”
