Paneer (Cottage Cheese)

Abdallah Sultan Al Owais is the Chairman of Al Rawabi Dairy, the UAE’s biggest dairy that was established in 1989. In his role, he has helped influence and shape Al Rawabi’s journey to become a pioneer Dairy company in the Middle East that uses global best practices in health, hygiene, safety standards and animal welfare to create quality products. On His watch, Al Rawabi has expanded to become a company with a capacity to process 275,000 litres of dairy products a day, as well as 150,000 litres of juices every day. Al Owais has a distinguished track record that started with him working in the Ministry of Economy and Commerce between 1990 and 2003. From there, he moved to the Ministry of Energy as Deputy Minister, where he served from 2003 to 2006. He has served as a Board Member for Emirates NBD Bank, and also holds the Chairmanship for Emirates Poultry Company (Al Rawdah) and the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce & Industry.

Abdulla Al Qubaisi is the Vice Chairman of Al Rawabi Dairy Company since 2012. He has also been discharging duties as the Operations Director for the Investment Corporation of Dubai, which is the Dubai government’s investment arm. Al Qubaisi sits on other company boards and is the Chairman of Emirates Refreshment Company, Vice Chairman of Emirates Modern Poultry Company (Al Rawdah) and a board member at Aswaaq. Al Qubaisi’s rich and varied career started in 1991 at Dubai Customs. By 1992, he had moved to the Dubai Ports Authority as marine pilot, where he was sent to study in Alexandria. By 1996 he had received a first class honours degree in Hydrographic Surveying, and in 2002 was promoted to Maritime Captain. In 2006, Al Qubaisi was again promoted to Assistant Director of the Marine Department at Jebel Ali Port. He helped the Port acquire numerous quality, safety and environmental certifications and was also nominated internal auditor for the facility. Al Qubaisi believes in continual education and self-development. In 2005, he obtained a M.Sc. in Port Management from the World Maritime University in Malmo-Sweden, and was nominated as a visiting scholar – a distinction he still holds. He has attended several leadership programmes, including those hosted by the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and the American University of Sharjah

Together, we have made an incredible journey of success, and more importantly, created a brand that resonates with the Nation’s spirit of excellence. For me, Al Rawabi supplies food to my beloved country and is a lifelong passion and I am proud and glad to push the boundaries to make this entity a jewel in the country’s history.
Throughout our journey, we faced many challenges which we never gave up to, instead we stood up and innovated solutions, we moved stronger on in our journey to success, and we stood proud on our achievements. The challenges pushed us to innovate so we introduced the plastic bottles as the first UAE company to do this, which in turn gained us 7% of the dairy market share, and after that the introduction of the juices section helped score profits that balanced the losses made in the dairy. We were also the first company to introduce the family size of 2 liters, 3 liters and a gallon, as we saw those packing sizes answering the needs of the average family size in the UAE. We came up with functional products such as Super Milk, Nutree Boost, Vitamin D milk. Hence, the innovation and finding new ways to answer consumer needs are the biggest success factor in the industry, as you have to keep track with the ever rapid changes. The tempo of life is changing, people have less time, but want to look younger, live longer, be more productive.
We are investing a lot of money in the research, and we call in the best experts to support us developing the best products and answer the needs of the market.
Over the years, we have kept up our investment in the facility’s infrastructure and cattle stock in line with the market demand. We have diversified in line with the ever evolving demand of the consumer. We are on our way to become a regional brand and by 2020 we will be present in all GCC countries. We will also increase our visibility in more African countries.
Today, close to 30 years of our presence, we envision to go bigger and become a MENA brand by 2020, beyond just a dairy farm to a food company with multiple product portfolios countries in the region. Our tagline is Nation’s Health, and we believe by offering high quality products that help with the rising deficiencies in the region we can contribute to people having a healthy and a happy lifestyle, which in return makes them productive members of the society. Al Rawabi plans to follow the needs of the market and further innovate in the health space, as we strongly believe that the future is healthy.