Trying to work out a way to get his family’s peaches from the farm to market was Ivan Fornazaric’s first taste of the transportation industry.
For close to the past forty years, however, he has made the Middle East home, growing GORICA Group from importing to assembling, and now as one of the leading manufacturers of trailers, tankers and frigo bodies, in the Middle East and North Africa.
“When I arrived in the Middle East there were almost no manufacturers at all and trailers were imported from Europe,” he recalled. “Slowly local manufacturing began, supported by the growth in the construction industry, as well as it being difficult and expensive to get trailers shipped to the Gulf. The preference became local manufacturing.”
The Middle East’s growing population, urbanisation, and its economic development, present opportunities for the trailer manufacturing industry, but analysing and predicting the transportation market in the Middle East can be more difficult than other jurisdictions. Among these reasons are regulatory changes, economic fluctuations and geopolitical instability.
“I would say the market is currently doing okay,” he said. “Last year was good, but the year before there was a drop in oil prices, political problems in Yemen and boycotting of Qatar, which all created a bit of a struggle and then there was post-COVID which was actually more difficult than during COVID.”
GORICA arguably has one of the largest range of trailer products in the Middle East, born primarily out of market need in a rapidly growing country with robust and varied industries. Fornazaric explained that this position is both a challenge and an advantage.
Advantageous because GORICA isn’t dependant on one particular industry to sell its products, but on the other hand, a lot goes into design and development and industry demands change quickly.
“We might have a year where construction products sell heavily, and then the trend slows to general transportation, or to waste collection, so we have to be ready for anything,” he said.
Currently GORICA’s top vehicle output is for the waste management industry – transporting both liquid and solid waste bodies.
This is closely followed by the perishable goods industry, especially among pharmaceutical companies in need of refrigerated bodies, as well as the construction industry, due to large scale projects in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
GORICA considers all Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to make up its local market. This includes United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain. In all but Bahrain, the company has its own workshop, where bodies are locally mounted and delivered to clients.
For more than 30 years, its international market has been made up of East Africa, West and Sub-Saharan Africa and Iraq, while more recently it has opened up in Commonwealth of Independent State (CIS) countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
In general terms, the trailer market in the Middle East is currently doing well, and while there is still some political unrest to contend with, as well as economic fluctuations, it is still be buoyed by ongoing investments from both within and outside the Kingdom into transportation infrastructure, including roads, railways and ports. These are all driving demand for trailers used in construction, logistics and transportation sectors.
The region’s growing population and urbanisation are also leading to increased demand for goods and services, which in turn also requires efficient transportation and logistics solutions.
As for future growth, Fornazaric said GORICA is currently on an organic growth path, eyeing Saudi Arabia as well India, as well looking to invest in more local infrastructure. In terms of any future partnerships, he said GORICA is open to the concept down the track, but in the meantime, will continue doing what it does best – building trailers.