8 Super Lucrative Business Opportunities In Saudi Arabia!

Okay, in this article I am not going to share those usual boring cliche business ideas that are scattered all over the internet rather some really cool, lucrative business opportunities that are awaiting to be tapped in by every Entrepreneur in Saudi Arabia!

I have been receiving quite a number of requests from my Saudi followers/subscribers for this post, so hey habibi 😉, Its finally done! 😜

All these opportunities will require a long term commitment, planing and also quite hard work plus some serious cash, so make sure you have it all!

Plus since Saudi Govt is planning to diversify their economy, moving away from an oil based economy to more diverse economy, making country more independent of petro revenues, thus it makes a lot more sense to look for different business opportunities and what can be a good time for doing that then now! 😊

I will be listing primarily manufacturing business opportunities, since manufacturing is where you can earn some really serious cash 😉, In manufacturing business you can earn (net income) 0.25-0.70 SAR  for each Saudi riyal of total sales, that is quite healthy!.

Fact: In 1975, the total contribution of manufacturing to the Saudi economy was USD 4.3 billion, but this figure (using constant riyals, the Saudi currency) had risen to USD 29.5 billion by 2010. The sector has grown faster than the overall economy during this period, its contribution to overall GDP increasing from 4.1 percent in 1975 to 12.6 percent in 2010.

The above fact suggest that Saudi Manufacturing Sector has got a lot of potential, a gold mine waiting to be fully mined. And so this is the second  most important reason I am going for manufacturing businesses in this post.

So let’s get on with our first business opportunity!

Mineral, Purified Water Business:

We all know how precious water becomes in a place like Saudi Arabia, so how about starting your own mineral, purified water brand? Yes I am serious! 😈

Don’t worry about water, you can purify sea water/salt water/brackish water with a quality water filtration unit.

A full fledged water filtration plant will cost you around $5500-18500 (the upper and lower limit in price is due to different specifications, features, automation etc).

For this post I have selected water purification and production line by Fostream, obviously it’s not the only firm offering such a solution, there are many other companies offering similar solutions, so you can always choose from whichever you like.

This plant can produce 5 gallon water bottles, is fully automatic, require very little maintenance and can be easily covered by 4-6 labors, where few will put empty bottles at one end and the rest will pack filled, sealed bottles at the other end.

You will need labor to store the output in warehouse, to load it on supply vehicles, to unload it where your customer desires.

You will also need few sales guys to manage sales and couple of sales managers to overlook the whole thing.

And few guys in accounts to keep record of the whole activity in financial terms and few in HR to do hiring, firing, training, rewarding, overall management etc.

In a nutshell you will need at least 20-50 guys to manage the whole business efficiently & effectively.

You will also need few supplying vehicles to not only make supplies to the target market but to also pick up raw material, which in this case could be empty 5 gallon water bottles, that you may need to pick up from customers for refilling or buying new ones when market expands.

You may also like to read: 10 Important tips for Small Business Success!

Water Purification, Distillation Machine Import Business:

How about selling water distillation machines all over, you can easily import small portable water distillation machines, that can be utilized all over in the region like in sea side villas, in marine ships, island restaurants, on family houses in islands, in desert underground water etc.

Buying and importing these units in bulk from China, Germany, South Korea and then selling them in KSA isn’t that hard, all you need is little investment, an outlet and few guys to look after the outlet.

I have selected Youber Model: YB-SWRO-2000LPD, a single unit costs around $3750. Buying them in bulk will come in quite cheap.

Youber Model: YB-SWRO-2000LPD Picture 

I have written an extensive post on mineral water business, that covers almost all aspects of the business, please check it out here, the post is in Pakistani market situation but still quite relevant to this post, so do check it out!

Biscuits, Cookies Business:

Cookies, Biscuits are something that people all over the world consume on daily basis, so how about a cookies manufacturing business.

Before going for the machine costs I think I have to clarify something for good 😉.

That is, in any manufacturing business you will need the following things to operate that business efficiently and effectively:

1. Supplying vehicles
2. Labor to work in the factory
3. Raw material to produce the output
4. Head Office/Offices
5. Warehouse to store the output
6. Garages to park vehicles
7. Admin, HR, Marketing, Sales, Accounts departments to look after your whole business in an effective and efficient manner.
8. Covering any and all legal obligations set by the Saudi Govt, be it from taxation department, food department, income tax department etc.

I am mentioning these things for the young Saudis, freshly graduated from business schools and would-be Saudi entrepreneurs, so that when anyone of you guys want to launch particular business, you have idea of all these things and make these things count into your equation.

Second thing for mentioning these things is, I would not need to repeat all these things in each and every business opportunity, idea I will be talking about in here.

Okay so from now on, I will discuss only machinery costs and other relevant details to each business idea I discuss over here.

If you still want to understand all these essential aspects of business like HR, Marketing, Finance etc, want to get a basic clue as to how run any business then read this article, How to efficiently & effectively manage any business, in that article you will get some really interesting, practical insights on running any business.

To launch a biscuit, sandwich cookies business you will need to invest in a whole manufacturing plant, which will consist of the following sections:

1. Biscuits making Section
2. Biscuits sandwich (cream, jam etc) Section
3. Packing Section
4. Carton Packing Section

Biscuits Making Section:

In biscuits making unit there are around eleven machines involved, each machine name is listed below:

SNo.	Machine Name	Low-end Machines Total Cost	High-end Machines  Total Cost
1	Mixer	$50,000	$700,000
2	Three-roll Pre-sheeter
3	Laminator
4	Gauge Rolls
5	Rotary Cutter
6	Scrap Dough Separator
7	Rotary Moulder
8	Enter Oven Machine with Oven Drum
9	Gas Oven/Electric Oven
10	Tunnel Oven
11	Biscuits Stacker

Now the above prices aren’t like the final ones, there are many firms that deal in similar machines, so you can always get a lower price for a specific unit, to do that you will either need to reach out those other firms online or making a personal visit to China, Germany, Korea, Taiwan etc.

The above price quotation is from a Chinese Firm SkyWin, check there site out for more.

Biscuits Sandwiching & Packing Sections:

Again I have taken price quotation from SkyWin, you should always take multiple quotation or as many as you can, to find the most feasible one in terms of financing.

This section consists of sandwich making unit and packing unit, a low-end sandwich & packing unit will cost around $10,000 while a high-end sandwich & packing unit will cost around $50,000.

Carton Section:

This is where, you may need labor to carton pack the output.

Ice-cream, Icy lolly’s Business:

What could be better than having Ice-cream, Icy lolly’s business in the kingdom!

It is obvious that demand will be high, quite high actually!

A low-end Icy-lolly’s/Stick Ice-cream unit will cost you around $100,000 (as per price quotation of SnowBall Machinery) while a high-end unit will cost you around $300,000.

Snow Ball Machinery Ice Lolly/Stick Ice-Cream Machines comes in different production capacities, from 8000---10000pcs/hour, 10000---20000pcs/hour, 21000---36000pcs/hour.

Like I said, prices aren’t final, you should ask for quotations from different firms that provide similar solutions, you will be surprised to get it done with a lot less investment.

Some of you guys reading this article will have some questions like, how will you train people to operates these machines, will, the simpler answer to that question is, all these machinery providers provide experts who will train your staff for as long as you wish.

Obviously that means you will need to pay for that too, like buying for them two air tickets, visa, hotel stay, transportation, daily wage, food etc.

Disposable Paper Plates, Paper Cups etc Business:

Since Saudi Arabia quite known for its religious tourism, over 12 million people visits the Kingdom on yearly basis for religious reasons, this provides a really lucrative opportunity for those who cater to the needs of these tourists.

Hotel-ling is on the boom, although it may be quite hard to find a suitable location (in tourists hubs like Mecca, Medina), where you can launch a successful hotel chain, still new opportunities are presenting itself like Huge entertainment city southwest of Riyadh.

Now obviously such project requires huge investments, so how about you provide something that contributes to the already huge hotel, restaurant chains ?!

And that’s where, disposable paper plates, cups business comes into picture, you can provide branded and non branded paper plates, cups to all these hotels, restaurants.

By branded I mean like if there is a hotel with a name Marhaba, then you can put that name, their logo on those plates, cups thus making a customized product for them and then charging handsomely from them.

I have already written on how and where to buy paper plates making machine, so check out this post, Paper plates making machine.

Coming to paper cups machine, you can buy it for $18800 from Mingbo Machinery.

Here is how it looks like!

And here is how it works!

This machine can produce 65-75 pieces per minute (with automatic cup collecting system, automatic stacking, counting and discharging systems) and can produce double PE coating paper cups for cold drink as well as hot drink and has automatic lubricating feature thus making smooth running of the machine for longer duration's possible, for almost 24 hours running.

For more details check out their website!

Carton Box Making Business:

Majority if not all, businesses needs carton packaging, carton boxes as per their specifications to pack their output for market and since manufacturing business (including all other business sectors) is on the boom in the kingdom that means demand for carton box packaging will also see similar growth.

Thus having a carton box manufacturing plant is the best opportunity Saudi market can offer right now and you need some serious cash to launch it, launch it quickly, before it's market becomes saturated.

A full fledged carton box manufacturing plant can cost you anywhere from US $150,000-450,000, depending on your specifications, needs.

The above price quotation was provided by GIGA LX Carton Machinery, in my opinion they provide the best equipment although I personally believe their prices being quite high, so make sure you get quotation from different firms before making any purchase decision.

The whole plant works as follow:

The whole plant consists of four sections which contain four different units, all connected in a logical manner.

These units are:

1. Feeding Unit
2. Printing Unit
3. Slotting Unit
4. Die Cutting Unit

GIGA LX can provide such 10 plants per month.

Single plant weight varies between 10-28MT, the variation is mainly due to quality, customer specifications, exclusion/inclusion of features etc.

Corrugated Cardboard, Kraft Paper Manufacturing Business:

Now since carton box packaging is in high demand then how about making raw material for carton box, in other words how about having corrugated cardboard manufacturing business?!

Sounds good, right! 😉

Cost of the whole plant according to quotation provided by Leizhan Machinery is $18,000-100,000, this manufacturing line can produce all kinds of Kraft paper, corrugated cardboard.

The company can shift the whole product in ten days after total payment, means in just about a month, you will have the machine up and running, I have used a month duration, because you will still need raw materials to be supplied to you and then you will need to train guys, while during training Leizhan Experts will operate the whole setup.

You may be surprised to know that waste paper of all types is used in making Kraft paper, corrugated cardboards and I am sure there is plenty of that (and quite really cheap, almost free) in Saudi Arabia!

Here is how the manufacturing line looks like:

And here is a glimpse of how it works!:

So that sums up this post, In coming posts I will be sharing more business opportunities not only related to the Saudi Arabia but related to the wider region, UAE, Qatar, Oman etc so keep visiting and keep learning!

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Anything you wanna add, do let me know in the comments down below! 😉😊