Almarai Dairy, Riyadh

The Almarai dairy site at Al Kharj is one of the largest milk processing complexes in the world, with the first factory being designed in 1993 and voted the “World Best Food Factory” in 1998.  In 2003, Almarai conceived and installed a second factory, some 50% larger than the first, to re-affirm its position of market leader in dairy products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf.  MSA are proud to have provided technical advice on product wastage, factory drainage, effluent and sewage treatment to Almarai since 1988.

Why Almarai used MSA?
Almarai saved a considerable amount of money using MSA instead of a larger consultancy company, whilst receiving a better service, due to our extensive dairy experience.  MSA were able to minimise the initial capital expenditure on the first effluent treatment system that was installed in 1993, and again for the massive uprate in 2003 we were able to minimise costs by uprating the plant with the minimum of equipment by converting the plant into a membrane bioreactor (MBR) system.  This was the first submerged MBR system installed in the food industry in KSA.

Technical Outline Of MSA Input
MSA completed the outline design and detailed functional specification and design to tender drawings for the original effluent and sewage plants in 1993.  This enabled Almarai to obtain cost-competitive tenders from a range of local and international companies, ensuring best cost.  We also designed a novel Effluent Monitoring Station (EMS) for the first dairy processing plant, which was key in assisting the company reduce product losses to become the most efficient multi-product dairy in the world. 

The success of the work completed by MSA for the first factory meant that we were engaged to draw up the detailed functional specification for the extension of the effluent plant when the second processing factory was being designed.  As well as the design of the effluent plant uprate, we were also engaged to design the complete factory drainage system, a stand-alone sewage treatment plant for the resident staff and another EMS for the new processing site, to continue the wastage minimisation regime across the total site.