Mehdi Khoury, Founder and Managing Director of Marwa Marble, on brand’s core offerings, trends, current project, and their expansion plans. It’s a family-owned business and today with the help of the second generation, Marwa Marble is trying to break the boundaries of the industry to give marble in all its forms the appreciation it deserves

Can you tell us more about Marwan Marble-your purpose, mission, core offerings, and prestigious projects?

We are here to provide our customers with a wide range of high-quality marbles, granites, travertines, onyx, quartzites, and quartz with excellent finishing and installation. The objective of providing our customers with high-quality material assists in bringing all stone related conceptual designs to life. Our ultimate goal is to ensure our customers are satisfied with the overall service – most importantly the end-product and to give marble; a natural product, the value and appreciation it deserves. Our Core offerings include site measurements, shop drawings, marble cutting, dry laying, fixing, and polishing of the marble after fixing.

Some of our prestigious commissions include Past projects Le Reve Tower, Dubai Marina; Volante Tower, Business Bay; One 100 Palm Jumeirah, VIP luxury mansions in Emirates Hills and Palaces all across the seven Emirates, Presidential Place in Turkmenistan, amongst others.

What influences the products you import or are planning to develop?

We take into consideration the market trends and our recommendations in terms of quality, colour schemes, and budgets.

How is the market situation at the moment? How COVID-19 has impacted your business?

When COVID-19 first hit, the business was a bit slow due to lockdown and customers having trouble visiting our showroom. Now, over the past three to four months with the ease of restrictions, we have seen a surge in sales, a main reason for that is because our projects are mostly private villas and is not directly influenced by the real estate market.

What are the challenges in this region?

Misguidance within the industry such as the effects of social media on peoples taste and requirements when it doesn’t match their budget and receiving wrong information from inexperienced individuals in the industry. Contractors and consultants unreasonably pricing marble at a relatively low price which always causes clients confusion and disappointment when they are introduced to marble and its real costs.

Could you tell us more about your factory and the modern facilities you are using?

A minimum of 90,000m2 of material is stored in our factory at all times of the year. This guarantees our customers a wide range of colours and marbles to select from depending on what is most suitable for their project. Marwa Marble facility is built on 100,000 sqft of land fully equipped with modern facilities such as cranes and forklifts for proper loading and unloading of materials in addition to

imported machines like waterjet machines, calibrating machines, bridge machines, grinding, cutting and polishing machines to ensure excellent cutting and superb finishing for our customers.

With the help of over 100 employees, Marwa Marble is committed to continuously improve its services and product quality by purchasing the most advanced machines in the industry. Our aim is to provide our customers with the best material to complement their designs at the most competitive prices.

What is the most popular variety of marbles best-suited for this region and why? Tell us an emerging trend we should look out for in 2021.

Italian Travertine has proven to be one of the most reliable stones and has been very popular recently in the UAE market due to how resilient it can be with the weather in the region. It can be fixed indoors and outdoors because of its near zero absorption rate compared to other marbles, it can also be used in multiple ways, such as on flooring, wall cladding, façades and pool decking. It also offers many finishing options such as leather, honed, polished or for a more natural look simply raw.

Something that we should all look out for in 2021, and can emerge as a trend is grey marbles. Depending on different preferences grey marbles have many different shades and can match any style or mood. Another trend that has recently become popular in the market is the installation of Marble TV units and also using marble as wall features.

What are the current projects you’re working on?

There are a lot of exciting projects that we’re currently working on. Some of those include Al Rahmaniya Mall, two private Palaces in Zabeel, one private villa in Jumeirah Golf Estates, another five private villas on The Palm, DIFC common area, and other multiple private villas across the seven Emirates.

Any expansion plans in the pipeline?

Marwa Marble is currently in the process of building an additional 50,000sqft where materials will be held in an all indoor facility.