Building boom opens doors for carpentry business

By Ayman Adly/Staff Reporter

 Firms providing carpentry services have been reaping the benefits of the construction boom in Qatar.

Buoyed by the high demand for various kinds of products and services, including wooden doors, sources in the industry say they are confident that business will remain good for several years.

In the Industrial Area, one can find a number of units providing carpentry services to cater to the local demand. Competition is stiff among them, especially in terms of pricing and quality.

“It is a good market, but we need to offer innovative and exquisite designs - which appeal to the requirements of different customers - to get good business,” said Nader Jalal, an Egyptian expatriate who works in a key position at a carpentry workshop in the Industrial Area.

He said the price of a single wooden door ranges from QR1,800 to QR5,000 or more, depending on the type of wood, paint and design involved. He also pointed out that most of his customers were locals or contractors working on their behalf.

“Women customers usually opt for highly decorated doors with modern designs and colours and they do not care if the cost is high. Men, on the other hand, often look for simpler and more plain designs, usually taking the cost into consideration,” explained Jalal, indicating that he also frequently gets orders for kitchen cabinets and special decorations from locals.

The carpenters work on products such as kitchen cabinets and cupboards for those - mostly locals - with specific demands and who require tailor-made designs.

A considerable number of carpentry workshops in Doha engage specialised professionals to produce various designs that would appeal to their customers, using computer software for decorations and colours.

“We have a catalogue of the available designs and offer them to our customers, but some have specific requirements and like special frames and decorations. Usually, people tend to spend more on these if the villa in question is intended for personal use. If it is for investment, customers always go for the more economic options,” said Abduhameed, an expatriate sales representative at a carpentry firm.

Most of these businesses are owned and often managed by young local men, while the carpenters and technicians are generally Asians and Arabs, Egyptian in particular.

Hamad al-Warid, a local owner of a carpentry at the Industrial Area, stressed that this profession was quite old in the Qatari society and “now we have developed the industry and many Qataris are keen to invest in this business to introduce high quality locally manufactured products that meet the varied requirement of Qatari customers in terms of designs.”   

Carpentry workshops located in the Industrial Area have sophisticated equipment and many of them also have attached workers’ accommodation. Besides, they have offices in key commercial areas in Doha.

“To present what we can offer to our customers, I initially send them images of the available designs through social media outlets such as WhatsApp and Instagram. If okayed, we can then work out the deal,” said Jalal.

Sales representatives of these firms use different techniques to market their products and get more business opportunities.