MATELEC GROUP - The International Resource Journal

8 COMPANY FOCUS Matelecswitchgears to package substations and protectionsystems to a broad selection of transformersfor HV, MV and LV projects.“We can propose solutions and we can delivereverything from small single items to turnkeysubstations and power plants,” notes Soughayar.Partnerships and premisesConsisting of 30,000 square metres of workshops,Matelec’s factory in Lebanon is one ofthe biggest manufacturing facilities in the MiddleEast. Every year the site produces 18,000 distributiontransformers, 100 power transformers, 1,000packaged substations and 60 mobile substations.“When we began operations back in 1977the company consisted of 25 people. Today wehave 650 staff working at our Lebanese factory,and globally we employ close to 2,000 employees,”says Soughayar. “At our Lebanese facilitythere are 95 engineers with the majority of ourother staff working as technicians.”The company has taken advantage of Lebanon’shigh levels of education by employing engineersand technicians who have graduated fromits schools and colleges. This has played a vitalrole in ensuring the quality and cost of Matelec’sdesign work and technical abilities.“We are keeping good engineers within Lebanon,but from time to time we are also able tosend them to projects abroad and this is one ofthe factors that is making us competitive in othercountries,” adds Soughayar.One partnership Matelec is duly proud of isits relationship with majority shareholder DoumetElectrical Holdings. Soughayar says that the twocompanies work well together because of theways in which they complementary each other.“As separate companies we have become