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Santosh Chandran
Doha
When the going gets tough, the tough get going. Mohamed Ashraf, the Indian expatriate and Managing Director of Safa Water, believes that challenges are just the stepping stone for success and one must continue with perseverance and dedication.
Safa Water was established in the year 2004 and it started being counted in the market as quality product within a short span of time.
Safa Water is one of the leading brands in bottled water companies in Qatar. It has a major share in the 5-gallon bottled water market with a fleet of 170 vehicles to facilitate the operations.
“We have expanded our service to every nook and corner of the country with additional fleets and improved the quality of product as per international standards,” says Ashraf, while speaking to Qatar Tribune.
To some, Ashraf’s success story may seem to be smooth and easy flowing. However, he says the struggles and challenges he’s faced over more than 15 years in building his business, is not known to many.
One of these challenges, he points out, was the illegal blockade imposed on Qatar by some Arab countries in the year 2017.
“It [blockade] happened abruptly and the supply chain of water bottles suddenly got cut off. It was a few days of big challenge as we faced a shortage of bottles. And we had no time to waste,” recalls Ashraf, who hails from Pavaratty in Thrissur district of the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Ashraf and his team got in touch with water bottle manufactures immediately and airlifted sufficient quantity of bottles. Rising to the occasion, the concerned authorities and financial institutions in Qatar offered their full support to entrepreneurs to find permanent solutions to such issues and encouraged them to chart out alternative plans.
Exploring the situation, the team headed by Ashraf began importing quality raw materials from Europe for bottle manufacturing factory. He completed the project ahead of the scheduled time of one and a half year and made his customers even more satisfied by offering purer drinking water filled in bottles manufactured in Qatar’s soil.
For his initiative that successfully met the target, Ashraf thanks Qatar’s Ministry of Industry; Ministry of Municipality and Environment; Ministry of Health; Qatar Development Bank; and Jaber bin Thamer al Thani, the Chairman of Safa Water.
“As an expatriate, I am thankful to the Qatar government and all the authorities for their support, especially during the blockade,” Ashraf says.
Recognising his hard work, the former Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al Thani felicitated Ashraf for his success in the manufacturing and distribution of Safa ‘pure drinking water’ and increasing production to cope with the demand after the imposition of the blockade.
Ashraf, the far sighted entrepreneur, didn’t stop there. He developed Safa Water’s Lab with latest technology. Presently, Safa Water has ISO 22000:2005 certification and is a member of Asia Bottled Water Association (ABWA), Water Quality Association (WQA) and FSSC 22000 certification -- a global recognition for most comprehensive food safety management systems.
No wonder his success story has been inspiring entrepreneurs and investors.
