Al Rayes Group has over 37 companies under the umbrella and employs over 1900 people. The companies include Ahmed Al Rayes Trading for general trading, imports and distribution and Ahmed Al Rayes Gas and Al Shamal Gas Centre for distribution of gas cylinders for domestic purposes. The two gas companies between them own 36 vehicles that have been distributing cylinders for the last 30 years. Ahmed however, is of the opinion that it is time for Qatar to have piped gas distribution.
Al Rayes Laundry & Dry Cleaning provides laundry and dry cleaning services to all companies in Qatar with a door to door service. "We are the only professionally run laundry service in the
country,'' says Ahmed. ''We have 26 branches and two factories with a staff of 320.'' The laundries are fitted with the latest equipment which involved an investment of QR 26 million. They have won contracts for the Asian Games, all the major conferences including the WTO round held in Doha, and their clientele comprises airlines, hotels, big compounds and foreign army bases. Ahmed has plans to increase the number of branches to 60 in a year's time with staffing of up to 1000 employees.
Through Al Rayes Laundry Equipments & Accessories, the company markets equipment and accessories for the use of commercial laundries and hotels and they are the agents for Tintolav products and Seitz Chemicals. Al Rayes Cleaning Company handles cleaning of carpets, curtains and sofas. Arizona English Language Centre holds classes for TOEFL and general English language classes. They are linked with the University of Arizona.
Arizona Trading mainly deals with food and beverages and are the agents for brands like Power Horse, Star Juice, Al Mudish milk, Aqua water, San Minguel, Cali, Noon & Freeze while British Restaurants serves typical British meals. Nasco Group Building Material, Nasco Trading & Contracting, and Dome Trading & Contracting take on contracts for renovation of apartments and villas and are also agents of various brands of wall tiles, floor tiles, marbles and granites. MPH provides services to the oil and gas industry. Other companies in the group include Al Rayes Video, Al Rayes Car Rental, Lion Rent A Car (Limousine Service 24 Hrs) and New House Complex House Hold Items.
The Group is also into real estate and owns compounds with villas. Ahmed Al Rayes is however waiting for rents to stabilize before venturing into apartments. Another project in the pipeline is a four-star business hotel and Ahmed is looking forward to building his own brand rather than bringing in a franchise. He would also like to open more restaurants that offer fine dining. ''Change is the only constant in life. You need to keep renewing yourself. In business if you stop you get lost,'' says the dynamic president who plans on opening a travel agency as well so he is able to offer his customers the entire gamut of services. His vision he says, would be to offer all of these services, including schools and clubs, in each of the compounds he builds.
