Miller Magazine Issue: 145 January 2022

58 COVER STORY MILLER / january 2022 er, distributor, retailer and the consumer as well, we witnessed a noticeable change in consumer behavior and preferences. It was a real challenge to identify the most suitable solution at this stage and how should one react, especially with a global pandemic limiting the movement and traveling of individuals, besides the infection of workers, lockdown in countries, etc. But despite the fact that those risks and unfortunate situations are uncontrollable, they can be however, with good management and comprehensive planning, confronted in order to reduce their negative impact on business. Here comes the role of insightful manage- ment and the importance of process improvements that should be taken at the right time. As an active member in the milling and food pro- duction industry, Al-Hazaa Investment group had a significant role in this field and faced these risks with good management and adopted to this new situation quickly, the Group followed many procedures to en- sure the safety of its workers, the fine production and operation of its facilities of course while maintaining highest safety standards. Al-Hazaa Investment Group, so as other suppliers and governments, increased its stock inventory of wheat and used its silos to their fullest capacity, at the beginning of 2020 Al-Hazaa Group expanded its stor- age capacity across the Middle East, it also acquired storage silos at Al-Fujairah port in UAE and took ac- cess of ship unloading terminal. Not only did the Group increased its storage capacity but also utilized its production capacity to their fullest in all their food production facilities, especially at flour mills, as a re- sponse to the dramatic increase in demand for wheat flour and consumer goods like pasta and noodles during the pandemic, in order to maximize production and cover the huge demand for their products. The Group has also diversified its origins of raw materials, it purchased wheat from worldwide suppliers from dif- ferent origins such as Russia, the USA, Australia, Can- ada, and the European Union. A step that we at Al-Hazaa Investment Group are very proud of is our solar power plant that started operation in 2017 in Jordan, it helped us not only in reducing our carbon emissions but also to reduce our production cost and to be efficient, as it supplies all Al-Hazaa Group’s factories in Jordan with their full needs of electricity, this important step was very useful during the pandemic es- pecially that energy is the main operational cost for flour milling facilities. Also, the modernity of Al-Hazaa Group’s