200 Schools renovation project in Saudi Arabia

The 200 Schools renovation project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is currently the largest ongoing development within the Saudi Ministry of Education. The project is co-financed by the Chinese government and was originally awarded to a Chinese main contractor alongside three specialized local subcontractors.

The area under negotiation is 196,000 sqm divided into approximately 1,000 sqm per school, to be installed in indoor multipurpose sports halls and a general indoor circulation area for break time. The project was originally specified using Rubber flooring provided by another supplier; nevertheless, the American project manager assigned by the Ministry of Education decided to place his trust in Tarkett when we committed to a very tight delivery and installation schedule and the pilot installation was awarded to Tarkett.

With major support and order prioritization from the Business Center and factory, we managed to deliver within the specified time limit, and our local distributor has done a perfect job installing the first four pilot schools (4,000 m2). Hence, we are currently in the process of finalizing the contract for the full quantity to be supplied over the coming 12-15 months with an initial first phase order of 40,000 sqm covering 40 schools.

Aside from the enormous size and sales value of the project, this will be the first resilient flooring installation in Saudi public schools and is considered a major breakthrough within a strategic segment/end user which historically has been very loyal to ceramics and terrazzo tiles.