Al Thika Packaging was founded by Managing Director Ian Barker. Ian’s experience in the Middle East dates back to 1981, when he was appointed to manage the forklift sales operation of Saudi Arabian Markets. Returning to the UK in 1986, he joined a coding and marking manufacturer to manage their Northern European distributor network, before setting up their Middle East headquarters in Dubai in 1991. He left to set up Al Thika Packaging Materials Trading in 1994, which became Al Thika Packaging LLC in 2003. Ian was joined in 1999 by Sales Director Tim Ansell, the two of them having previously worked together during the period 1992 – 94. Tim’s own experience includes over 26 years in the Gulf, plus 18 months in the USA and a similar period in Australia, establishing distribution and service networks for UK-based packaging and printing equipment manufacturers.
The business initially dealt with shrink-wrap and stretch-wrap machines, and Smipack and Robopac from Italy continue to be an important part of our business. Over the years the emphasis shifted towards more sophisticated solutions, and in 2002 the Markem coding and marking range was added to the portfolio. When Markem and Imaje merged in 2008, Al Thika was awarded the distributorship for the expanded Markem-Imaje product range. The product inspection side of the business began with Safeline metal detectors, and success there led to the addition of the remaining Mettler-Toledo PI-group companies – Safeline X-ray, CI-Vision, and Garvens check-weighers. More recently, Al Thika became the regional distributor for Raytech Vision, a company specializing in optical sorting solutions, with a particular focus on the dates industry. The latest addition to the Al Thika range is ULMA, the major Spanish manufacturer of flow-wrap, tray-seal and thermoforming systems, offering unique solutions for fresh products, cheese, meat, poultry, and fish packaging.
In the logistics area, Al Thika distributes the Premier range of pallet inverters, widely recognized as the simplest way of transferring raw materials from wooden pallets to hygienic food-grade plastic pallets. This in turn led to an association with Meijer, whose patented RollerForks provide an economic solution for palletless handling. Meijer’s range now includes a comprehensive range of hydraulic forklift attachments.
Our wealth of experience in the packaging and processing industry throughout the Gulf region enables us to offer innovative and cost-effective solutions whilst our long-term partnership with world-class manufacturers gives us access to best-in-class equipment. Every product we supply is supported by our well-trained and fully equipped team of service engineers, under the management of the Service Manager. This sets Al Thika Packaging LLC apart as a company that can be relied upon to deliver first-class service and support to its customers.
In addition to our UAE-based service team, we also have engineers in Muscat (Oman), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and Lahore (Pakistan).
