Gorica Group has, for years, been a leading developer and manufacturer of a truck bodies trailers and semi-trailers in the region. Today, it produces everything from tippers and tankers, dry bulk trailers and transit cement mixers, to municipality equipment, oil field equipment, pressurised vessels and even locally fabricated refrigerated semi-trailers.
While Gorica operates in various segments, it nevertheless made its mark in the construction sector — which continues to be one of the most important segments for the group, both for the scope of the market across the Gulf, and the high re-sale value of Gorica’s products in the segment.
This is in part due to the company’s ongoing role as a trendsetter for the region, particularly when it comes to industry standards — a fact that Gorica notes is evident in the fact that its tipping semi-trailers are the most widely replicated in terms of design across the entire MEA region.
Gorica offers a complete set of products for the construction industry from small-capacity, tipping bodies mounted on light-duty truck chassis to 16-22m3 tipping bodies mounted on heavy-duty 8×4 chassis, both in traditional and half-round designs — a tipper type that Gorica was the first to introduce into the MEA region.
Gorica is also a market leader and innovator in the tipping semi-trailer segment, where its products come in capacities from half-round 22m3 semi-trailers and 32m3 box and half-round semi-trailers to heavy-duty 45m3 tipping semi-trailers. Both bodies and trailers are built either with mild steel for aggregate application or a wear-resistant steel, also introduced by Gorica in the MEA region, for heavy-duty rock application.
Finally in this segment, Gorica provides mounted cement mixers in 8m3, 9m3, 10m3 and 12m3 capacities and cement bulkers semi-trailers available in various capacities and axle configurations, depending on the MEA market. Another Gorica product is low-bed semi-trailers, with payload capacities of up to 130 tonnes, designed across a variety of dimensions.
Ivan Fornazaric, founder and managing director of the Gorica Group, notes: “Our strategy is straight forward. First and foremost we are passionate about trailers and this can be seen in the quality of our products. We are also passionate about providing excellent aftersales support and personal care to our customers.
“Companies come and go, but we have been here over 25 years caring about our customers. What ties it all together with us is our honesty and integrity as a company and the quality-price ratio that we provide, together with the flexibility to provide right solution at the right price.”
Always ahead of the competition, Gorica is currently also involved in the ambitious project of building the region’s first full-scale facility for the manufacturer of aluminium-bodied trailers.
Gorica is building its dedicated production facility, its fifth facility, in Dubai Industrial City (DIC), equipped with both machining technology and equipment that will be firsts for the region.
Fornazaric explains: “Gorica long-term commitment is to always innovate and bring the most advanced products to the market to deliver greatest competitive advantage to our partners and clients. Aluminium products, which are much lighter than their steel counterparts, allow customers to transport more within permissible and safe loads, which has direct impact on their operational cost structure and direct savings in terms of fuel consumption, operational costs and maintenance costs. There is also the indirect environmental impact of lower emissions.”
The dedicated aluminium facility will roll out Gorica’s current product line of aluminium superstructures on a commercial scale. It will focus on rigid truck-mounted and semi-trailer tankers, which are predominantly used in the transportation of flammable liquids like ultra- low-sulphur diesel (ULSD) and aviation fuel.
Gorica’s range also includes aluminium bulkers for the applications in the construction industry (cement), food processing industry (flour) and even agriculture segment (animal feed).
Gorica’s move to deliver aluminium products anticipates their eventual adoption across the GCC markets for applications such as the transport of ultra-low-sulphur diesel, which will become a necessity as the region raises its emissions standards, and weight restrictions are lowered. Both of these trends are a little way off, as the Gulf countries appear reluctant to regulate or enforce either, but when they do, Gorica will be ideally positioned to capture market share.
Fornazaric adds: “Road regulation and its enforcement is still lacking in the GCC and broader MEA region. Adequate road regulations are very important for road and transport safety, and in Europe the gross vehicles weight (GVW) of truck-trailer-loads is strictly limited to 45 tonnes.
“In the GCC, road regulations currently vary by each market, which allow non-conforming and low quality products to be sold and driven on our roads which has direct impact on road safety.
“In refrigerated transportation, the lack of apt regulations allows second-hand products that are often older than seven years old (the maximum in Europe) to be brought into the Middle East — and this can have a direct impact on the quality and safety of the food that is being transported.
“But as we progress, and the market develops together with changes in the road regulations (in terms of permissible weights) we’ll be offering aluminium tipping bodies and various other products currently under development.”
Gorica is also the distributor for Palfinger knuckle-boom loader cranes in the UAE, which the Dubai-based group is also uniquely positioned to place on the same trucks it equips with flat-bed bodies for its customers.
