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The ENG Brand Story

Clear skies and broad horizons

Hanif Merchant arrived in Dubai over 30 years ago with just a dream to create a sustainable family business. The seventies were tough – margins were small and the work was labour intensive, but Hanif slowly built a business creating neon signage that the growing petrochemical and leisure industries would come to see as an essential part of their image.

Hard work and tough beginnings
Making neon signs takes exceptional skill, patience and no small amount of physical strength. It also requires a creative understanding of the image and message each individual client wants to project. No two jobs were the same. Each presented new challenges, and every successful new sign pushed the limits just a little further – until the neon signs made by Emirates Neon were almost as well known as the multi-national companies who used them.
 
Signs of growth
The end of the seventies brought consolidation and invigorating new business opportunities as Emirates Neon grew to dominate the signage sector in the early 80s. As Dubai expanded and broadened its horizons, so Emirates Neon offered new and better services to clients – multi-national oil companies with international scope and high standards. Emirates Neon flourished.
Coming of age
Hanif’s son Rehan Merchant took control of Emirates Neon in the early nineties, with the clear objective to develop a highly successful family business into a far-reaching international media organisation. Building up sales, driving new processes, expanding the offer to clients from signage into broader media provision - the new company began to spread its wings – adding digital printing, project management, signage construction.
New challenges
Establishment and consolidation in Dubai led naturally to wider participation in the growing business centres of the Gulf and beyond. Emirates Neon became ENG to reflect its group status and expanding offering. Expansion into new areas of business – powerful design and media consultancy services, far-reaching media buying, as well as moves into TV advertising on popular satellite channels.
The new pioneers
New territories await ENG’s unique combination of pragmatic business sense and extensive experience, bringing new challenges and new opportunities. Fresh acquisitions and a thriving workforce are now delivering significant new services across the world in some of the most demanding and exciting markets. As one chapter ends, so another begins – everyone at ENG is proud to be part of this extraordinary global success story. 
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