QL Exclusive: An interview with Qatari entrepreneur and founder of The Perfume Factory, Mohammed Al-Matwi

Qatar Living speaks to Qatari entrepreneur, Mohammed Al-Matwi, who is the founder of The Perfume Factory in Qatar, to know more about how he set up his business to benefit his country.

Mohammed Al-Matwi attained a bachelor’s in business administration degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q) in 2015.

His love for Qatar and his passion to contribute to the country’s growth drove him to set up his own businesses.

“When I was studying at CMU-Q, I would always think about what more I could do. So, I focused more on volunteer work. I worked with a campaign called Ahmeek that works to spread awareness about car safety and dangers of not wearing the seatbelt,” Mohammed recalled.

After a couple of years, he switched from volunteering to implement what he had learned in his academic journey and started his first business Shnaita.

This is an online platform to sell second luxury handbags. It was the first business of its kind in Qatar back then, as the main aim of it was the idea of recycling.

Then he began working on his idea to set up The Perfume Factory, which is his main business.

“The idea behind The Perfume Factory is to create a perfume hub for the people in Qatar and to focus on the local Qatari perfume brands. It seeks to connect the world with Qatar and vice versa. We wanted to make Qatari products stand out internationally, as well as the GCC level,” Mohammed said.

Mohammed and his father Dr Rashid Al-Matwi founded The Perfume factory in 2015, which is the first factory of its kind in Qatar.

The factory also supports other startups to establish their own perfumes brands. It has launched several perfume brands and is considered as a market for international perfume brands as well.

Mohammed believes that one’s ambition should be guided by his ability to take chances and do what he is passionate about.

“What drives me more is I wanted to be an entrepreneur and I wanted to be independent, I want to reach a level as an individual where I can enjoy life as well as work hard at the same time, I really like to do what I love,” he mentioned.

His passion and love for perfumes led him to create this factory. “It is the practical knowledge which I grew with, and it was a passion as I liked perfumes. So, I moved to more practical and it took me a lot of time and effort to put it into reality,” Mohammed said.

As COVID-19 affected everyone’s business, some were able to stay strong and positive in this period.

Mohammed adapted his business to fight COVID-19 by creating a new product to help his country. Utilizing its experience dealing with chemicals, the factory started to produce perfumed hand sanitizers and sprays.

“During COVID-19 we took a different approach, which we wanted to build up from a crisis to an opportunity, we decided to use the perfume factory also as a platform to create products with perfumes more than just focusing on perfumes, so we created hand sanitizers. The idea of the hand sanitizer is to make it user friendly with a good smell,” he said.

“The whole approach is about diversification,” Mohammed underlined.

“We saw an opportunity and as a chemical factory, we do know how to make it happen. After COVID-19 we focused on switching our strategy to online, but I believe it is for us to recap and to regain our customers’ trust is to start reaching out to them and explaining more about our stories online,” he said.

Mohammed found the right environment in Qatar for his business. Qatar Development Bank (QDB) played an essential role here, helping his business overcome many challenges.

“It saved a lot of time for me, it could have taken me even longer if I had to build my business in another place,” he mentioned.

Mohammed is still ambitious to achieve more in his business. “My main goal is to start exporting more of our products. However, to do business with people you have to do it face to face. So I wanted to reach more people but I believe that the next stage after COVID-19 my target will be to make our products international,” he said.

Mohammed urges all entrepreneurs to be patient as building the business takes time.

“The hardest thing is to be patient in the process of building the business,” he said.

“It takes time to be in the right place. Just do the thing you like, and always think of the benefit of what you do for the people who are around you and the country that you are living in,” he added.

You can follow Mohammed @mbinr_ and The Perfume Factory @tpfqatar.

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