What to put in a company profile (Saudi Arabia guide)

In Saudi Arabia, a company profile is rarely just a brochure. It gets attached to tender submissions, uploaded to vendor registration portals, forwarded between procurement and technical teams, and printed for the first meeting with a new client. The same document has to persuade a manager and satisfy a checklist. Most profiles do one of those jobs and fail the other.

This guide covers what to include, in what order, and how to handle Arabic and English, so your profile works in both rooms.

Start with who will read it

Before writing a word, list the people who will open the file. For most B2B companies in the Kingdom that means three groups:

• Procurement and vendor management. They check that you are a real, registered, compliant company. They scan for documents and numbers, not adjectives.
• The technical or operations team. They want to know whether you have done this kind of work before, at this scale, with these standards.
• The decision maker. They want to understand in two minutes who you are and why you are a safe choice.

A good profile is built so each group finds its answer quickly. That is mostly a structure problem, not a design problem.

The core sections

This is the order that tends to work for companies supplying government entities, giga-projects, contractors and large private buyers. Adjust it, but keep the logic: identity first, proof second, paperwork last.

1. Cover and one-line positioning

Company name in Arabic and English, logo, and one sentence that says what you do and for whom. “Mechanical, electrical and plumbing contractor for commercial buildings in the Eastern Province” beats “Excellence in every project”.

2. About the company

Three short paragraphs: when and where you were established, what you do, and where you operate. Mention your head office city and any branches. Keep vision and mission statements short; procurement readers skip them, and a decision maker only needs one line.

3. Services or products

One block per service line, each with a plain description, typical scope, and the kind of client it is for. If you are a contractor, separate what you self-perform from what you subcontract. Buyers notice when a company claims to do everything.

4. Past projects

This is the section technical teams read most closely. For each project include the client (only where you have permission to name them), location, scope, your role (main contractor, subcontractor, supplier), and the period. A table works well for a long list; pick three to six projects for a fuller write-up with photos.

If you cannot name a client, describe them: “a government hospital in Riyadh” or “a national retail chain”. Never invent projects or borrow photos from other companies. Reviewers do check, and it ends the conversation.

5. Organisation chart and key people

Show the structure, not every name. Management, department heads, and the roles that matter for delivery: project managers, engineers, quality and safety leads. For contractors, a short summary of headcount by category (engineers, technicians, labour) is often requested. Give real numbers or leave it out.

6. Quality, health, safety and environment

For contractors and industrial suppliers, this section can decide whether you are shortlisted. Include your HSE policy statement, how you manage safety on site, training, and your quality process. If you hold ISO certificates (for example ISO 9001, 14001 or 45001), list them with the certifying body and validity date. If you do not, describe what you actually do instead. Do not display certification logos you are not entitled to use.

7. Equipment and facilities

Workshops, warehouses, fleet, major equipment. A simple list with quantities is enough.

8. Registration and legal documents

This is where vendor registration lives. Requirements vary by buyer and by portal, so always follow the tender’s own list, but these are commonly requested:

• Commercial Registration (CR) certificate
• VAT registration certificate
• Chamber of Commerce membership certificate
• Zakat certificate, GOSI certificate and Saudization (Nitaqat) certificate, where the buyer asks for them
• National address
• Bank details on the company’s letterhead or a bank letter
• Relevant licences or classifications for your sector

Many companies keep these as a separate appendix rather than inside the designed profile. That is often the better choice: certificates expire, and you do not want to redesign a profile every time one is renewed. List them in the profile, and attach the current copies.

9. Contact page

Name and role of a real contact person, phone, email, website, address and a map pin or QR code. Make sure the email works and someone answers it.

A profile that is easy to check gets checked. A profile that hides its proof behind adjectives gets set aside.

Arabic and English

For Saudi buyers, a bilingual profile is the norm rather than a bonus. You have three practical options:

• Two separate documents, one Arabic and one English. Cleanest to read and easiest to send to the right audience. More work to keep in sync.
• One document, facing pages. Arabic on one side, English on the other. Good for print, awkward on a phone.
• One document, mixed. Headings in both languages, body in one. Only works for short profiles.

Whichever you choose, write the Arabic properly rather than running the English through a translator. Arabic reads right to left, so the whole layout should mirror, not just the text. Pick an Arabic typeface designed to sit with your Latin one, so the two versions feel like the same company. Check numbers, dates and units carefully; mixed-direction text is where errors hide.

Print vs digital

Most profiles today are read as PDFs, on laptops and phones. Design for that first:

• Keep the file small enough to email and upload to portals. Many portals limit file size, so compress images and avoid embedding huge photos.
• Use a page size that reads well on screen. Landscape pages fit laptop screens; portrait pages print better. Some companies produce a portrait print version and a landscape digital version.
• Make links and contact details clickable in the PDF.
• Add bookmarks or a contents page so reviewers can jump to projects or certificates.

If you print, use the print version for meetings and exhibitions, and ask your printer for proofs before a full run.

Common mistakes

• Opening with the CEO message. Put it after the company overview, or drop it.
• Stock photos of handshakes and skylines. Use your own sites, team, products and premises, even if the photos are simple.
• Claims with nothing behind them. “Leading”, “number one” and “trusted by” invite the question “says who?”.
• Out-of-date certificates. An expired certificate in a tender pack is worse than none.
• No dates on projects. Reviewers want to know if the experience is recent.
• One giant file for everything. A short sales profile and a full tender profile serve different readers.

Checklist

• Arabic and English company name, logo, one-line positioning
• Company overview: established, head office, branches, what you do
• Services with scope and typical clients
• Past projects with client (where permitted), location, scope, role and dates
• Organisation chart and key roles
• HSE and quality section; ISO certificates only if held, with validity
• Equipment and facilities, if relevant
• List of registration documents, with current copies attached separately
• Real contact person, working email and phone
• Proofread in both languages, numbers and dates checked
• PDF compressed, bookmarked, links clickable

Getting it made

If you have the content but not the time, or the design but not the structure, our company profile service covers writing, Arabic and English layout, and print-ready and digital files. You can see the kind of work we do in our projects, or start a project and tell us which tender or audience the profile is for.