Fortune in the tube

  Most manufacturers of widely used products vie for the attention of the masses, doing everything they can to promote their products and identities into the center of public awareness. Some other businesses fly under the public radar, whether by desire or because their products just don’t engender affection. For some of these manufacturers and the entrepreneurs running them, their media exposure is as low as their business growth is high.  One such company is Future Pipe Industries, built and run by Lebanese businessman Fouad Makhzoumi. The company grew from a $100-million-a-year business around the turn of the century into a billion-dollar conglomerate with global reach in the course of the past 10 years. “We represent 16 percent of the world market for fiberglass pipes and are the largest manufacturer; the world market for these pipes is $117 billion annually,” says Makhzoumi. Future Pipe Industries (FPI) is the centerpiece of