Kenyan paints manufacturer, Crown-Berger, has changed plans to construct a 3 million US dollars (about 4.8bn/-) factory in Arusha effective from mid next year, in the company’s bid to widen its footprint in East Africa.

Crown Paints Executive, Mr Rakesh Rao

Had the plans gone ahead, Arusha would have been host to the largest paint manufacturing factory, but the investors decided to construct the plant in Dar es Salaam instead.Recently, the company established a supply depot in Arusha in its quest to harvest a 50 per cent market share in the Tanzanian premium paints segment.

Crown Paints Executive, Mr Rakesh Rao, explained here that his company intends to introduce decorative (water and oil based), automotive, varnishes and specialized floor paints into the market.”We want to start in an area where Crown Paints can be assured of at least 200,000 market base to start with and we feel Dar es Salaam (with a population of around 4 million) and more construction projects than Arusha, meets such expectations,” said Mr Rao.

It expects to leverage on its superior brand quality supported by strong research and development department to successfully penetrate into the Tanzanian market.”We are aware of the level of competition in the paints market in Tanzania,” said the Crown Paints CEO, citing ‘Coral’ and ‘Sadolin,’ among the well-established brands here but pointed out that they were certain that through sharing product knowledge and educating customers on products uses and benefits, Crown shall create high demand for its brands.

Crown-Berger Kenya Ltd, which boasts being Kenya’s leading paint manufacturing company, was established in 1958 with an annual turnover of 3.9 billion Kenyan shillings (about 45bn/-) and the capability of producing up to 1.5 million litres per month.

The CEO stated that the company intends to establish its presence in all East African Community (EAC) member states by mid 2013 through establishment of country branches as well as forging strategic partnerships.Crown Paints is already in Uganda where it manufactures paints under the brand name of ‘Regal.’ But the management lamented the slow pace of clearance at regional borders, saying it impacted negatively on trade within EAC.

Source Tanzania Daily News