Coatings World - February 2017

supply the products in a given area,” said Weissenberg.

A recent emerging trend is where
paints and coatings for bulk projects such
as housing, tourism and government in-
frastructure initiatives are being handled
by “paint manufacturers directly, while
many real estate projects are handled by
regional distributors.”
However, the individual customers
across the market are generally taken care
of by retail stores or local paint shops.

“These are multi-brand stores with small quantum of sale,” explained Weissenberg.

“Only a few distributors and su-
per stockists cover the market,” said
Weissenberg, adding that the distributors
“stock and distribute the products of two
or three paint companies.”
Tinting/Coloring Centers is also a
key segment in Egypt’s decorative paints
market. The centers are exclusive outlets
owned by franchisees of paint companies
and which give customers opportunity to
choose and create their own shades on
site before they are formulated in-store
using a tinting machine.

Although Egypt’s 2011 political turmoil is now history, the paints and coatings industry continue to face some challenges which have hampered the full exploitation of the country’s market potential.

The World Bank says the Egyptian economy is still reeling from the low international (cash) reserves, a not-so-good investment climate, and the unfavorable external conditions such as the sluggish economic recovery in Europe and lower international oil prices which have eaten into the Egyptian remittances especially from the Gulf region.

SCIB Paints regional head-Middle East and Egypt Manish Mehra said recently “the prospects in the medium term are not very attractive” for the paints and coatings industry in Egypt according to a report by MarcoPolis LLC, a Paris-based international online publishing company.

“There has been a crisis in terms of
availability of U.S. dollars to purchase
raw materials and most of the raw mate-
rials are imported,” he said. It is estimated
that up to 55 percent of raw materials
needed by Egypt’s paints and coatings in-
dustry are imported.
“All the companies have to import
raw materials and in the last two years
the availability of foreign currency has
become an issue (leading) to pressure on
the bottom line of all companies (and)
that is why new investments which will
be made by companies will be under pres-
sure,” said Mehra.
With the progress made on the po-
litical front and which has had a positive
infectious effect on the economy, Egypt
is likely to remain the top paints and
coatings market in North Africa in the
near future. CW
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Breakdown by Product Type, Total Paints and Coatings Market:
Egypt, 2013 Market Size: 3,926.5 Million