Coatings World - July 2016

by Shem Oirere Africa Correspondent

The East African Coatings Congress held in Nairobi between June 8 & 9 may not have been anything near what the event organizers have experienced in similar events in North Africa, Europe and Asia in terms of attendance and participation, but some of the companies that took part said they were in East Africa to explore the market, to seek business partners and gauge the business environment for potential investors in this fast-growing coatings market.

One could even say the selection of Nairobi to host the East African Coatings Congress (EACC) was deliberate on the part of the organizers. The city is East Africa’s paints and coatings industry hub where all leading paints and coatings market players such as Crown Paints (also Crown Berger), Basco Paints, Solai Paints and Sadolin Paints East Africa Ltd., formerly a subsidiary of Danish paint manufacturer Sadolin & Holmblad, later acquired by AkzoNobel Coatings, have set up their operational base.

Companies such as Crown Paints have spread their wings to the rest of East Africa with subsidiaries such as Crown Tanzania, Regal Paints in Uganda and Crown Rwanda. Nairobi, also being the gateway to landlocked Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, the event organizers could not have picked a better venue for the East African Coatings Congress.

“The East African Coatings Congress presented superb opportunities for networking as there is no other event of this kind in the region,” said Kieran Proverbs, marketing manager for Coatings Group, the main event organizer.

He said the Congress, whose theme was “East African Opportunities – Investing in Growth,” provided a rare occasion in which senior decision makers in the industry assembled in one location to meet participants from all segments of the paints and coatings industry.

Jackie Xia, a senior manager at the export
department of the China’s Quzhou Dongtai
New Material Company Ltd. said although
the company exports its products to Africa, the
EACC was the first forum for the company to
engage with potential consumers, business part-
ners and players in the East African market.

“This is our first time exhibiting in East Africa and we are looking forward to getting some good leads and probably useful business relationships by the end of the event,” said Xia.

Her company manufactures the Dongtai titanium dioxide brand, which the Quzhou-based firm said is widely used in enhancing the performance of paints, plastic, printing ink, papermaking, chemical fiber, rubber, leather and various kinds of industrial paint flouro-carbon lacquer.

The chief executive officer of the Scotland-
based CelluComp Ltd., Christian Kemp-Griffin
said: “We are not in the market yet but we be-
lieve there is potential in doing business in East
Africa and sub-Saharan Africa generally.”
The company develops high performance
products based on sustainable resources that
offer “rheological and mechanical properties
for numerous applications,” such as paints
and coatings, personal care, home care, cos-
metics, concrete, drilling fluids, composites
and other potential applications, according to
Kemp-Griffin.

“I hope there are companies in East Africa at this forum with whom we can talk with on the possibility of forming partnerships through which our products can penetrate the market,” he said.

CelluComp Ltd, which launched its Curran
product at the European Coatings Show in
2013, works with paint formulating companies
globally, “alongside its distribution partners
Krahn Chemie, Keyser Mackay and Tennants
Distribution.” Griffins told participants the
Curran product is one of the CelluComp Ltd.’s
solutions to meet the “the increasing environ-
mental demands and performance demands of
the customers.”
Ahmed Gamal of Covestro, a spinout formed
in the fall of 2015 from Bayer and formerly
the German multinational chemical and phar-
maceutical company’s $12.3 billion materials
science division, said East African market has