Africa
Sponsored by
The Eastern Africa
coatings market
has kicked off
2017 on a high
note as Kansai
and Sika made
plans to expand
their operations
in Ethiopia and
Kenya.
Boost of East African Market
as Kansai, Sika Expand Footprint
by Shem Oirere
Africa Correspondent
The Eastern Africa coatings and paints market has kicked off 2017 on a high note as two global names in the industry made good their plans to entrench their
operations in Ethiopia and Kenya, two of the
countries that are enjoying an urbanization and
construction boom.
Global specialty chemicals firm Sika AG
continued its expansion into growth markets
that it started in earnest in 2015 with the opening in February of its concrete admixture production plant in Ethiopia.
“The new factory in Ethiopia is part of the
systematic implementation of our Africa strategy,” said Paul Schuler, regional manager for
Europe, Middle East and Africa.
“We are playing a pioneering role in setting up
local production and this will bring us significant
competitive advantage,” he said in a statement.
The opening of the Ethiopia concrete admixture production facility comes a year after
the company expanded its production capacity
in Africa by opening new factories in Nigeria
and Ivory Coast in 2015.
The new admixture production plant precedes the 2015 establishment of a national subsidiary in Ethiopia, the same year a similar one
was launched in Tanzania.
Schuler said Sika, which produces the Sika
umbrella brand and some 838 Sika prod-
uct trademarks such as Sikaflex, Sika visco-
crete, Sikabond and Sikaflex would ensure the
Ethiopian market benefits from “local product
formulations that are perfectly adapted to the
raw materials and local requirements, as well as
from shorter delivery times.”
In its 2015 annual report, Sika, which
develops and markets a wide range of
