Nairobi Securities Exchange Listed Paint Maker, Crown Paints Ltd has opened its second factory in Kisumu at a cost of Kshs 400 Million.
The factory is able to produce 1.2 million litres of paint each month with 70 per cent of its processes automated ensuring the quality of products.
The CEO Mr Rakesh Rao said the installed equipment was similar to that used in advanced industries in South Africa.
Crown paints has outlets are in Nairobi,Kisumu, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda.
Crown Paints Controls over 60 per cent market share of the Western Region and this can be attributed to reduced costs of production.
“We have been transporting our products from Nairobi to serve this region.The situation has always resulted into exorbitant costs as paint is mostly 70 per cent water. The proximity of this factory to our markets now gives us a great competitive advantage,” Mr Rao said.
The CEO said Kisumu offers immense advantages from the ease of movement through Lake Victoria to Mwanza, Tanzania and also to other East Africa member states.
“For logistics, we stand to gain from the proximity of this plant to Lake Victoria. We can now provide technical assistance to our factory in Mwanza as well as save up to 30 per cent in transport costs,” he said.
“We will also be able to transport products to Uganda since we have now cut the distance from the main plant in Nairobi to Kampala and Rwanda by 50 per cent,” Mr Rao said.
“We take more than a month to get clearance to get to the Tanzania market for a process that should take three days. We want the government to engage their counterparts to reduce the red tapes and lengthy paper work,” Mr Rao said.
