Crown Berger Kenya has entered into a distribution partnership with a South African company Free World Automotive Coatings to distribute the South African firm’s automotive paint products and enable it to penetrate the domestic market.
Crown Berger is a Kenyan paint manufacturing company established in 1958 with an annual turnover of Ksh 2.6 billion and the capability of producing up to 1.5 million litres per month. The company is listed on the NSE under the Main Investment Segment in the Construction and Allied category and in the last few years has expanded its operations from Kenya to the greater East African and COMESA region.
Freeworld Automotive Coatings is Southern Africa’s leading manufacturer and marketer of high quality automotive coatings systems. It was successfully listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) in December 2007 and is regarded as the world’s 31st largest producer of quality coatings. Through this partnership it will now be able to penetrate and sell its products in the highly competitive Kenyan market.
This foreign deal comes only a few weeks after Crown Berger entered into another distribution partnership with the American company DuPont Chemicals to supply the paint additive Teflon that enhances the quality of paint.
Both of these partnerships will not only expose the Kenyan market to a wider variety of paint products but also strengthen Crown Berger’s presence in the market and possibly give it an edge over other players in the industry such as Basco Paints and Sadolin Paints. This makes Crown Berger an attractive share as these partnership represent a sound expansion strategy that may profit shareholders in a few years once the new products have fully assimilated into the market.