Handicap 15, Padam Soin beat a large field of seasoned players drawn from Nairobi and Thika to emerge victorious in the first series of Crown Berger sponsored golf tour at Railways Club on Sunday.
Crown Berger Paints Chief Executive Rakesh Rao (left) and the company’s Chief Marketing Manager John Hadley at the Press Conference, Wednesday. [PHOTO: STAFFORD ONDEGO/STANDARD]
Paints maker, Crown Paints yesterday launched the latest golf tour, which is expected to be played on 15 golf clubs around the country before the finals are held at the par 71 Limuru Golf and Country Club on July 7.
While officially launching the beauty of transformation campaign, an initiative aimed at beautifying the city at Makini School, Crown Paints CEO Rakesh Rao said the company has taken the initiative to ensure Nairobi has a facelift.
Rao said the company has taken a forefront in encouraging paint tin recycling projects as a way of promoting a clean environment. “These tins are a hazard to the environment and are more often than not used for storage and selling of counterfeit products”, he said.
Crown Paints will offer incentives by buying back every tin returned and recycle them to create pots for plants and dust bins which will be distributed to schools.
The CEO said the tins could be sold so as to recover the money spent on the project through encouraging people to support a safer, cleaner environment.
“We are running a campaign duped rudisha kopo “return the tin” where we will involve distributing fliers to those areas where our paint tins are collected”, he said. The Campaign also involves a group of young people that meet once a month at the British Council to do graffiti called WAPI. Most of these children are from the slum areas, they have talent but nowhere to express it.
Crown Paints is partnering with Makini School, to plant trees in the recycled tins as the pupils will be able monitor the progress of the plants.
“The whole idea is to save money and improve the environment as we strive to protect and improve current and planned timber usage whilst protecting the environment for future generations”, Rao said.
The country needs about seven billion trees to achieve the minimum 10 percent forest cover recommended by the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).
Crown Paints Kenya PLC, a Kenyan paint manufacturer, headed for the highest close in more than a month on speculation the company boosted sales during the festive season.
The stock climbed 3 per cent to 34 shillings at 1:10 p.m. in Nairobi, the capital. A close at that level would be the highest since Nov. 22, when it rose to 35 shillings.
“Sales for the festive seasons are normally high as people purchase more paints for house refurbishing and the ongoing boom in the construction industry is good business for the Crown Berger, ” Vimal Parmar, an analyst at Kestrel Capital East Africa Ltd., said in a phone interview.
Crown Berger in August reported first-half profit rose 2.4 per cent to 42.5 million shillings ($526,316) as revenue climbed 16 per cent to 1.43 billion shillings.
East Africa’s leading paint maker Crown Paints announced an increase in Group Turnover by 13.7 per cent compared to last year. The firm reported an 11.5 per cent decline in after-tax profitability for the half-year ended June 30, compared to a similar period in 2008.
While releasing the results, the firm’s Finance Director Mr. Patrick Mwati attributed high costs of fuel, weakening of the Kenyan shilling against the dollar and high cost of raw materials as to reasons why the company recorded low profits.
Crown Paints Vice-chairman Hussein Ramji said the drop was mainly attributed to capital investment in the company which he said attracted higher taxation that affected the company™s profitability.
“I don’t see it as a drop in profits. Last year we did 90 per cent of our profits in six months and 10 in the second half, we are definitely going to see a change this year”, he said.
During a similar period in 2008 profits stood at Sh46.9 million while this year they were at Sh41.5 million. Cash flow turned positive to Sh20 million from negative Sh101 million during the first half of 2009.
At the same time, the paint maker saw turnover increase by 13.7 per cent compared to last year. The vice-chairman believes with increased sales in the first half, profits could increase by 15 percent.
“Our sales have increased by 14 per cent in the first six months and we expect it to carry through to year-end. As our sales increase we should be up 10 to 15 per cent above,” said Mr. Ramji.
While the company is not affected by the current power rationing, the cost still remains high which Mr. Ramji said made them pass on the cost to the consumer.
He however says it is a temporary phase and with the projected El Nino set to start in September, it is expected that power generation will be back and lead to a decrease in energy costs.
“I see it lasting another six months and with the rains set to start soon hopefully that will see a reduction in the fuel surcharge cost which would mean a reduction in manufacturing costs,” he said.
Going forward the company will look to explore growth opportunities in the regional markets especially Ethiopia. It already has a distribution network in South Sudan.
The Board of Directors did not recommend paying dividends until the end of year results are released to know how to reflect it on the earnings per share.