Nash Paints to construct state of the art plant

Business Reporters
LOCAL paint manufacturer, Nash Paints has mobilised more than $2 million for the construction of a state of the art paint manufacturing plant to be set up in Harare, The Herald Business has learnt. Nash Paints chief executive Mr Tinashe Mutarisi said construction of the new plant is scheduled to commence in December this year. “We are in talks with the Harare City Council to acquire land for the new plant. The investment will amount to more than $2 million,” said Mr Mutarisi.
The company has already acquired plant machinery for the project.

Nash Paints produces 40 percent of its products locally and imports the remaining 60 percent from Germany and South Africa.
“PVA interior and exterior is the fast mover of our volumes and there has been a notable increase in the sale of PVA since the recently added UV protection,” said Mr Mutarisi.
“It is fast becoming the market leader mainly because of its 10-year guarantee.”

He said Nash Paints commands 80 percent market share in the automotive division and around 30 percent in the decorative side.
Nash Paints is benefiting from the Government’s continued facilitation of construction of more low cost houses, for instance the Budiriro housing project.
“Demand will continue to mount and demand for automotive paints is very good,” he said.

“Support from our customers has been amazing and we hope to keep introducing new products as well as product development. As a whole 2014 is a year of positive growth in the industry,” said Mr Mutarisi.

Some of the challenges the paint manufacturer is facing include the prevailing liquidity crunch and lack of support for the manufacturing sector by Government.
“The issue of high cost of borrowing has been a challenge and importation of raw materials has been affecting prices. Import taxes also have had an impact on the costing of our products,” said Mr Mutarisi.

“Our paints are of international standards and we have customers coming from Zambia, Malawi and Mozambique. We intend to start exporting in bulk in the near future,” he said.