w w w . p a i n t c o r . c o . z a
Paintcor
w w w . p a i n t c o r . c o . z a
coat Founded out of a shed in 1986, Paintcor has become an exemplary medium-sized paint supplier in the South African market, with five retail outlets and a large production facility in Johannesburg. The company’s founder and CEO Greg Williams spoke to about operating a niche, self-made and growing business.
www.essentialbusinessmag.com
2
Manufacturing
P
aintcor produces paints and products for a wide variety of applications including highquality domestic paints, commercial-grade coatings, floor coatings, cement enhancers, sealers, cleaning agents and biocides. All of the company’s products are designed with high quality and performance in mind rather than cost, positioning it at the premium end of the market. Mr Williams runs a tight ship, with forty-five staff members employed at his company’s central production site in a suburb of Johannesburg and a three further retail stores at his company’s newly established Colourways branches.
Colourways is the most recent expansion of the business, aiming to bring high-quality Paintcor projects to a wider base of discerning clients and consumers and to ease distribution and accessibility of the company’s products.
“All of the company’s products are designed with high quality and performance in mind rather than cost, positioning it at the premium end of the market
Regime change
One of the strengths which has developed out of the shift to manufacturing/retail as opposed to pure manufacturing is the training regime, which ensures all employees stay up-to-date and gain skills while working for the company. “Depending on the staff, we have developed a system where anyone coming in has to write a comprehension test, and their marks let us decide what level they’re at. We find that people are coming in with certificates that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on, but working for us they can be trained by us and train themselves to develop skills.” Paintcor is seeing a number of other changes – and challenges
3
www.essentialbusinessmag.com
P a i n t c o r
– to its business and operating models. Over the past few years it has seen significant market decline of between 15% and 20%, driven partly by a slowdown in the construction industry but more importantly by the fact that, in Williams’ words, “a lot of the slightly lower income people can no longer afford to paint, because the cost of raw materials has gone up so drastically. The markets are under heavy pressure.”
Changing directions
New legislation, while necessary from an environmental and safety point of view, has also been another factor slowing down business, with white pigments facing a potential threat of being classified as a carcinogen in its powder form. For some products, like those using white titanium pigment, there is not yet a legal alternative to replace them, should titanium dioxide be reclassified, an avenue of sale would be lost and the paint industry would experience a major backlash.
“We at this stage have got the plans ready for the first section of our new factory, but we have problems with power on our land. The land is a fully industrial site, but the local council cannot supply us enough electricity at this stage to run the whole factory.
Responding to these issues, however, Mr Williams and Paintcor have fallen back on tried and tested methods. “We are responding by going out, working harder, calling on more opposition customers, and we’ve managed to take a few customers from the opposition. Right now that is the only way we can grow: to be efficient enough to take customers from the opposition.”
www.essentialbusinessmag.com
4
Despite the squeezed climate, Paintcor is still growing and expanding, shifting in new directions to diversify away from its current predicament. A larger automated production plant is currently under development, with plans prepared, although another somewhat South African problem has held back the original vision of the project and forced the company to adapt. Williams explains:
Greg Williams, founder and CEO, Paintcor
“We are responding by going out, working harder, calling on more opposition customers, and we’ve managed to take a few customers from the opposition
“To resolve that, we’re building half of the new factory on that land, this will be sales and stores, and our current facility will be turned entirely into production. That will double our capacity, and we will send that product onto our new land, which is maybe 500m up the road.” Paintcor is also moving away from traditional sectors into more highvalue specialist sectors, markets and products. Normal derivative coatings is such a competitive market (Mr Williams mentions that imported products, particularly from Egypt, the Middle East and the BRICs like Russia, are outcompeting South African goods thanks to lower import duties).
Protea Chemicals is all around you – from the coating of paint on the wall to the brush that painted it, and from the glue in your child’s school project to the solvent you used to clean your hands after helping to build it. Inside every coating, adhesive and sealant is Protea Chemicals.
Industry Sector: COATINGS, ADHESIVES, AND SEALANTS
P a i n t c o r
Getting up to date
One specialist area Paintcor has recently moved into is the private aviation market, creating coatings and paints to treat the fabric skins of vintage and wood-framed aircraft. Its new waterborne fabric aluminium coating product is designed to provide long-lasting protection to older aircraft like Gypsy Moths, stretching with the fabric and protecting it. It’s currently under testing, with polyurethane topcoats for a similar application under development. In addition, the company is also getting its branding up to date and training new sales staff to begin plans to expand into the rest of Africa, where economies are moving faster and demand is higher. Botswana, Malawi
www.essentialbusinessmag.com
6
and Zambia are their current targets, (“right now we’re staying away from Zimbabwe, we don’t know what’s going to happen there”, comments Williams), with Botswana in particular mentioned as an attractive prospect. “Botswana is a fantastic well-run, stable, secure country with just about no crime. The only crime they have there is petty theft. In Botswana the rhinos and other wild life are protected by the Botswana military and poachers are dealt with severely, so hey don’t have a problem with wildlife poaching in Botswana. A well-run, growing entity with a certain kind of hard-working approach – it sounds like
Botswana and Paintcor could be a perfect fit.
“The company is also getting its branding up to date and training new sales staff to begin plans to expand into the rest of Africa, where economies are moving faster and demand is higher
Manufacturing
Follow us: @PaintcorZA @PaIntcor @paintcorza Paintcor Paint
Share your
Great companies have great tales to tell. If you’d like to share your strory and bring your business closer to the people that matter, please contact us today.
w w w.es sentialbu sines smag.com
Tel: 011 792 3830
sales@denbraven.co.za • www.denbraven.co.za
7
www.essentialbusinessmag.com
Physical Address Mailship Street, Laser Park, Honeydew, South Africa Trading Hours Mon-Fri: 07:30 – 16:30, Sat: 09:00 – 12:00 Tel: +27 (0) 11 794 2885 Fax: +27 (0) 11 794 6955 Email: sales@paintcor.co.za tech@paintcor.co.za
w w w . p a i n t c o r . c o . z a
@EssentialBizMag Essential Business Publishing Ltd @EssentialBusinessAfrica Essential Business Magazine
www.essentialbusinessmag.com ©Essential Business Magazine 2017