TINTAS CORAL TO PRODUCE PAINTS LOCALLY

TINTAS Coral, producers of the ICI line of paints, will begin manufacturing emulsion-based paints in Ghana next year.
The move, according to the Export Manager of Tintas Coral ICI, Mr Luiz Carlos Da Silva, was the result of the viability of the Ghanaian market in recent years.
“Among our markets, Ghana has proved to be the most viable, in large part due to the prevailing socio-economic climate,” he told the Managing Director of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Mohammed Ibrahim Awal, when he paid a courtesy call on Mr Awal yesterday.
Mr Da Silva, who also has responsibility for the southern African and ECOWAS sub-regions, said the company would, after commencing the production of emulsion paints, go on to produce solvent-based or synthetic paints in 2010.
He said prior to those strides, Tintas Coral had sensitised its clients and customers to and prepared them in accepting the top quality products of the company.
Apart from training its clients, personnel, painters and consumers, the company had also invested significantly in its infrastructure, making Ghana the hub for exporting ICI paints to Burkina Faso, Togo and Cote d’Ivoire.
Mr Da Silva said with all those initiatives, the market was ready to absorb new products, initiatives and concepts from the company.
He said the company’s success had partly been due to advertising in the Daily Graphic, saying the credibility it had gained over the years was synonymous with the credibility of the Daily Graphic.
The Marketing Manager of Tintas Coral, Mr Yaw Bonnah Sarpong, said Ghana’s economic growth had encouraged the company to explore specialised niches in the market.
With the country’s oil find, Tintas Coral has brought onto the market its affiliate company, International Paints, that specialises in protective coatings for the petroleum and industrial sectors.
Mr Sarpong said Ghana would be the base for exporting these new brands of products to Nigeria.
Already, feasibility studies had been undertaken in the mining and industrial sectors and currently the petroleum sector, he added.
Mr Awal said Ghana was growing economically and the middle class was also growing, hence the need for products like paint in the construction industry that was also experiencing expansion.
He said the GCGL supported businesses in Ghana because the more businesses in Ghana grew, the more employment would be created, with income for people to patronise all the quality papers of the company.
17/10/08
DAILY GRAPHIC, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2008