Sherwin-Williams WI sets 5-year target to be market leader
Published:Friday | February 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Mark Titus, Business Reporter
In five years, paint maker The Sherwin-Williams Company turns 150 and its Jamaican subsidiary has the perfect gift.
"From where we were 10 years ago, we have made tremendous strides in terms of our revenue and profits," says Ian Forbes, managing director of Sherwin-Williams (West Indies) Limited, "and I think that within five years we can become the leaders in the market."
Forbes says the company already controls close to 50 per cent of the coating market, but declined to discuss volume sales from its own locally manufactured supplies, as well as products distributed on behalf of the parent operation.
The Kingston-based operation manufactures 95 per cent of the products it distributes.
Jamaica exports coating material to Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and the Cayman Islands. Items such as spray paints, and about five to 10 per cent of the raw material for the automobile coating line, are supplied by the parent company, whose worldwide sales topped US$8 billion last year.
Sherwin-Williams International, to commemorate its milestone, is planning to expand globally from 109 markets to 150 in 2016, and add another US$7 billion to revenue in the process.
Sherwin-Williams WI, which has been operating in Jamaica for 35 years, has built a network of 18 retail outlets, four distribution centres, and some 850 dealers.
The company offers four categories of coating: architectural/decorative - commonly called house paint; automotive coating; chemical or wood and furniture finishes; and industrial maintenance and solvents.
Market leader
The firm's premium line in house paints is the Kem line of flat emulsion, Kem Glow, Kem Gloss, Kem enamel and the Living White products. It also sells roofing compound and paint, as well as Shercote, which is used on uneven surfaces prior to painting.
The company operates in a market of six big manufacturers, of which Berger Paints Jamaica is the acknowledged market leader, four small players, and 28 importers of paint.
Berger has claimed a 60 per cent share of the domestic paint market. Other rivals include Edgechem, Diamond and B&H Paints.
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica said it collected no paint manufacturing data in 2009, but that overall production in 2007 was 9.173 million litres valued at J$1.32 billion, and 9.83 million in 2008 valued at J$2.35 billion.
Last year, Sherwin-Williams invested J$25 million in upgrades - growing its capital expenditure over five years to J$75 million - and is now ISO 9001:2000 certified, which means it has the quality systems in place to track the production process, isolate and correct problems in a shorter timeframe.
"It goes all the way back to root cause analysis; so if there is a problem with our product, we can go right back and trace the root cause," said Forbes.
The manufacturing facility is sited on a 3.5-acre property at White Marl, St Catherine. The complex includes a storage and warehouse facility, development and quality-assurance laboratories, a training centre - which Forbes said is the only one of its kind in the English-speaking Caribbean -raw material processing area and a two-story office building.
The installation of emersion mills has cut processing time by over 50 per cent, while a new ALAR recycling unit ensures that waste is returned to the process.
"We have seen the benefits," Forbes told the Financial Gleaner on a visit to the plant on the final of a three-day coating seminar.
"Processes that would normally take eight to 12 hours, is now being done in two and three hours."
The seminar was organised by Sherwin-Williams to benefit local businesses, while showcasing its products, and was conducted by American experts Chuck Fite and Donnie Ahnemiller.
Forbes, who has headed the Jamaican operation since 2001, said Sherwin-Williams was the first to introduce the facility for customers to customise colours, a move that has now been copied by rivals.
"There was a shift in demand and taste. Back then, Jamaica was predominantly white in terms of paint," Forbes said. "Over time, persons have become bolder and choosing lots of bold colours, so we came up with the 'colour scape' system, where formulae are created according to the desire of the client."
Echoing concerns previously aired by others in the sector, he cautioned paint consumers to be wary of imports from the US, Central and South America, which have been eating away at the domestic producers' market share.
"I would caution the consuming public to be very careful in purchasing paint, because some of these are not of very high standard," he warned.
"There are a number of imports coming in and we are aware of the Bureau of Standards' efforts to ensure only quality products are on offer. We hope there will be a serious crack down of poor-quality products."
Sherwin-Williams, he said, has a hotline to educate consumers.
"Anything to do with paint, ask us," he said.