What Peacock can teach you about doing business

The television advert of Peacock Paints two decades ago, still lingers, though not clearly, in my mind. It was the only paint that most Ugandans were aware of at the time.
The story has, however, changed. The market is saturated with over 10 local paint companies including: Berger Paints (U) Ltd, BPC Chemical Limited, Crown Berger (U) Ltd...

Kampala
The television advert of Peacock Paints two decades ago, still lingers, though not clearly, in my mind. It was the only paint that most Ugandans were aware of at the time.
The story has, however, changed. The market is saturated with over 10 local paint companies including: Berger Paints (U) Ltd, BPC Chemical Limited, Crown Berger (U) Ltd, Crown Building and Products Ltd, Merico Ltd, Nobel Synthetics Ltd, Ritver Paints Ltd, Sadolin Paints, Rainbow Paints (U) Ltd, Revlon Paints (U) Ltd and Great Lakes Industries Ltd.
With the growing competition, the producers of paint can only bank on the strength of their products in terms of quality rather than price.
Peacock Paints, an indigenous Ugandan company, is beating odds to remain competitive, currently commanding a market share of about 30 per cent whereas Sadolin enjoys a 55-60 per cent market share.
Initially known as ‘Quality Paints,’ under the ownership of Mr Henry Makmot, a businessman, the paint manufacturing company was sold to Mr Kaddu Kiberu in 1988. Mr Kiberu re-branded it to Peacock.
With no paint industry background whatsoever, business was quite slow especially for a country, which was slowly recouping from civil instabilities. People were still timid about investment let alone construct their own homes.
The economy returned to normal in the early 90’s although most of the paint used in Uganda at the time was imported from Kenya.
“Through hard-work and marketing of our products, almost door-to-door, coupled with advertising, we made strides,” Mr Farouk Lwanga, the general manager of the company, said.
“We bought more machinery, which was more efficient and using less power for a company producing bigger volumes of paint. This gave us an edge ahead of other players in the industry.”
Due to the growing construction industry, the business picked up in the mid 90s motivating management to expand and move away from a small rented premise to a bigger and permanent along 6th Street in Industrial Area.
The company employed corporate social responsibility as a marketing strategy, which involved sponsoring sports activities and personalities like the former Rally Driver Sam Ssali.
It’s through campaigns like this that Peacock became a brand well-known to Ugandans.
“We introduced a variety of paints starting off with Peacock and Muzinge, a low cost paint, to cater for that segment of customers,” Mr Lwanga said.
Peacock sources its raw materials from Kenya, Egypt, UAE, South Africa and Europe.
The paint manufacturer and distributor with dealers and stockists throughout Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Southern Sudan, produces emulsion paints (water paints), gloss paints (oil paints), industrial paints, wood care products, automotive body repair products and thinners and offers a range of over 1400 colours to choose from.
Currently, Peacock’s annual production has grown from 100,000 litres to almost a million litres per annum and the company’s annual turnover swell to Shs1.4 billion up from Shs500 million when it started production.
Currently, employing over 80 people, the company had spread its wings to Lubumbashi in DR Congo in 1997/8 but as fate could have it, this was the time when instability was at its peak in this area and the plant was blown up.
Since then, they have concentrated on producing from home.
According Uganda National Bureau of Standards (UNBS) records, Peacock is one of the Ugandan companies bearing its quality mark. Peacock was named the best paint in the country by ‘Consumer Verdict’ (Ani Mukozi Awards 2009) and they were ranked 79th among Uganda’s Top 100 fastest SMEs by a survey carried out by KPMG and Monitor Publications Limited last month.
Their clientele mainly consists of construction companies, schools, industries among others.
With the highly competitive industry, Peacock has to brave the instability of the dollar rate.
“In the early 90s, the dollar was stable but after the liberalisation of the market, business became very costly,” Mr Lwanga said.

Challenges
Counterfeits have been and are still threatening Peacock out of business. Unscrupulous traders pack substandard paint and use Peacock labels selling it at lower prices.
“This distorts customer trust,” Mr Lwanga said.
Dumping is the other challenge the company is experiencing especially when they distribute in bulk to some site projects. When the projects are complete, the remaining paint is diluted using other substances like water and dumped on the market at lower prices. Launching of the EAC Common Market, which will flood the market with other brands from the region, is haunting the future of the company.