JOTUN: 20% Growth in the Paints Sector in Libya Reflects the Revival of the Economy and Construction

Abdel Menem Abdel Aziz, Chairman of JOTUN, talks what makes JOTUN paints better. According to Abdel Aziz, “the secret to success is to provide a very good service. We have a good after-sales service, be it to the consumers at home or the big projects owners. We deliver the goods to the door or at the project site, we provide them with an assistance from our engineers free of charge, we assist them throughout the work they do and we take back opened cans at the end of the project. We advise them on different specs and write specs for the projects if needed ― all free of charge.”

With the paints sector in Libya worth about 100 million Libyan dinars. JOTUN made a record growth in April and May 2013. JOTUN is making about 20% growth year-on-year. “As a nation, of course the market is expanding and, as there is more ongoing construction, the demand is higher, year-on-year. We believe we have the No 1 position in the Libyan market,” adds Abdel Aziz.

As for the expansion plans, Abdel Aziz is trying to build a new factory. “We have a state-of-the-art new factory being built near the town of Zuwara, some 90km west of Tripoli. It is a factory that would deploy the latest technology JOTUN has deployed anywhere else. We would have a fully recycled system, so there will be no emissions to the environment whatsoever; everything is recycled in the factory. The factory would employ some 150 people, mostly locals from the region, and perhaps below 5% of employees would be expats.”

“We are making here an investment of about 45 million Libyan dinars and that over the years could be doubled ― the capacity plus the investment itself.”

“So the first stage is to produce 15 million litres of paints and the second stage would be at least 30 million litres. Currently if you have 30% market share and you have around 8 million litres, that means the size of the market is about 24 million litres of paints per year.”