Dubai: Leading in its sector in Japan and the seventh largest in the world, Kansai Paint has opened a plant in Iran and is eyeing other countries in the Mena region.
"We currently serve the GCC from our plants in Japan and Malaysia, but if the market becomes big enough we could be opening another plant in Saudi Arabia and are exploring the possibility of opening further plants in Morocco, Egypt and Algeria," Shoju Kobayashi, chairman of Kansai Paint, told Gulf News.
The company opened a plant in Pakistan last month and Iran this month. The latter will for now only serve the domestic market, said Kobayashi.
Sanctions no problem
"It is important to have the paint close to its market. We would consider exporting from Iran to the GCC if it becomes cheaper to do so. The sanctions on Iran would not affect exporting," he added.
Kansai opened an office in Dubai two years ago to be closer to the customer, address distribution and to grow its market share in the region, which, its chief executive officer for the Middle East said, is still negligible.
Business starts very slowly gathering all the paperwork, permits and so on and uncertain economic times don't allow you to throw around exact numbers, Syed Ameer Hamza Hasan, chief executive officer, Kansai Middle East told Gulf News.
"We are very committed to investing in resources in Dubai and are positioning ourselves to possibly becoming number one or at least number two in the region by the end of next year," he added.
The Mena region's current market size represents $2.5 to $3 billion to the company, he said, and is on par in terms of priority with China, India and the CIS.
Kansai, founded in 1918, bases its success on advancing paints technologically through plenty of research and development.
