Output at Hempel’s Bahrain plant rose in 2012 and the company expects to have robust sales in the New Year with greater emphasis on decorative paints and a marine product that has received global acclaim.

Karsten Pedersen, Hempel’s Bahrain-based group vice president and area director, Middle East -West, told this magazine production at the Bahrain plant touched 5 million liters in 2012 against 4.7 million liters in the previous year while sales were up 6 per cent.

Production capacity at the plant is 6 million tonnes annually with decorative paints accounting for around 60 per cent of output. The remainder comes mainly from industrial paints and also from marine coatings.

Hempel projects that sales will climb around 20 per cent in 2013 in Bahrain and 15 to 20 per cent across the Middle East (West).

Optimism flows from a series of developments including the introduction of a new brand identity which Hempel says has been received enthusiastically in markets and could translate into faster sales. The slogan “Passion for Colour” has been adopted in a big way throughout the region along with new paint container sizes and a greater shift to plastic pails, bringing down costs.

Pedersen: higher brand recognition and sales

Awareness campaigns through road shows, seminars and face-to-face meetings with customers have helped speed up brand recognition. “Increased numbers of people are recognising our brand; there has been increased traffic in our shops and increases in sales,” said a jubilant Pedersen.

Hempel has significantly upgraded the  colour-tinting concepts in the retail stores across Bahrain. With new improved tinting pastes, users are experiencing better hiding and greater stability in the colours, while reducing the need for multiple coats and thereby promoting savings for the end user. The concept was recently introduced in Bahrain and will be provided across the Middle East in 2013.

The company worked with Crown to develop the tinting paste concept. Acquisition by Hempel of UK-based Crown in 2011 was a significant development as the latter is the second largest  decorative paints company in the UK.

Also expected to give a strong push to Bahrain sales is the new decorative paint Contex EM which was developed at Hempel’s Bahrain R&D centre and has proved successful where it has been used so far. Contex EM works well on structures subjected to weather-related expansion and contraction, as in bridges. Two years after it was applied on a Kuwait flyover, Hempel is happy that the feedback has been positive. The paint has been accepted for use on infrastructure projects in Jeddah and is being used in the UAE and Qatar. “We’re looking forward to supplying the product in Bahrain in the New Year,” said Pedersen. 

The exterior of a Hempel showroom in Bahrain with the slogan Passion for Colour prominently displayed

Hempacore intumescent coatings, which took several years to develop, will be introduced in Bahrain and across the region in 2013. They are offered for a host of structures including high-rise residential buildings, stadiums, airports, stations, malls and factories, and their unique feature is that they insulate even structural steel, ensuring structural integrity during a fire for up to two hours, within which time fire services can easily deal with the emergency, organising evacuation that can save lives. Hempel has brought in an expert from Copenhagen to train staff in Bahrain on the proper application and the volumes to be used for various surfaces. The training will move on to other areas of the Gulf.

Another new paint, Hempafloor, for coatings on a range of floor surfaces, has been redeveloped by the Bahrain R&D centre for suitability in the Middle East’s weather conditions. Hempel expects it to be a success in Bahrain and elsewhere in the region.

Currently Hempel is supplying decorative paints to the US Navy Camp and offices at Mina Salman in Bahrain and to a number of projects of the country’s Ministry of Housing.

In recent years it supplied its decorative paints to Al Jawhara Medical Research Centre, Salmaniyah; Royal Surgeon’s College of Ireland, Busaiteen; Al Misra Building, Juffair; Zawia Building, Amwaj Island, and Yara Apartments (10 buildings) – all in Bahrain – among other projects.

Hempel Bahrain expects to continue to be the main supplier to Asry shipyard in the kingdom. Pedersen said: “We’re appreciative that Asry has defended its market position in the region despite a lot of shipyards being built there. We’re happy we have been the main supplier for their marine products.”

A marine paint Hempel Bahrain expects to supply in a big way is the Hempel fouling release coating Hempasil X3, which is widely acclaimed for helping reduce vessel maintenance costs, fuel consumption and greenhouse gas and biocide emissions. “We have a large order with the United Arab Shipping Company which means we will apply the paint to their vessels at Asry,” said Pedersen.

Hempel’s other plants in the Middle East-West are located in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Syria. The total capacity for Hempel in Middle East – West is around 50 million litres, which will be complemented by a new factory in Jeddah, boosting the capacity with more than 30 million litres.

Hempel has plants in the UAE and Qatar which fall in the Middle East – East, outside Pedersen’s jurisdiction, but, as the official explained, there is a great deal of cooperation between all the production facilities.