Saudi Paint Company (Paintco), which operates two plants in Riyadh, is making strong efforts to expand its presence beyond the home market, mainly the GCC states.

It recently set up a distributorship in Bahrain and says it is encouraged by growing prospects there. It also plans to open similar representations in Qatar and the UAE before long. They will join seven distributors in Saudi Arabia and the lone one in Bahrain.

The company has a total capacity of 100,000 tonnes per year. Actual output is more than half the total capacity and both output and reach will be stepped up as the marketing campaign in the region gains in intensity, said general manager Ibrahim Al Sheha. 

Some 98 per cent of the production is now consumed within Saudi Arabia and while the kingdom has a plethora of projects planned or underway, there is also a great deal of competition.

Saudi Paint Company, part of the Khaffra Group and established 38 years ago, has a broad range of products with inks and industrial paints doing particularly well. Considering heavy investments in the residential sector in Saudi Arabia and  the region, it is looking at taking a bigger share of the decorative market while growing its sales in the industrial sector.  “We are targeting exports of 15 per cent and would like to build our image in the GCC states,” said Al Sheha. The company took part in the gulfBID exhibition in Bahrain alongside its Bahrain distributor Asbool Services.

Pipes coated with Paintco’s industrial paint

Some of the Paintco decorative offerings it markets are Chic Glaze, Marble and Pearl.

Al Sheha says the company will be in a stronger position in decorative offerings with four new product innovations to be launched soon, the fruit of the company’s R&D centre. They will be aesthetic enhancements and give a new look to walls, offering a variety of hues, said the official.

In the industrial category, the company offers paints specially developed for pipes, scaffoldings, rollers and galvanising work. The portfolio includes epoxy, internal lacquer pigmented, acrylic enamel, stoving enamel and bituminous paint.

Production of the company’s printing inks began in 2004. According to a company statement, the inks range covers solvent and water-based inks, UV curable, web offset, heat set and cold set and silk screen products.

Saudi Paint Company also offers wood coatings and aerosol products. Its offerings in this category include wood stains under the Paintco-Salchi line, which it introduced recently.

Paintco has the quality system mark, ISO 9001/2008, and has been certified by SASO, the Saudi Arabian Standards Organisation, since 1995.