Basco founder rises to the top with fresh coat of paint

Basco Pain founder and operations director Bipin Shah at his office in Embakasi, Nairobi. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU 

By SIMON CIURI

In Summary

• Founder Bipin Shah started the business from a Sh6,500 loan a friend gave him 39 years ago.
• The entrepreneur began by selling foam glue to carpenters at his outlet in Ngara in Nairobi before moving to River Road.
• In 1984, he diversified into paint making business with Sh500,000 in savings and funding from two local banks.

Basco Paints is today a household name, thanks in part to the colourful and witty marketing of its flagship product Duracoat by Peter Marangi, its brand ambassador.

The paint company’s journey to becoming a multi-billion shilling enterprise began 39 years ago with a Sh6,500 loan that its founder and current operations director, Bipin Shah, received from a close friend. Mr Shah used the money to start a business selling foam glue to carpenters in Ngara, Nairobi.

Today, Basco Paints offers customers a range paints with more than 7,000 shades from a factory which produces about 25 million litres of the product per year.

The company also manufactures other products such as tile adhesives, varnishes, wood coatings and primers, among others.
The Business Daily spoke to Mr Shah at his company headquarters on North Airport Road in Embakasi, Nairobi, last week about his journey up the entrepreneurship ladder.

“I came from a very humble background. After clearing my secondary education, financial constraints could not allow me to further my education,” the 60-year-old told Enterprise.

“I used the loan from my friend and started making carpenters’ glue. I simply wanted a job that could put something on the table.”

Mr Shah diversified into manufacturing and selling turpentine and wood preservatives to supplement his glue product, all this time with the help of just one employee. The margins remained good for several years but by 1984, other entrepreneurs had started venturing into the business, forcing Mr Shah to once again expand his product portfolio.

He started manufacturing paint with the help of one of his brothers and current Basco managing director, Kamlesh Shah, who used to help him run the business in the evenings after attending school.

With Sh500,000 savings from the first business and funding from two local banks, they entered into the paints business.

“We started off with economy paint targeting individuals who wanted a product that fits their pocket,” Mr Shah told Enterprise, adding that they decided not to take on the market leaders since they were a small company.

Like any new firm charting a new course, he says the paint business experienced slow but steady growth in the formative years as consumers took time to understand and accept their product.

The new paint brand, as well as the turpentine, preservative and glue products were all retailing under the name Basco.
The two brothers helped grow the name of their new “economy” paint by engaging contractors, convincing them to try out the new brand of paint in the market.

As the paint making business gained traction, Basco Paints moved their main premises from Ngara, to River Road and then at a location near the Globe Cinema roundabout in Nairobi.

Given the high cost of outsourcing for the metal cans manufacturing, Mr Shah in 1992 started making them himself to reduce the company’s operational overheads. The can factory cost them Sh25 million and it had a capacity of producing about 1.5 million cans annually. The factory has since been upgraded and produces the current nine million cans per year.

Two years after setting up the can making line, Basco moved its operations to Embakasi after acquiring a 4.6-acre piece of land as it sought meet growing demand.