Indian-based firm has set up a manufacturing plant in Athi River to produce wall putty, plasters, and tile adhesives.
JK White Cement launched operations in May as part of plans to expand into regional African markets through Kenya and South Africa.
The company’s CEO, Amit Kothari, said they were importing product from the United Arab Emirates(UAE) however, costs implication was slightly higher because of duty.
“When we started manufacturing about one and a half month ago our cost per square metres is lower than gypsum. Kenya has raw materials that we use in our product and our research and development team in UAE spent a lot of time here doing the cost analysis,” he said.
According to him, they have been importing the product from UAE in partnership with Plascon, but reckons a local plant will offer them a competitive edge in pricing on cutting excise duty and use of local raw materials.
The firm also plans to expand into South Africa were shelved to concentrate on the country in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company commenced its commercial production of cement products in the UAE in 2014 and is now supplying this and other dry mix products to more than 40 countries.
White cement is used for precast panels, fixing marble tiles, sheathing of walls, floors instead of plaster and paint.
Currently construction works use gypsum-based finishing or paint over the cement but the non-binding technique means that the paint tends to peel over time.
Kothari said its product binds with the paint and gives a longer lasting finishing.