East African Glassware Mart

TOUCH OF GLASS

East Africa Glassware Mart Ltd

From the time of inception, EAGM has partnered and promoted Arc International’s (then JG Durand Et Cie) brands, starting in Kenya and expanding to Uganda in the 1960s. However, the Uganda operations were closed due to the poor political climate at the time. In the following years, the Kenyan market evolved with the emergence of a strong middle class, which saw formal retailing develop, helping the Kenyan business grow to new heights. It was at this stage that the third generation entered the business arena to capitalize on the economic growth in Kenya and to drive the expansion into Uganda (1993) and Tanzania (1996) with the same brands from Arc International. Within a short time, EAGM decided to invest in properties in Kampala and Dar es Saalam, which now houses its offices, showroom and warehousing facility to service the local markets.

EAGM in 2009 partnered with Arc International, RAK Porcelain and Sunnex to begin EAGM Hotel & Catering Supplies, focusing on the Food Service segment in India. It has since set up its Indian head office in Chennai and has spread, with satellite showrooms in Kochi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad. As the South of India is so vast, EAGM has

strongly worked on its distribution model and appointed distributors in the main cities and towns across the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Gujarat.

EAGM has constantly increased its product range to better serve its customer base and provide a total solution to their tableware needs by introducing porcelain, plastic & stainless steel table & kitchen accessories. This forms a smaller part of the EAGM’s business but has continued to grow due to new introductions of products within these categories.

Arc International continued to evolve, which brought about the separation of brands for Consumer Goods and Food Service segments. The “Luminarc” brand was allocated to Consumer Goods whilst the “Arcoroc” brand was allocated to Food Service. At this stage EAGM also embarked on its own separation into two business divisions, the Consumer Goods sector servicing the organized retail through the retail segment and the Food Service sector servicing the lucrative hospitality industry. EAGM has since seen strong growths in both its divisions by creating specialized & responsible teams in each of these divisions, with a strong focus on providing unmatched customer service, modern marketing

EAGM was established in 1951 in Mombasa, Kenya and is a privately owned family business currently being headed by the third generation of the family. In the last 20 years EAGM has expanded regionally to Uganda, Tanzania and has recently begun operations in Southern India. The Mombasa base today serves as the Head Office for the entire group.


P.O Box 33928-00600 Ngara,Parklands RoadNext to old Safaricom house,Jasmin Centre, Nairobi-KenyaTel: 00-254-20-4443834,35Fax: 00-254-20-4443835Mobil No : 00-254-733-51959100-254-720-519591arul@masteraluminium.comwww.masteraluminium.com

Building & General ContractorsSpecialized in:Aluminium Partition, Gypsum Partition, Acoustic Ceiling & Joinery


methods and constant upgrade of products to enhance sales.Arc International believes in developing and innovating

its products to help keep itself ahead and is by far the market leader in tableware brands. Over the years Arc International has created new shapes, glass material, designs and décor to make tableware fashionable and trendy attracting the young and fashion conscious shoppers. For the hospitality sector, Arc International has been able to demonstrate and lure customers towards using its “kwarx” drinkware to improve the taste of wine so that the customers directly benefit from the revenue on increased wines sales.

The success of EAGM has largely been due to its ethical approach and its culture that has been shared and passed down through the generations and within the organization. EAGM has also been able to create strong relationships and bonds with all its business partners, resulting in mutual benefits for all. Over the years EAGM has evolved and made changes to modernize and embrace technology, helping it to remain in stride with the fast changing business environment. With all this, EAGM continues to dominate as the leading tableware distribution house in the region.

In the last 20 years, EAGM has managed to professionalize and work towards creating an organizational structure, which has brought about the creation of a management team consisting of Board of Directors, Regional Manager, Group Financial Controller, General Managers for each EAGM Unit, Marketing Managers, Operations Managers & Group IT Manager. The Directors have personally played a part in placing & grooming each of the above key appointments and have encouraged autonomy and passed on responsibility to the management team. This has seen the managers’ work independently to deliver the desired results to the shareholders. The strong ability of the Directors to continually motivate, lead by example and a hands-off approach yet available as and when required has seen strong development of the management team.

In the Consumer Goods division, sales executives and retail support teams have been recruited to operate in the field by visiting each and every customer or every outlet of chain stores (such Nakumatt, Tuskys, Uchumi) to carry out merchandising of their shelves, stock assessment, preparing reorders, installation of POSM and execute in-store promotional activities. This service is unique in the tableware segment and has strongly helped EAGM increase shelf off-take of its consumer goods brands.

In the Food Service division, EAGM has continued to dominate its leadership position in each of its market by providing a wide variety of products from world’s leading tableware and catering brands such as Chef & Sommelier, Arcoroc, RAK Porcelain, Sunnex & recently introduced Cambro. Strong back-up stocks and the regularity of product ranges has been the key to EAGM’s huge success in the Food Service industry. EAGM’s sales executives are well trained and respected as tableware consultants to the hospitality industry. To aid the growth plan, EAGM has at the end of 2011, set up a large state of the art showroom in the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi, which is fast becoming the business hub of the region.

EAGM continues to invest in its infrastructure and improve its facilities, as well as working condition environment for its human resource. With large and modern showrooms in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania and Kampala, Uganda, EAGM is


now embarking on an ambitious large investment to relocate, upgrade and create Corporate Offices and a modern sales showroom in Mombasa, which will be considered as the backbone for the entire group. The new development should be up and running by September 2012.

For both the divisions, EAGM has continued to strengthen its distribution network throughout each of the countries. A very thorough market mapping exercise was conducted in 2010, to understand the markets, the presence and penetration of the brands and the potential that remains untapped. This exercise has also identified new distributors across the countries that are in the process of being appointed for a stronger brand presence in each of these countries.

Marketing activities for the brands have been stepped up, with each country having its own marketing calendars that has been created under brand guidelines and approvals from Arc International. Innovative marketing activities for the EAGM brands have being implemented to create a ‘top of mind awareness’. In 2012, the consumer goods division has organized a countrywide roadshow where a Luminarc truck along with an animation team will travel to the rural areas of Kenya to educate and show the unique selling points of the brand and its products. In 2011, the Food Service division carried out a launch event for a new innovative material for its dinnerware called Zenix. This was done with professional dance artists & fashion models unveiling the product range to the industry professionals invited at the launch. This activity was highly successful resulting in instant penetration of Zenix into hotel groups such as Intercontinental, Sarova Group, Tamarind Group and many more individual hotels/restaurants.

EAGM on a quarterly basis conducts Business Review Meetings with its main suppliers and customers. During this, EAGM presents the performance of its business divisions and its brands, to map performance against forecasts and budgets. This has helped all partners towards achieving the common goals.

The Human Resource development of EAGM Group is being addressed using professional recruiting firms and each of the recruits undergoing a thorough vetting process. New employees pass through a formal induction and training program during the first three months before they take on responsibility of their job description. The induction process involves taking the new employee through the complete business and operational processes, then a complete training on EAGM’s ERP software and finally through a CRM & sales training program. Regular monitoring and assessment on each member of the team is carried out using KPIs and is annually reviewed to identify the star performers who are then internally promoted to climb up the progression ladder of the organization. EAGM has continued to grow its workforce over time and has helped create employment in the countries of its operations.

The Directors’ family has in the recent past set up a Charitable Trust through which community projects are undertaken to provide for education, water and food to the needy. Since inception of the trust, EAGM has set aside regular monthly donations to assist in these activities.

The vision of EAGM is to corporatize the group, grow in the existing regions and look at further expansion through joint ventures in other parts of Africa.

East Africa Glassware Mart Ltd www.eagm.com+254 41 222 6261

Written by Daemon Sands

www.littlegatepublishing.com

East African Glassware Mart

Documents

Transcript of East African Glassware Mart