Mr. Moses Kato, a Kansai Plascon Uganda Sales Executive was arrested and detained by police at Kabalagala Police Station, Kampala over tarnishing the reputation of Dutch global paints and coatings company, AkzoNobel’s Sadolin paint business in Uganda.
Kato on Saturday confessed to spreading malicious rumours about the Sadolin brand saying that that ‘Sadolin is competitor Regal Paint in a tin and that Ugandans should not buy it’.
Kato was also claiming that that Sadolin brand owners were asking their sales and field staff to sell both Regal Paints and Sadolin Paints which the sales people are finding hard, arguments that are not substantiated. According to evidence availed to Police, the accused was also that spreading rumours that Arkzo Nobel was threatening Sadolin to increase license fee from 5% to 10%, forcing the former to separate from the unholy alliance and jump into bed with Kansai Plascon.
He has been under investigation over the last 14 days and was arrested yesterday under case file Gef 939/2017 and his employers are yet to make an office statement about the matter.
Kansai Plascon pegged back in paint war
Embattled Kansai Plascon has for the past months been running adverts and their sales force misleading in guiding the consumer to believe that only the name has changed.
The relationship between both companies spanning more than 50 years, was recently constrained when Sadolin Paints East Africa sold the company [ not the brand] to Kansai Plascon and in an attempt to dodge the high fees, Kansai chose to immediately use Plascon Paints brand [ a popular brand in South Africa] yet the former would no longer trade, manufacture, sell and market Sadolin paints as they were earlier contractually obligated to do until January 2018.
Recently, AkzoNobel won a court battle against Sadolin Uganda Limited/Kansai Plascon after the latter filed a court injunction to bar AkzoNobel from directly or indirectly soliciting or selling any Sadolin paint products in Uganda. The courts allowed AkzoNobel to engage freely with the market with Sadolin Paints brands.
The Sadolin brand is without barriers being locally manufactured at Crown Paints’ multibillion Uganda facility and available in the market place supported through AkzoNobel technology and innovation which it has got globally in more than 80 countries in which they operate in.
Mr Johann Smidt, the managing director for AkzoNobel Decorative Paints in Sub-Sahara Africa said 10 billion shillings is being invested right away in building a new factory for the Sadolin brand following its fresh relaunch into the market.
They insist their 60 per cent Uganda market share will remain unaffected because customers have understood there is no change and should instead expect better quality paint, bigger distribution networks and competitive pricing.
