Harris Paints forms Strategic Alliance with International Paint

HARRIS PAINTS, the Caribbean Champions of Colour, has enhanced its standing as the region's leading coatings solution provider with the formalisation of a partnership with International Paint, the world's market leader in High Performance Coatings. Harris Paints is now the official Caribbean representative of International Paint, specialist in High Performance Coatings for marine, yacht and other diverse industrial applications including oil, chemical processing, pulp and paper, steel structure and mining across the Caribbean. International Paint is a division of AkzoNobel, the largest global paints and coatings company and a major producer of speciality chemicals, headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At the signing of the strategic partnership yesterday at Harris Paints' Corporate Office, Ian Kenyon, CEO of Harris Paints said: "The partnership puts Harris Paints in a position to grow its market share in the High Performance Coatings business, allowing to offer a full range of solutions to customers. The High Performance Coatings segment of our business has been growing rapidly in recent years, currently representing about 10 per cent of our total sales. We offer solutions for all industries and projects of all sizes, and pride ourselves on providing the widest selections of world class products through our partnerships with top international brands. We are honoured to be chosen by International Paint as their Caribbean partner, and look forward to a profitable, long-lasting relationship," he emphasised. Senator, The Honourable Haynesley Benn, Minister of Commerce and Trade also spoke to the strategic partnership. "In these trying times, companies throughout the world have been implementing a number of initiatives and changes to assist them to overcome the economic downturn. One such initiative is the formation of strategic alliances. I am pleased that Harris Paints, a company established in 1972, is going in the direction forming an exclusive alliance with a company such as AkzoNobel, a Fortune 500 company with £15 billion in annual revenue and operations in more than 80 countries." He also noted: "The forming of this alliance augurs well for Barbados. It creates the opportunity for locally produced products to have easier access into those markets which AkzoNobel has a presence. It will open the door for Harris Paints to obtain cutting edge technology and enhance staff skills and core competencies. Aligning itself with AkzoNobel will surely increase the company's competitiveness, and also assist Harris Paints in becoming more internationally recognised." The Minister took the opportunity to implore other businesses to follow Harris Paints' example by forming strong alliances that can better position their companies to cope with the current economic challenges. "I will encourage you to form strategic alliances that will allow your business to exploit any opportunities to be derived from those trading agreements that Barbados is signatory, including the CARIFORUM-EU partnership agreement and the imminent CARICOM-Canada trade agreement." (NB) http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=business&NewsID=17627