OREANDA-NEWS. November 16, 2009. A traditional annual conference of distributors of Empils, leading Russian paint and varnish manufacturer, was held. This time it took place in the resort town of Varadero, located on the northern coast of Cuba. Empils' trading partners from the regions of Russia and countries of Central Asia, representatives of the large wholesale and retail distribution networks took part in the conference. The purpose of the conference is to provide a uniform information field between the company and its customers in the paint and varnish market.

During the discussion of sales performance the distributors pointed out the efficiency of cooperation with Empils, due to which their business acquired necessary stability at the time of crisis for the national economy. It is the unanimous opinion of the customers that Empils has timely introduced adequate and sought-after product portfolio to the market. Oreol water based paints (+31% compared with the same period of 2008) and Rastsvet colored enamels (+16% compared with the same period of 2008) became the sales hits. ZAO Empils' paint and varnish sales volume for the first 9 months of 2009 amounted to 53,622 tons. In comparison with the same period of 2008 the company sales increased 4% in physical terms and 12% in the Russian market.

In 2009 Empils became the only Russian manufacturer of paint and varnish which was able to achieve growth. According to the Federal State Statistics Service data, other companies from the Russian Top-10 have shown 10% — 69% decline in comparison with 2008.

Empils' General Manager Sergey Nikitin made a speech at the conference and pointed out that in 2010 Empils plans to increase sales through distributor network up to 65 tons of paint and varnish. Also Sergey Nikitin informed about the off-season investment plans of the company. During winter, when consumption and production volume of paint and varnish decrease, the company will start the reconstruction of its production facilities. In the nearest off-season it is intended to conduct the reconstruction of the Water-Dispersion Paint and Varnish Shop, installation of new lines of automatic proportioning of dry and liquid raw materials and automatic filling systems, and also additional re-equipment and modernization. This set of measures will allow lowering infrastructural costs, ensuring increase in productivity, strengthening production capacity and improving working conditions for personnel of the enterprise.

Overall, the new modernization program is calculated to last three years, the planned amount of investments is 8 million Euro. The reconstruction will allow a 25% increase of enamel production capacity and a 50% increase of water-dispersion paint production capacity.

Empils' distributors also learned about the concept of assortment and trading policy for 2010 and about the customer service and product promotion programs.

The pool of distributors is not going to experience profound changes in 2010. As Michael Kryachkov, Director of the Empils’ Trading House says, the company highly appreciates the quality of its cooperation with partners. The basis of partnership relations is stability, loyalty and sustainable development. Empils will sign the contracts for the supply of products in 2010 with the distributors in November-December.