Sri Lanka’s Nippon Paint in DIY strategy to kindle demand

June 26, 2014 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Nippon Paint Lanka is pushing into the do-it-yourself market as weak spending power coupled with higher labour costs has led to a slump in demand, officials said. "As an industry we are not doing very well. This is not common to us but even the other companies face a similar situation," Yasas De Silva, Brand Manager of Nippon Pain Lanka (Pvt) Limited told LBO.

"This is probably to do with the disposable income with the end users. That’s the main issue.

"When it comes to paint, it's the least important part of everyday life of the people. People spend more on their essentials.

Listed Tokyo Cement Plc has reported that sales fell 13 percent to 2.3 billion rupees in the first quarter of 2014 from a year earlier, indicating a slump in construction activity.

ACL Cables, power cables maker said, revenues fell to 2.3 billion rupees in the March quarter from 3.1 billion rupees a year earlier while gross profits surged to 539 million rupees from 428 million rupees.

In Sri Lanka due to import protection, prices don't fall fast even when international commodity prices go down due to import protectionism practiced against the people by the state,