A traditional annual conference of distributors of Empils, a leading Russian paint and varnish manufacturer, recently gathered together its distributors for a meeting in Cuba. Empils’ trading partners from regions of Russia and Central Asia included representatives of the company’s large wholesale and retail distribution networks.

Empils highlighted that its line of Oreol water-based paints grew 31% and the Rastsvet colored enamels grew 16% compared with the same period of 2008. Empils’ paint and varnish sales volume for the first nine months of 2009 amounted to 53,622 tons. In comparison with the same period of 2008 sales increased four percent in physical terms and 12% in the Russian market, the company said.

In 2009 Empils is the only Russian manufacturer of paint and varnish to achieve growth, the company said. According to the Federal State Statistics Service data, other paint companies from the Russian Top 10 have witnessed sales declines between 10-69% in comparison with 2008. Empils’ general manager Sergey Nikitin said during a speech at the conference that in 2010 Empils plans to increase sales through its distributor network by up to 65 tons.

Nikitin also discussed Empil’s investment plans. During winter, when consumption and production volumes decrease, the company will start the reconstruction of its production facilities beginning with its water-dispersion paint and varnish shop where it will install new automatic lines for proportioning dry and liquid raw materials, and also add automatic filling systems. This set of measures will allow Empils to lower costs and increase productivity, strengthen production capacity and improving working conditions for personnel.

Overall, the new modernization program is calculated to last three years, and will cost approximately €8 million. The reconstruction will allow a 25% increase of enamel production capacity and a 50% increase of water-based paint production capacity.