Pwani Oil Products Limited, a Kenyan company owned by Mombasa-based tycoon Ramesh Malde and his family, has bought Kenyan stationery firm Kartasi Industries Limited in a move to diversify its profit and income sources.
Pwani Oil Products, a family-owned company founded as a coconut oil producer in 1981 by Malde and his brothers Anil and Naresh, has recently expanded its activities to include sunflower seed, palm, and corn oil production.
The edible oil producer’s recent acquisition of Kartasi Industries, a leading participant in the educational and commercial stationery business, will provide it access to the stationery market, which has more thna 400 competitors.
The news comes after the company was forced to temporarily shut down its oil factory due to a paucity of raw materials caused by a difficulty in obtaining foreign currency and, more recently, a tighter supply of sunflower seeds caused by Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine.
As part of the agreement, Pwani Oil established a new entity called Kartasi Products Limited, which will house the new business and drive its strategic diversification plans as it expands on its existing operations, particularly in property brokerage and the production and distribution of consumer goods such as cooking oils and fats.
Pawani Oil, which was founded more than four decades ago by the Malde family of Mombasa, has evolved into Kenya’s most iconic maker of edible oils and fats. Its new production facility in Kikambala has revolutionized the washing and cleaning sector by producing high-quality laundry and bathing soaps.
The company also bought the well-known Ushindi soap brand to capture a larger portion of the lucrative personal and homecare goods industry, boosting its footprint in the fast expanding personal and homecare products market.
