Kaylite King, the leading manufacturer of expanded polystyrene products for home and commercial use, recently moved to a new location. Their new address is Number 2 Birmingham Road, Southerton, just off Simon Mozorodze Road. The company’s original site for many years was Number 40 Douglas Road, Workington.
The motivation behind the move to the new premises was its convenient location, as explained by Carey-Ann Brown, Sales Director. “One of the most important things in any business is where you are located. Our address is a prime location, close to CBD, offering ease of access to our customers and high visibility on a main road”.
The premises used to be a tobacco storage site, owned by Tobacco Sales Floor (TSL). The company’s management said that they loved the potential of the site with ease of access but there was a lot to do to get it converted into a perfect home. It gives them great pleasure to see an old disused warehouse being repurposed and restored to a fully functional working site.
“All Kaylite King staff have lovingly created a new happy home from a facility that had no electricity, no offices, and no showroom. It was one big open warehouse that we have carved out into separate spaces of offices, showroom and factory where we manufacture cornices, kaylite sheets and cold room panels,” said the Sales Director.
“The vision to create a clean, fresh look was our own. No mean feat, as it is a dusty site, in the heart of tobacco processing and storage area. Expanded polystyrene (EPS) or kaylite as it is known in Zimbabwe, is crisp white, as are the cold room panels that we manufacture. We chose to reflect this crisp, fresh look in our showroom adding splashes of blue to make a strong impact,” she said. The showroom is built using all Kaylite King’s own-produced materials. The walls are cold room panels and the ceilings are made from their very own kaylite sheets.
All installations were done by their in-house team, with some help from contractor builders and electricians.
In contrast to the previous premises, the new space is more compact and easier to manage. It is a refreshing space and has a more modern feel.
Carey-Ann Brown noted that the new space is geared up to produce thousands of cornices and hundreds of sheets in a day, and many cold room panels in a week. Also produced are insulated ceiling panels, kaylite cut-outs, pipe lagging, kaylite blocks, and once off special orders.
Kalylite King’s recent acquisition of a panelling line has been a great addition to their business and offers them the opportunity to venture into value-added products. Panels are made from an expanded polystyrene centre for insulation and chromadek sheeting on both outer sides. The edges of the panels are T&G with aluminium so that they fit into each other perfectly. This offers protection and long wear to insulating panels.
Kaylite King also supply seedling trays to nurseries, farmers and hardware stores. They are available in 200 and 242 cell variety.
With the ease of access, they have had more customers come to visit and many more walk-in customers who have
seen their signage from the main road.
The company is happy with the convenience of the location and roadside exposure from the bold signage. That has made delivery to wholesale customers such as hardware stores, much easier while enabling more customers to visit the showroom.
They strive to be the leading manufacturer of all Kaylite products in Zimbabwe and the SADC region, and their mission statement is to provide professional service and the highest quality of Kaylite products.
With 1124 square metres under the roof, the new premises have more than ample customer parking and loading space for big trucks and delivery vehicles.
“KK” as they are fondly referred to, takes pride in looking after staff and customers alike. The staff complement of approximately 15 to 20 people have all been with the company for many years.
The company adheres to sustainable practices as it is actively involved in re-cycling expanded polystyrene, from its waste products as well as from other companies who deliver used packaging for recycling.
Kaylite King commenced operations in January 2012 after purchasing Stramit Central Africa’s Kaylite manufacturing division, which had been running since 1957.
Text by Martin Chemhere
From: S&D ISSUE 60
