Sourcing from India
We first bought from India back in 1989 from Modi Alkali, a 35% Chlorine product that we sold to the mining industry in southern Africa for disinfectant purposes. In the last 20 years Indian Industry has very much developed. One only has to see how the conglomerate Tata is now a major player in cars, buses, lorries and steel and not only in India but internationally. Indian generic pharmaceuticals are recognised the world over as top quality and at a fraction of the price of the branded products of the EU and USA. If I was starting in business again I would definitely have a generic pharmaceutical division so if any aspiring, young entrepreneurs want to enter that business in partnership with us then write to me and we will consider it.
In Africa there are many Indian companies and most of them have family connections in the same or a related business or in the supply chain back in India. As a consequence selling to Indian companies in Africa is difficult as competition is often from these Indian connections who operate on small margins at each step in the supply chain. That is why Cayley has primarily focused on sourcing from China where such family arrangements don’t often exist. Having said that we have been buying from a number of Indian companies on a regular basis for quite a few years now and not only basic chemicals but some quite sophisticated products. As with China knowledge of the supply industry is very important as there are some crooked suppliers – so be careful.
The transit time from India is short – especially Mumbai to Mombasa. So documentation needs to be fast or else there will be demurrage in Mombasa port. This is hard as documentation is increasingly complex especially fulfilling the PVoC requirements in Kenya. Cayley Chemicals has the experience and expertise to not only buy from reliable, quality manufacturers but will get the documents to the customer or its bank quickly.
