By Macharia Kamau

Kenyan motorists are in for a treat after a local start up acquired franchise to locally distribute products from the South African auto parts manufacturer, Roadmaster.

The Company, locally trading as Roadmaster East Africa, is looking at modalities of setting up a plant locally to manufacture the special auto parts fitted on a vehicle’s suspension, and reduce their wear and tear, as well as improve passenger comfort and vehicle stability.

Other than Kenya, the company will market the products in East and Central African markets as well as some Western African countries.

Roadmaster South Africa manufactures Roadmaster Active Suspension (RAS) — fitted on the rear leaf springs of light commercial vehicles weighing about 5,000 kg, like pick ups — and Coil Pro, fitted on the springs of saloon cars.

Catherine Narangwi, a director at Roadmaster East Africa, said the company acquired the rights to import and distribute the products in the region, at a cost of Sh2.4 million. She further said negotiations were underway with the South African firm to have the products manufactured locally.

Production costs

"If all goes according to plan, we should be able to set up a plant and start making them locally by end of this year," she said.

However, she noted that production in Kenya would only happen if the cost of production is lower than the cost of importing. She singled out the high cost of electricity that makes manufacturing in Kenya costly.

"Everything is under review, and should evaluations show it is cheaper to import from

South Africa and distribute them to the other regional markets from Kenya, then we will continue importing, as opposed to local manufacturing," she said.

Roadmaster East Africa expects to cash in on the growing number of cars in both the Kenyan and regional markets, and the increasing number of discontented motorists, who are compelled to service cars often due to worsening roads, and the influx of substandard parts in the market.

Roadmaster products are meant to increase a vehicle’s degree of stability, passenger comfort and minimise wear and tear of suspension springs and other parts.

"Automotive suspension is about vehicle road handling, its load carrying and passenger comfort. Traditionally, manufacturers have had to compromise on one of these aspects to get the others right," she said.

"For instance ride comfort requires soft suspension, while load carrying requires stiff suspension. A balance is rarely achieved by many of the products in the market, but with the (Roadmaster) products, the suspension is transformed to an active one from being inactive."

Stamp of approval

Roadmaster South Africa has ventured outside the country and marketed the products in key markets across the world. The company has affiliates in the United States, Australia and some European markets.

It has also gotten a stamp of approval from the South African Transport Department, and the US Government Department, which uses the products on its police vehicles, as well as some local arms of some of the vehicle manufacturers in the country, like Hyundai and Toyota South Africa.

Despite a degree of global success, its franchise holder in for the East African region is, however, having difficulties breaking into the Kenyan market, which is supposed to be a spring board to the region.

"Prospective clients want cases where it has worked… they want to see who else is using locally with results," said Narangwi.

"The gadgets were not moving for sometime after we started out in August, and at some point we had to give money back guarantees if the customers did not see results within a month."

Since August, when the company began local distribution, it has bagged contracts with a number of companies that operate fleets. They hope that some of the local motor vehicle assemblers will endorse their products, as well as an uptake among individual motorists.

The gadgets are expected to cut fuel costs by up to 20 per cent, while the tyres can go for a further 20,000 kilometres.

"From savings made on fuel and other parts when using the active suspension products, one can save up to Sh13,700 every month," said Narangwi.

—emacharia@standardmedia.co.ke