Rosemary Murugi is the founder of Rockmix International Limited in Ruiru, Kiambu County.
Rockmix is a Kenyan company whose core business is manufucturing of quality paint products for the construction industry.
She thought of getting into the business while working as a researcher for an entrepreneur who was making paints.
Here is Murugi’s story as told by WoK.
Background
In an interview with Business Daily, Murugi noted that she always desired to venture into entrepreneurship.
Immediately after university, she managed to secure a job as a research assistant for someone who was making paints.
She branched out and went solo after noticing how Kenya’s construction industry was picking up; most buildings were either underway or upcoming.
“With manufacturing being a straightforward affair – get your raw materials, put them together, right components and have a product and being scalable, I figured I had a clear path,” Murugi said.
Come 2013, the budding entrepreneur quit her job to establish Rockmix International.
“Yes, I was afraid but I had hope because I wanted to make money. It was also assuring that others had done it and documented their stories, so I read a lot of books,” she said.
Murugi noted that she invested Ksh 1.5 million in the business, money from her Sacco savings and her partner’s contributions.
She was making calculated moves to avoid taking bank loans.
“Since then (establishing the business), it’s been about selling and ploughing the money back into the business and growing organically,” she explained.
While starting off, Murugi explained that they could not pitch for big assignments due to their limited capacity.
She worked with people building their homes and small businesses as she worked towards expanding the production capacity.
“We have now moved from a 100-kilogram machine to producing 10,000 litres and 2 tonnes of liquid and powder paints respectively every two hours,” Murugi stated.
The company offers their customers a package that includes supply, application and scaffolding.
Murugi noted that the company imports raw materials mainly from Germany, Turkey, China and Egypt.
Although the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the supply of raw materials, Murugi experienced a spike in sales.
“My hope is that we develop our capital markets to enable us to access the right type of funding to accelerate growth
“We are looking at Africa because Kenya already has enough players and with the East Africa region opening up, we are ready to replicate our proof of concept in those markets,” she said.
