Ernest Mburu Muinamu is the founder of K. Pipes & Fitting Limited, a leading retailer of plumbing items.
The entrepreneur ventured into the business ten years ago after he identified the unavailability of plumbing products in his locality.
As of 2022, the company had grown to have over 40 branches spread across Kenya and more than 500 staff.
Here is Mburu’s story as told by WoK.
Background
The former plumber was born and raised in Kahuho, Kiambu County, located a few kilometers from Kikuyu town.
According to Construction Kenya Showcase, Mburu pursued plumbing because his father was a plumber and he would take him to sites during school holidays.
He wrote his Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) and Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Education (KCSE) in 2006 and 2010 respectively.
After successfully completing his secondary school education, Mburu proceeded to join Kabete Polytechnic to pursue plumbing.
It was around this time when he realized a gap in the market as people would move from shop to shop looking for plumbing projects.
After completion of his course at Kabete Polytechnic, Mburu opened a shop where he stocked everything that a plumber would need.
Profits
“On the first day I opened the shop, I made sales of Ksh 40,000 which earned me a profit of Ksh 10,000
“On the second day, I sold items worth Ksh 100,000 and earned Ksh 30,000. I realized that plumbing hardware business was more lucrative than service business,” he said.
The business was booming and within a short time, he opened another store in Kikuyu because the first shop was small for the high demand.
He went on to establish the business in different towns and now, it has presence in different counties including Kilifi, Bungoma, Kisii and Laikipia.
K. Pipes & Fittings is a go-to supplier for plumbing materials and fittings and steel products to homeowners, developers, contractors and hardware businesses.
Mburu attributes his success in the business to affordable marketing prices, great customer service and a good relationship with suppliers.
“The Kenyan way of doing business is to open a single business for the family. The whole family gets to work there
“But for us, we decided to include outsiders and empower them through a franchise programme whereby when we open a branch, we allow the franchise holder to operate independently and grow through their efforts and with our support,” he explained.
He also explained that they have a program where they allow individuals to sell their products in their hardwares and pay a commission.
They also run a program where they donate water tanks to needy schools and children’s homes.
Just like any other business, K. Pipes & Fittings Centre has also experienced a fair share of its own challenges.
Sales and Marketing Manager James Magua explained;
“We have been victims of fraud whereby we supplied goods but cheques were not honoured. This business involves lots of logistics because of transport and is therefore expensive to run.”
