ACTOM, a supplier of electrical equipment and services, will take over a low-voltage product manufacturing facility in Kenya from existing technology partner Schneider Electric – a move that will facilitate ACTOM’s industrial expansion into East Africa.
ACTOM CEO, Mervyn Naidoo, explains that the company is planning to establish industrial hubs in East, West, and eventually even North Africa that will provide a platform for the broader ACTOM portfolio of products and services in these regions.
Its takeover of the Kenyan manufacturing facility will provide the company with an entry point into East Africa, where it plans to target the Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Ethiopia markets. Naidoo says that ACTOM has an extensive range of Intellectual Property (IP) in low-, medium-, and high-voltage products. These span a wide spectrum of transmission and distribution products, as well as power generation and associated products.
“We intend to use the industrial platform in Kenya to enter the East African market with our products and services. We want to expand to Kenya, where we will transfer IP and, where economically feasible, set up manufacturing and establish our repair business there,” says Naidoo.
He notes that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents numerous opportunities for intercontinental trade, especially within the economies of countries like Kenya and Tanzania, which are growing at 4%-plus annually.
ACTOM celebrates its 120th anniversary this year and currently manufactures products that range from boilers to control equipment, uninterrupted power supplies, LED lighting, solar heating systems, transformers, switchgear, and turnkey EPC solutions. The company also provides full aftermarket repair and service solutions to its customers.
“By offering repair and service solutions, we can ensure the sustainability of our products, literally from cradle to grave. It would be fruitless having products that cannot be serviced; hence throughout the full lifecycle of the product, we can provide support and optimise lifecycle costs and availability. In this way, we can maximise availability and performance for our customers,” says Naidoo.
