Mr Timothy Munyao, aworker at Nodor International, puts the finishing touches on a dart board. The UK firm relocated its production to Kenya in 1999. Photo/LIZ MUTHONI
When UK dart boards manufacturer Nodor International decided to relocate its production to Kenya in 1999, its main rival, Winmau, decided to stay put despite the escalating costs of production that were hurting the company’s bottom line. Dartboard Backboard
About three years later, Winmau (pronounced as “win-maw”) was on the verge of collapse, and the haemorrhaging firm fell into the arms of Nodor International— effectively ending a three-decade old rivalry between two brands that dominated the world of darts.
“They just could not compete any more, and their collapse greatly vindicated our decision to relocate,” said Mike Stephens, the Nodor Kenya EPZ resident director in an interview with Business Daily.
Nodor’s takeover of Winmau saw the two producers merge production in 2002 and the whole operation has since been located in Kenya’s Export Processing Zone (EPZ), a special production zone promoting export oriented investment through provision of ready infrastructural facilities and tax holidays to investors.
With a production capacity exceeding 350,000 dart boards per annum, the Nodor-Winmau tie up gives Kenya a rare distinction of hosting one of the world’s largest manufacturers of dart boards and darts, arguably only rivalled by Unicorn— another UK firm that also shifted its production to China to curb production costs.
Other emerging dart board brands (which are however electronic other than made from natural materials such as sisal) include Arachnid, Halex, Viper and Widdy.
Formed through an Act of parliament in 1990, the EPZ was supposed to tap Western companies such as Nodor that could not cope with rising production costs in Europe and the US.
Giant world brands set up production hubs in Asian countries including Japan and China, India, and South Africa as a survival strategy to escape stringent employment regulations which set labour costs through the roof in developed economies.
But despite Kenya having a relatively less developed infrastructure compared to its Asian peers, Nodor’s management settled on the country mainly based on past interactions.
“The company relied on sisal imports from Kenya even when it was producing from the US and the management already had local contacts when we decided to relocate,” says Mr Stephens.
Nodor employs an average of between 170 to 230 Kenyans in its Athi River EPZ factory, while an additional 2,000 are engaged in cutting sisal in the large scale supply farms.
Critics have often accused EPZ firms of being out to exploit Kenyan workers claiming they receive meagre pay and work under hazardous conditions.
But Mr Stephens says the lowest paid Nodor factory worker takes home about Sh12,000 per month, almost twice the minimum statutory wage amount set by government.
“We can only ensure that all workers receive the minimum statutory wage and work under safe conditions but market forces often set higher standards than even government can legislate,” says Joseph Kosure, acting chief executive for the State- funded EPZ regulatory authority.
The average wage for EPZ employees who are mainly low to middle-skill workers is about Sh8,000.
With an intake of about 30 tonnes of sisal per week boosting farm production and trickling down economic benefits to sisal growers, the company provides a crucial inter-linkage that experts who drafted the EPZ strategy envisaged.
“Sometimes we stretch the sisal farms to the limit especially given our peak production periods coincide with the low planting seasons,” says Mr Stephens, an engineer by profession who appears at home crawling under machines as he is making administrative calls.
Being an indoor game played mainly in pubs and other entertainment spots, the peak darts seasons come mainly during winter when there is minimal outdoor activity.
The well known Nodor and Winmau brands have provided a steady demand for the company’s darts and dart boards in the US, Europe and Canada over the years, helping to ward off Unicorn’s competition in an evenly split battle for control of the global market.
And even though Mr Stephens says the Kenyan relocation helped the company to keep its production costs in check, a steep climb in power bills since the July 2008 review of electricity tariffs has blunted this competitive edge.
The company shut down its furnaces in June last year and stopped melting and production of a metal alloy that is used for manufacture of darts.
Monthly power bills doubled to Sh1.8 million from Sh800,000 per month, making it cheaper to import some of the production components.
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