Events & Sponsorship | African Supplies

Events

While trade shows and exhibitions have traditionally been a good media for raising brand awareness and meeting customers in a one-to-one setting, their cost has increased rapidly over the last decade, while the profile of the visitor has become less of our customer profile.

To address this, we began hosting our own events, usually utilising the Residency of the British High Commissioner, inviting a targeted audience and creating our own space to engage directly with customers and decision makers. These have been hugely successful events which our visitors are unlikely to ever forget.

Cocktail, Lagos Nigeria

Our first standalone event was held at the British Residency in Lagos, Nigeria in conjunction with our Distributor; Wichtech. As our most important market, the event was designed to solidify Wichtechs position as market leader in roofing and plumbing, showcasing our Gerard, IPS and Hunters products. So in demand was this event, that visitors were queuing down the street to get in!

FlowPlumb Launch, Kenya

With our Distributor, Space And Style Ltd, choosing to launch our entire plumbing and drainage range, we decided that an official launch event was the only way to hit the ground running. Held at the British Residency in February 2020, invitees across the mechanical engineering profession were invited to attend what has become our flagship event.

Cocktail Abuja, Nigeria

Following the success of our Lagos event, we repeated the occasion in Abuja, again utilising the British Residency. On this occasion, representatives from Polypipe also joined us to launch their push-fit system. This event was covered by several local news channels.

Fortiza Launch, Uganda

When one of our oldest distributors ranged the Fortiza roof tile brand, we launched it with an event at the Kempinski hotel in Kampala. The event was held in two halves – a symposium in the afternoon where we were able to explain Fortiza to the invited guests, followed by the cocktail event in the evening.

Sports Sponsorship

As marketing has become more devolved and competition has increased, we have sought new ways to reach our customers.

In recent years we have developed sponsorship programs for golf, football and Polo tournaments. Our sports sponsorship is also part of our community outreach program and we are proud to sponsor various local sports clubs throughout Africa.

Football

With our Kenyan Distributor we have been the kit sponsor for the Githurai All Stars football team.

Polo, Kenya

Looking for something different while attracting our demographic of customer, we were delighted to partner with Nairobi Polo Club in a relationship which saw the stand and club house re-roofed with Fortiza, our own hospitality tent and team sponsorship.

Golf Tournaments

Through our Decra roofing brand and with our local distributors we have sponsored golf tournaments in both Kenya and Tanzania, including golfers polo shirts and caps, goodie bags and prize giving.

Exhibitions

In addition to billboards, a good method of getting our brands known has been to spend many hours talking directly to customers at exhibitions.

It has proved very useful in terms of brand awareness, and learning from customers what is important to them. We have been able to use this information to tailor our promotional messaging over the years.

Projeckta, Angola

Big 5 Kenya

Build Expo, Rwanda

Cote d’Ivoir

Architect Relationships

Architects are often a crucial element in the growth of our brands. Early adopters and architects who understand the value of quality solutions have been instrumental in some of our brands gaining a foothold in the market, and creating whole new markets where the product didn’t exist before!

To develop our relationship with the architectural community, we sponsor Architect Association meetings and AGM’s, presenting our products and their USP’s to give meaning and understanding to this influential customer base.

For the Decra and Gerard roofing brands, we have even developed an Architects Pack as a go-to reference library and brand ambassador.