Real estate firm wins Top 100 competition

Real estate firm Diamond Property Merchants has been crowned the winner of the ninth edition of the Business Daily -KPMG’s Top 100 Mid-Sized Companies’ annual survey.

The company’s client relationship manager, Kuria Wanjau, said teamwork and aggressive marketing on various media platforms had helped the firm grow revenues as well as expand operations across the country.

The company, which was started four years ago by Josphat Gichunge, wooed judges with its value addition component on commercial and residential land where emphasis lies on buyer security with keen attention to use of alternative technology for affordable housing solutions.

Security services firm Izmir Enterprises and Manufacturing outfit Soloh Worldwide Inter-Enterprises Limited took the second and third positions respectively.

Other firms that made it to the top 10 are Advanta Africa, Hipora Business Solutions, General Cargo Services, Komal Construction, Allwin Packaging International, Tangazo Letu and Northstar Cooling Systems.

Advanta Africa was also declared as the ICT sector champion, Care Chemists took home the Healthcare trophy, Komal Construction Company got the best construction firm award while Soloh Worldwide Inter-Enterprises was named the manufacturing champion.

The event also welcomed five new billion-shilling turnover companies to Club 101 who included Laneeb Plastics Industries, Master Power Systems, Ravaco Enterprises,Satguru Travel and Tours Services as well as Tropical Heat Limited.

At the same time, small and medium enterprises identified county governments and traffic police officers as the main impediments to business.

In a memorandum read by KPMG East Africa CEO Josphat Mwaura during a gala dinner to celebrate Kenya’s fast rising top 100 SMEs with a turnover of between Sh70million to Sh1 billion on Friday evening, SMEs said it had become difficult to run businesses as there were too many compliance ‘visits’ to their premises by county government officers.

“Traffic policemen have become a nuisance to business where frequent harassment has seen many vehicles carrying goods and raw materials spend unnecessary long periods of time on our roads. Time is money and the less we waste the better services to Kenyans,” he said.

Industrialisation Secretary Adan Mohamed called for a closer working relationship between SMEs and his office, saying various issues were being addressed and would soon be streamlined via a soon to be gazetted National Trade Policy.

DTB Group Chief Executive Nasim Devji said Kenyans must increase patronage on businesses that pay taxes and have a good history of corporate citizenship.

Mrs Devji said companies that pay taxes must exude utmost discipline and focus so as to grow revenues for a better Kenya.

Nation Media Group CEO Joe Muganda urged SMEs to join associations and closely monitor how policy regulations and laws are passed by Parliament and county government assemblies, saying this could mean the demise or growth of their business.

Mr Mohamed added that delayed payments for goods and services will soon be forgotten as new regulations will introduce penalties on the big ‘boys’ who enrich themselves using SMEs but withhold payments for between six months to a year.

“We now have a presidential directive that all deliveries and service provided for the government by SMEs should be paid on time to help SMEs meet their obligations. This means even supermarkets and other big players must respect the small SMEs so that we all grow our incomes for higher incomes, more jobs, better salaries as well as higher taxes,” he said.

He said this would also give them a moment to network while creating opportunities for a business- to- business relationship with other SMEs.

The Top 100 Mid-Sized Event seeks to celebrate good corporate citizens that have employed over 50 Kenyans and above across various sectors.