Davis & Shirtliff, the main water and vitality equipment supplier in East Africa is celebrating its 75th Anniversary, a serious milestone in its corporate history. This is a most uncommon achievement for any organisation, though especially one that has the same family shareholding and basically the identical market focus since its founding. There are pressure gauge octa with this claim and D&S is due to this fact extremely happy with the achievement with various occasions being held in celebration.
The company was based in 1946 by ex-soldiers Eddie Davis and Dick Shirtliff after leaving the military, initially being based at Westlands, in Nairobi, their neighbour being Westlands Motors that rose to prominence with the Toyota franchise.
It grew quickly because the country recovered after the war specializing in boreholes, water provides and the coffee trade. One notable early venture included the water provide for Karen Estates, the whole preliminary water provide infrastructure being installed by the corporate as well as for many other of the residential estates that had been developed at that time.
D&S grew with the nation and in the mid-1950s the bottom was moved to new larger premises at this time Dundori Rd location in the industrial area. An added activity was swimming swimming pools, each residential and business and many had been constructed which are still in use today. Water Treatment was another diversification, lots of the KenGen Tana River stations having D&S designed and constructed tools.
In 1970 companion Dick Shirtliff retired and after a interval with another partner, Devji Shingadia, the Davis household, then represented by Eddie’s son Alec assumed control. The 70’s and 80’s noticed gradual but regular growth as the country grappled with varied economic and political challenges, though there was a selected concentrate on constructing the pump enterprise for which the company is so well known, notably via representation of the Danish manufacturer Grundfos.
1993 was a significant year for both Kenya and D&S due to financial liberalisation which was the catalyst for the company’s fast development since. It was also the 12 months that Pedrollo pumps from Italy had been first launched, now the Group’s largest supplier. These two developments enabled a distribution technique to be developed as supply constraints had been eliminated and the department community was then established, initially with Kenya branches being opened in Westlands, Eldoret and Kisumu and subsidiaries in Uganda and Tanzania quickly adopted by establishing activities at the Coast although the merger with partner Butech. The pump enterprise grew hugely with Pedrollo and the now well-established Solar and Power Generation actions were then added.
Since the Millennium growth has greatly accelerated, income growing many instances to KShs10 Billion at present. Major initiatives have included an entire redevelopment of the Dundori Rd site with expansion into adjacent plots, the opening of subsidiaries and affiliate corporations in Rwanda, Zambia, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Zimbabwe and DRC, appreciable development of the branch network, introduction of the profitable Dayliff vary of own-brand products and an enormous expansion of the product range with Solar being especially successful as the corporate developed its focus on renewable vitality. More recently a significant improvement has been establishment of a massive 10,000m2 Distribution Centre at Tatu City that provides the useful resource for increased stockholding and has remodeled distribution efficiency all through the region, this facility being accomplished in 2020. Staffing has additionally grown correspondingly, the Group now using over one thousand committed workers working from over 70 locations.
It is commonly stated that success is transitory and sometimes unsustainable, though D&S has managed to maintain unbroken development for an exceptional period of time. This has been achieved by commercial focus, manageable ambition, steady physical and organisational funding and, importantly, residing the values established by the founders of Quality, Integrity and ‘Altiora Peto’, which interprets to embracing continuous change. D&S is now a extensively recognised company in the region and is proud of the contribution it has made, summarised by its slogan ‘Improving Lives’ which is demonstrated each by the important nature of its actions and likewise by an lively programme of group help that focuses on providing water to underprivileged communities, many thousands of individuals having benefited.
Of course, the 75-year milestone is only a second in a continuous journey and the Group continues to develop with numerous ongoing initiatives and great plans for the lengthy run. Ably led by CEO David Gatende and supported by devoted and dedicated executives and workers driving this progress, the corporate is fortunate that the third generation of Davis’s, Edward and Henry, have joined the enterprise so continuity is assured. The Group continues to increase in product and markets with a selected focus on digital enterprise and looks ahead to maintain serving the area with important products that certainly Improve Lives and likewise to show that an indigenous African firm can compete internationally and be a world-class organisation.
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