H.B. Fuller has announced the opening of a new business office in Johannesburg, South Africa, and a network spanning three warehouses across the country to support its ambitious growth plans in the region.

Led by South Africa Business Manager Ronald Prinsloo, the new H.B. Fuller entity will offer customers local adhesive expertise and a globally-connected team with deep industry knowledge spanning the 28 market segments served by the company.

Ronald Prinsloo and his team will draw on H.B. Fuller’s global network capabilities and technical centers, especially in Europe, India, Middle East and Africa (EIMEA), to better serve customers in close proximity to where they operate by supporting sales in local currency, offering ex-stock deliveries and providing the excellent technical service for which the company is renowned.

The new commercial organization aims to rapidly grow H.B. Fuller’s share of the substantial, local market for adhesives, leveraging their significant combined experience to increase the company’s share of a potential €100 million per year market1.

“We believe our in-depth understanding of specific customer needs and local market requirements, together with H.B. Fuller’s high-quality solutions, technologies and research capabilities, means we’re ideally placed to meet increasing demand for adhesives in South Africa,” said Ronald Prinsloo.

“This fits with our overall strategy to build on our success around the globe and expand our business footprint in key market segments through strategic investments. We are now in a better position to offer outstanding, local knowledge of customers’ production processes in the hygiene, graphic arts, paper converting, end-of-line and flexible packaging, and labelling markets, among others, and help customers find a competitive advantage through their adhesive applications.”

The global provider has recently been developing its adhesive business in Africa, showing strong, double-digit growth in the past couple of years. With this new commercial expansion in South Africa, H.B. Fuller enhances its capacity to respond to the rising demand from customers in what is considered one of the largest and fastest growing markets on the continent. Across the globe, the company serves customers in more than 100 countries across a variety of segments.