Duha Group helps the world find its colours
Rick Duha (left), Duha Group Managing Director, and his son, Emeric G. Duha (right), a supply chain manager.
When Rick Duha first went to Chile to expand his family business into a new market, he flipped through a phone book to find paint company listings. Duha wasn’t afraid to cold call businesses to establish trade partnerships for products like the paint colour cards found in hardware stores across Canada. He’s part of the Duha Group, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which manufactures colour marketing tools and colour systems.
Rick Duha (right), Duha Group Managing Director, and his son, Emeric G. Duha (left), a supply chain manager.
“When you’re from a small town in the Prairies, there is no local market here that is going to sustain a business,” says Duha, a managing director. “If we didn’t look outside, we wouldn’t exist as a company today.”
For a company with humble beginnings—an old printing press in his grandparents’ basement in the 1940s—the family’s perseverance to expand into international markets paid off.
Today, the Duha Group exports more than 80 percent of its products to 130 companies around the world. They also have operations in seven countries, including China, Germany, Mexico and Singapore.
Their success is due in part to strong Canadian values that are held in high regard internationally; diversity, sustainability and high-quality products draw global clients to Canada.
The Duha Group prides itself on operating a sustainable business. It recycles paper and paint and has a green supply chain from procurement all the way to transportation. The company also encourages its suppliers and customers to do what they can to minimize the impact on the environment.
The Duha Group has been in the family for four generations. Duha sees a brighter future for the company because the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will free up access to new market opportunities.
“Having our countries sign agreements solidifies the work we are doing within our own company,” Duha says. “I think the CPTPP opens doors that maybe we haven’t yet opened.”
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