A Kenyan couple turned Sh250,000 into a listed packaging firm: Sh300M revenue by 2023

Packaging solutions provider in Nairobi serving Kenya's flower, fruit and other export industries

Kenya's exporters need a local packaging supplier, and a couple with printing expertise and finance skills could serve them from bargain-priced machinery

Sh250,000 of the founders' own savings at founding in 2013

Sonvir Singh moved from India to Nairobi in 2006 for his packaging and printing engineering experience and was among the early pioneers of UV printing in Kenya; an ownership change cost him the job in early 2008. While he worked at Elgon Kenya, his wife Nirmal Chaudhary — an MSc in computer science who handled finance and accounting — started an import business in 2010, then a restaurant and supermarket. In 2013 they founded Shri Krishana Overseas with Sh250,000 from savings.

The company grew on innovative products, more business from existing customers, and referrals. Revenue reached Sh84 million by the end of 2014, and Sh300 million with more than 100 employees by 2023. The couple gave up holidays for five consecutive years, worked through Diwali, and kept going through uncertainty about whether the business would pick up.

Listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2025, twelve years after founding on Sh250,000.

The founders entered a trade they already knew: Singh's packaging and printing engineering plus early UV printing experience in Kenya, paired with Chaudhary's finance and accounting.

Demand was already there — flower and fruit exporters needed packaging solutions, so the startup sold into an existing market rather than creating one.

Starting capital stayed at Sh250,000 because the machinery came cheap from a closed Mombasa packaging manufacturer.

Growth compounded through existing customers and referrals instead of costly acquisition, while the founders reinvested and went without holidays for five years.

Domain expertise plus distressed assets is a cheap entry: buy the closed plant's machinery, serve the exporters you already understand, and reinvest for years before the scale shows.

As of 2026-10-01 the company is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange (since 2025), reports Sh300 million in annual revenue and more than 100 employees, and the founders are investing in giving back, saying their own financial hardship shaped that commitment.