George Muthike

1. Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI), Forest Products Research Programme, P. O. Box 64636-00620, Mobil Plaza, Nairobi, Kenya 2. Department of Forestry and Wood Science and Technology ,University of Eldoret, Eldoret, Kenya
Author    Correspondence author
International Journal of Horticulture, 2016, Vol. 6, No. 22   
Received: 04 Feb., 2016    Accepted: 12 Mar., 2016    Published: 20 Apr., 2016

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

A survey was conducted to rank and document Polyvinyl Acetate adhesives and Nitro-cellulose varnishes available in the Kenyan market based on the user’s preference and price. Hardware dealers and furniture manufacturers from large-scale and small-scale firms were surveyed. Ten from each category of firms were selected and interviewed through structured questionnaires to allow ranking of available adhesives and paints. The number of sellers and furniture manufacturers found selling or using a given product was recorded and used to analyse the opinion of these sellers and users on the performance of the products.  Results on the relationship between perceived performance and product price showed that large and small-scale sellers had similar preference for four brands of adhesives and six brands of paints. These brands enjoyed users’ confidence, having been in the market for a long time. Furniture manufacturers in large and small-scale sectors shared similar opinion on the performance of the four adhesive brands but their opinion on the performance of the four paint brands was significantly different. There was a strong relationship between price and perceived performance of both adhesives and paints. Brands perceived to have good quality were more expensive than newer and less known ones. The documented brands of adhesives and paints were ranked based on the perceived performance since none bore an indicator of quality such as the Kenya Bureau of Standards mark of quality. It was recommended that these products should be subjected to strength testing to enable objective ranking based on actual performance. This would help users to make informed choices based on practical and not perceived performance. 

Adhesives; Furniture; Glued joints; Polyvinyl acetate; Varnishes