About Crystalline Chemicals

Crystalline Chemicals is a Nairobi supplier of raw materials for detergents, disinfectants, personal care and industrial cleaning, together with the packaging that the finished product goes into. We sell from a counter on Ronald Ngala Street and deliver across Kenya.

How the business started

The business grew out of a frustration shared by nearly every small manufacturer in this country: raw material pricing is opaque. A blender in Kariobangi making twenty litres of dishwashing liquid a day is quoted one rate, a cleaning contractor in Westlands is quoted another, and neither can find out what the material actually costs without spending a morning on the phone. Meanwhile importers deal comfortably in tonnes and have little patience for a customer who wants a single 5 kg pail to test a recipe.

We decided to run the opposite way. Publish the rate. Sell the small pack without a lecture. Keep the same stock line for long enough that a customer’s formulation does not have to be re-tuned every quarter because the surfactant changed hands.

What we actually keep

Around seventy-odd lines, deliberately. It is a working range rather than a catalogue: the surfactants and builders that go into liquid soap, dishwashing liquid, laundry powder, fabric softener, handwash, shower gel, bleach, toilet cleaner, floor disinfectant, car shampoo and degreaser, plus the acids, solvents, preservatives, thickeners, colours and fragrances that finish them, and the jerry cans, drums, triggers, caps and labels that pack them. If a material sits on the shelf for six months without moving, it comes off the list and the space goes to something that does.

Not to be confused with

There is a long-established firm in Kenya called Crystal Chemical Co Ltd, and another trading as Crystal Industries. We are not connected to either. Crystalline Chemicals is a separate business; if you are looking for us, the phone number and the Ronald Ngala Street address on this site are the ones to use.

How we work with buyers

Small manufacturers and jua kali blenders

You get pack sizes that suit a real batch, a formulation sheet if you want one, and honest guidance on what a recipe will actually do. If you tell us you are making a thousand litres of dishwashing liquid a month, we will tell you which pack size stops you losing money on packaging.

Cleaning contractors and facility teams

Concentrates by the drum, decanted into whatever you dose from, with dilution rates that hold up in a Kenyan office block rather than a European one. We would rather sell you a concentrate that lasts than a ready-to-use product that is mostly water and freight.

Schools, hospitals, hotels and county procurement

Quotations on letterhead, supply against an LPO, ETR receipts, SDS files for the store, and prices that can be held for a term or a contract period. Delivery goes to the store itself, our drivers are used to signing in at a gate and finding the storekeeper.

What we will not do

We will not sell a chemical to someone who clearly does not know what it does. Concentrated caustic soda, sulphonic acid, hydrochloric acid and hypochlorite cause serious injuries in this country every year, mostly to people who decanted them into a soda bottle. If you are new to a material, ask; the advice costs nothing and we would rather lose a sale than read about it.

We also will not quote a price we cannot hold. If the shilling moves or a shipment is delayed, the published figure changes on the site rather than at the counter.

Come and see us

Walk-in customers are welcome during business hours. You can look at the material, weigh out a small quantity, and take the Safety Data Sheet with you. For anything larger, message the list and we will have it packed before you arrive.