Construction World April 2022

ADMIXTURES

a.b.e. HAS STOOD THE TEST OF TIME FOR 90 YEARS

It took courage, back in 1932, to start a new business while an impoverished world was in the middle of the most severe economic depression ever. Yet the Durban founders of African Bitumen Emulsions did just that. Today, 90 years later, their brave new enterprise, now called a.b.e. Construction Chemicals, is very much alive and a dynamic market leader in sub-Saharan Africa.

super laykold, was launched to pave the way for what is now an extensive and trusted range of waterproofing products that include the bitumen/ acrylic blend waterproofer, super laycryl, which has also earned the trust of generations of users. a.b.e. started a flooring and adhesives division in 1946 with the brands, abescreed and epidermix, leading the way. Today, 76 years later, these products are still in great demand and are but two of a large and well-known a.b.e. range for the flooring and adhesive sectors. With a market consisting of large construction companies to small house builders, as well as specifiers, developers, facility managers, agriculture co-ops, and engineers, a.b.e. manufactures, imports and distributes a range of specialised products used in the construction, structures. The company’s products are stocked by huge national hardware and building suppliers as well as the small rural hardware stores in the platteland. In addition to general construction products, the a.b.e. specialised product range now covers: • Waterproofing products for virtually any structure including roofs, dams, brick walls – and even shower floors and koi ponds; • Concrete repair and protection systems, specified and used on thousands of structures that would otherwise have been demolished prematurely. The preservation of key state-owned properties must have saved the South African economy vast amounts of replacement expenditure; • Industrial flooring products to protect and improve concrete floors. Some protect the floors from chemical attack in process plants, while others provide extremely hard-wearing surfaces in factories and warehouses; • Silicone sealants for concrete renovation, waterproofing and maintenance of buildings and

a .b.e.’s stature started to grow in 1939 when it became a supplier of bitumen to what were then Natal municipalities and further similar operations were subsequently established in Johannesburg in 1940, in Cape Town in 1950, and then Port Elizabeth in 1953. Over the years, a.b.e. has grown in size and diversity to become a major supplier of specialised construction products to the building, civil engineering and building maintenance industries. Products are supplied through branches as well as builders’ merchants and hardware stores. Now part of the Saint-Gobain global group, a.b.e. has factories in

Boksburg and Durban, and a network of branches and distributors throughout South Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Indian Ocean Islands. a.b.e. has, in fact, become a popular brand name throughout Africa and now has representation in Angola, Botswana, Kenya, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Ghana, Zambia, Mauritius, Reunion Island and Madagascar. Some of the bitumen-linked products produced in Durban so many decades ago have become household names in the hardware industry. Back in 1949, for example, a.b.e.’s perennial bitumen liquid waterproofing product,

34 CONSTRUCTION WORLD APRIL 2022