Construction World November 2018

A lbert Weber, CEO of ISG said, “ISG regularly evaluates and reviews its operational activities to ensure that our long-term strategies and objectives remain on track. After a careful analysis, the Board decided to focus on the core business that Rocla and Technicrete afford the group, and therefore decided to sell Ocon Brick” “With the strong demand for Technicrete and Rocla manufactured products in the industry and with Governments committed spend on infrastructure we see a bright future for the businesses. Both brands are well established industry leaders, our long-term strategy is to grow and further enhance our service offering to the industry” Weber said. Weber continued to say: “On behalf of the IS Group I would like to thank management and the entire team at Ocon Brick for their dedicated contribution to Ocon’s success during the past five years that they have been part of ISG”. Rocla and Technicrete are South Africa’s key manufacturers and suppliers of precast concrete products that service the infrastructure building and mining sectors nationally and in neighbouring countries. Rocla celebrated its 100 th birthday in 2017 and Technicrete celebrates 50 years of operation in 2018.  BRICK MANUFACTURER SOLD The Infrastructure Specialist Group (ISG) has announced the sale of clay brick manufacturer Ocon Brick to Willem Pienaar and his partner Mike Koch.

Albert Weber, CEO of ISG.

PART OF COMMITMENT TO SA Steadily integrating its continuous improvement efforts alongside the transformation of its business, the Zest WEG Group recently achieved Level 1 status in terms of Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) ratings.

required by the Codes of Good Practice, and this includes creating skill-sets for our business that currently do not exist in the local marketplace,” he says. He highlights that leading technology from WEG’s plants in Brazil is also being shared with South African operations, whose facilities will benefit considerably from the skills transfer; this will allow the local engineering operations to become more independent in terms of knowledge and skills. 

A subsidiary of the Brazil-based multinational WEG, the Zest WEG Group is over 51,6% black-owned, including a 32,1% stake by black women, and was ranked as Level 2 last year. “Our real success here has been to ingrain our commitment to South Africa and to transformation in the everyday activities and culture of the business,” says Zest WEG Group Chief Executive Officer Louis Meiring. “Our empowerment journey is not an annual tick-box exercise, but rather is driven by every staff member working to build local capacity, people and excellence.” He emphasises that the business model has evolved to engage all employees in maintaining the group’s focus on quality and transformation. Reaching this pinnacle BBBEE rating has been the culmination of various efforts, according to Zest WEG Group operations director Juliano Vargas, and is just one indication of the investment that the group is making in the country’s economy and society. “We continue to invest in local manufacturing and are improving our facilities to achieve high levels of quality and productivity,” says Vargas.

“This also means developing the skills necessary and increasing our knowledge base in the latest technologies related to our production requirements.” From its position as an ISO 9001-listed business, Zest WEG Group was recently one of the first to upgrade to ISO 9001-2015, making it one of only 112 companies out of 2,200 South African firms with ISO 9001 certification to reach this next level. The group has also recently invested heavily in its Heidelberg transformer manufacturing plant, where it operates one of the country’s leading test laboratories for transformers. “We are also moving strongly into the renewable energy space, and this will support government efforts to develop this sector of the economy – as outlined in its recent Integrated Resource Plan,” says Vargas. “Our product expansion includes items like steam turbines, wind turbines and solar panels.” The focus on continuous improvement has been necessarily accompanied by developing its skills base in industrial manufacturing and engineering, well beyond the legal requirements of BBBEE. “When it comes to skills development, we invest at least double the percentage

Louis Meiring, Zest WEG Group CEO and Juliano Saldanha Vargas, Group Logistics and Operations Director at Zest WEG Group with the certificate Zest WEG Electric received for its Level 1 BBBEE rating.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD NOVEMBER 2018