Business Focus Magazine BFM 84

Issue No.84

SPECIAL FEATURE: FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA

GOING UNDERGROUND Exclusive interview with senior leadership at the Chuquicamata Underground Project on the operation's ongoing transformation.

ALSO FEATURING: GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

Significant changes to maximise opportunities.

SERTEC GROUP Repositioning for growth in the European market.

INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES Working hard to bring value & transparency.

T H E

M A G A Z I N E

W I T H

I N S I G H T

FEATURE YOUR BUSINESS CONTACT SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR TREVOR GRETSINGER t.gretsinger@ceomediagroup.com

EDITOR’S NOTE

PROJECT MANAGERS ANDREW BOURKE a.bourke@ceomediagroup.com DEAN BROWN d.brown@ceomediagroup.com DAVID GARNER d.garner@ceomediagroup.com TIMOTHY GARWOOD t.garwood@ceomediagroup.com JOHN HOLLIMAN j.holliman@ceomediagroup.com MAX HUTCHINGS m.hutchings@ceomediagroup.com MALVERN KANDEMWA m.kandemwa@ceomediagroup.com CONNOR LOVE c.love@ceomediagroup.com GLEN NEWTON g.newton@ceomediagroup.com LEE PHOENIX l.phoenix@ceomediagroup.com GARY SMITH g.smith@ceomediagroup.com NEIL STOWE n.stowe@ceomediagroup.com DAVID TAVERNOR d.tavernor@ceomediagroup.com HAYDEN TURNER h.turner@ceomediagroup.com JAMIE WAITE j.waite@ceomediagroup.com

DESIGN SCOTT ANDREWS design@ceomediagroup.com ADRIANA STROIA artwork@ceomediagroup.com

ACCOUNTS MIKE ASHER accounts@ceomediagroup.com

PRODUCTION KAMILA KAJTOCH production@ceomediagroup.com

EDITORIAL CHRIS FARNELL cfarnell@ceomediagroup.com JIM HUNTER editor@ceomediagroup.com

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR TREVOR GRETSINGER t.gretsinger@ceomediagroup.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS, PRESS RELEASES AND GENERAL ENQUIRIES: info@ceomediagroup.com

The content of this magazine is copyright of CEO Media Group.

Redistribution or reproduction of any content is prohibited. © Copyright 2021 CEO Media Group.

FOCUS ON RECOVERY Things are looking up. People are getting vaccinated, infection levels have been dropping, business is picking up. It has now been a year since the UK went into lockdown, but for the first time, we can see a light at the end of the tunnel. I am sure I am not alone in looking forward to the first day I can safely go into a pub and have a pint. So, it is appropriate that in this issue we have had some great conversations with not one, but two breweries, the Accra Brewery and Eyethu Beverages South Africa.

I

ndeed, we have also taken a slightly broader look at the food and drink sector as a whole, and the trends and innovations we believe could come to define the industry over the next decade.

As it happens, one company we have profiled is Algalif, which only a few years ago succeeded in achieving Novel Food Status for the ingredient, Astaxanthin, demonstrating just how innovative this sector is.

Beyond the food and beverage sector, we have been having some fascinating discussions with leaders in the mining industry, including an extensive profile of Codelco’s Chuquicamata Underground Project. That is alongside articles covering businesses such as Golden Star Resources, Estrella Resources, Atlantic Nickel, Carriere Industrial Supply Ltd and RedPath Mining.

We have also got profiles of oil and gas companies including Japan Drilling and CNG Fuels, and energy firms such as BK Tech and Agile WindPower.

As always, we have been examining the role of logistics up and down the supply chain, and in these pages, you will find discussions with shipping

companies such as San Souci SA and Inchcape Shipping, and logistics firms like Sa Talke. We have also got an interview with a leading figure of Star Alliance, providing a valuable perspective on how the aviation sector as a whole has been responding to the unique challenges of the last year.

And that is barely scratching the surface of what we have covered this issue. Have a read, and prepare yourself for the rapidly approaching post-Covid future.

ON THE COVER

CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA Go to page 16.

Issue No.84

SPECIAL FEATURE: FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA

GOING UNDERGROUND

Exclusive interview with senior leadership at the Chuquicamata Underground Project on the operation's ongoing transformation.

ALSO FEATURING: GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

Significant changes to maximise opportunities.

SERTEC GROUP Repositioning for growth in the European market.

INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES Working hard to bring value & transparency.

3

IN THIS ISSUE

8

13

16

36 42

52

58

EVENT

The 3rd Power Week Africa Virtual Conference 20-23 April 2021 Leading International Conference for the Power Industry

NEWS

Food and Beverage Industry Innovation on a Plate

8

LEADING ARTICLE

Codelco Chuquicamata Underground Project Going Underground

AUTOMOTIVE

Randon Group Wheels of Growth Sertec Entering Europe

AVIATION

Star Alliance Frictionless Flight

16

CONGLOMERATE

66

IOI Corporation Berhad Transformation of Malaysian Palm Oil Sector

52

70

74

Agile Wind Power Decentralised Wind Power BKTech A Swedish Success Story

ENGINEERING

Alpha Manufacturing Moving to Smart Operations

80

Jekko Maximum Versatility, Endless Possibilities

84

Woodward L’Orange Marine Industry Goes Green

90

4 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

ENERGY & UTILITIES

FMCG

Accra Brewery Plc Brewing Success

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ISSUE NO.84

96

Algalif Iceland Leading a Young Industry

102

Baladna Dairy Teaching Self-sufficiency

108

Eyethu Beverage South Africa Creating South African Beverages

112

MANUFACTURING Altrad 2026 Vision

116

Brabender Thinking Beyond Boundaries

122

The Safal Group Building for Africa

126

112

MINING

Atlantic Nickel Preparing for the Energy Transition

190

132

Carriere Industrial Supply Solid Wear Resistance

162

138

Estrella Resources Limited The Benefit of Experience

168

144

Golden Star Resources Restructured to Grow

156

RedPath Mining On the Right Path

176 186

190

OIL & GAS

CNG Fuels The Green Drive Quality Steel Corporation The Strength of Steel

SHIPPING, PORT & MARINE

Inchcape Shipping Services Bringing Value & Transparency Sans Souci Port S.A. Modern Haven in the Carribean

TRANSPORT & LOGISTICS

S.A.Talke Excellence in Chemical Logistics

90 BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 5

Find your way out of a complex operating model.

Let’s talk.

Operations Strategy | Digital | Cultural Engineering

Global io

- integrated operations experts.

globalio.com

EVENT OF THE MONTH

THE LEADING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR THE POWER INDUSTRY. THE EXCLUSIVE MEETING PLACE FOR POWER & UTILITY BUYERS & SELLERS.

POWER WEEK

AFRICA

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE EVENT: THE 3RD POWER WEEK AFRICA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE WHERE: ONLINE / WHEN: 20TH–23RD APRIL 2021

8 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

EVENT OF THE MONTH

T

he POWER WEEK AFRICA is going digital! We have decided to bring POWER WEEK AFRICA to you live online, so that you can stay connected with the global power sector.

Across 4 days, we will be broadcasting live interactive presentations, in-depth panel discussions, and networking

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sessions from leading experts across the world. Join in from wherever you are online either live or watch the sessions on-demand. on-demand .

www.power-week.com/africa/

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 9

lead wıth the leader Today, Internet is in our pockets; our virtual and real worlds are coming together. LTE offers you great potential to deliver a superior mobile broadband experience to your customers, but the stakes are high. Success in LTE means getting to market quickly, with services that offer subscribers more than what they have today, as cost efficiently as possible. With 60 live commercial LTE networks on all continents and about 50% of all smartphone traffic on LTE running through our networks, we have what it takes to support you.

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FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

WE LOOK AT SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING TRENDS CHANGING THE FACE OF THE FOOD AND DRINK INDUSTRY GOING FORWARD.

INNOVATION ON A PLATE In Business Focus Magazine’s coverage of companies working in the food and beverage industries, one theme that we often see recur is the importance of new ideas and new ways of doing things to remain competitive and push the industry forward.

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FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

A

s Galo Rivera, Managing Director of Accra Brewery Plc says in this very issue, “We are fuelled by a dream, not a mission or vision - a dream takes you beyond what you think is possible, challenging you to achieve the impossible.”

The need for new approaches and innovations is ever greater following the challenges the industry has faced over the last year. Eyethu Breweries, for instance, has had to undergo a number of changes to meet the needs of a changing market.

“We’ve created new opportunities using the facilities of the factory to cover our overheads and that’s been successful,” says co-founder Mike Veysie, in our profile of the company later in this issue.

Staying with the brewery industry, in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic the British Beer and Pub Association has predicted approximately 87 million pints of beer will have been thrown away due to pub closures in the UK. However, Heineken has responded by using waste beer as a green energy source for powering brewing kettles and canning pasteurisers.

Since May last year, Heineken has processed 83,210 50-litre kegs or the equivalent 6,989,640 pints. In doing so they have generated enough power to heat 28,000 average UK homes.

Matt Callan, brewery and operations director at Heineken has said, “After all the care, attention and passion that went into brewing the beer in the first place, it would have been a great shame to pour it down the drain – no brewer wants to see their beer not be enjoyed.

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Our team of engineers and brewers at Manchester found a solution – using our kegging line to empty beer barrels and turning the beer that would have gone to waste into green energy to power the brewing of fresh beer, all ready for when the pubs re-open.”

But this is just one of the exciting innovations that are cutting a new path across the industry.

PLANT REVOLUTION

Another area where there has been a rapidly growing market and an explosion in new products is the market sector for plant-based food and drink alternatives. This year Swiss food giant Nestlé has reported “strong double-digit organic sales growth” from its plant-based brands in 2020,

and that the sector will be considered a “high growth” category for the company.

Nestlé’s plant-based meat analogues generated roughly CHF200 million in 2020 sales with strong double-digit growth.

As Nestlé’s CEO, Mark Schneider has pointed out, “It is about a wider opportunity to re-imagine, reinvent and reinvigorate what is a CHF12 billion category for us and that is food. Those opportunities to reinvigorate the food category are few and far between.

It’s a once in a generation opportunity.”

While there is already a strong market for plant-based burgers and sausages, Schneider has argued that this is only the beginning.

“When you look at the wider opportunity, when you look at where we use these ingredients, to then make more attractive

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FOOD & BEVERAGE INDUSTRY

downstream offerings, like frozen pizza with plantbased toppings or frozen meals or other prepared dishes, then it’s a much bigger opportunity.

We are talking almost CHF700 million [in 2020 sales]. And here again, growing at double-digit organic growth rates,” Schneider has said.

As well as plant-based meat alternatives, dairy alternatives are set to be a huge growth area going forward as the quality of the products has improved.

“Here we have a business slightly ahead of CHF100 million, again, growing double-digits,” Schneider said. “But here, again, it’s an entry point to other areas that you can reinvigorate.

Think about ice cream, think about confectionery.”

AUTOMATED AGRICULTURE

While the food we eat is changing, the way we acquire it is also evolving. In this issue, we take a look at Baladna Dairy, where animals are milked through a modern mechanism using milk quantity readers, while in the agricultural sector automation is becoming an ever more relevant concern.

This shift is being accelerated by the “Robs4Crops” project, which works towards largescale robotics and automation being implemented in the European farming sector.

The project has a budget of €7.9 million funded by the European Union and represents a high-tech revolution with tremendous potential impact on productivity, efficiency, and environmental sustainability.

Wageningen University & Research is leading the project, demonstrating how robotics and related technologies can bring precision and feasibility to

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mundane, repetitive tasks. This is not just a question of efficiency, however. European agriculture is suffering from a real shortage of labour, and growing labour costs put pressure on how profitable agriculture can be. These are issues that have only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Investing heavily in agricultural robotics and automation will drive a structural change in the entire agri-food sector.

According to WUR, while agricultural robots are a promising area, as stand-alone units they are not reaching their full potential as a complete, networked robotic system.

Through the Robs4Crops project, these challenges will be addressed with the development of a robotic farming solution

that incorporates the three key elements of smart implements, autonomous vehicles, and the farming controller. Rather than completely new machines, the project proposes upgrades for existing agricultural machinery and tractors so that, alongside existing agricultural robots, the machines can come together to function as a unified robotic system. Over the next four years, Robs4Crops will be developing and testing these systems in practice, under real operating conditions, across four countries, in close collaboration with stakeholders.

The last year has shown how critical the food chain is around the world and demonstrated some of the challenges it can face. With exciting innovations occurring at every stage of that food chain, this is an exciting sector to be in.

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

THE CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA COPPER MINE HAS BEEN A SUCCESSFUL OPEN PIT OPERATION FOR YEARS. BUT NOW IT’S UNDERGOING A TRANSFORMATION.

GOING UNDERGROUND PROJECT MANAGED BY: GARY SMITH

Codelco is an autonomous company, owned by the Chilean people. It is the main producer of copper in the world and a leader in mineral reserves on a global level. In many ways, it is the engine powering Chile’s development. One of the key projects powering that engine is the Codelco Chuquicamata Underground project.

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C

odelco Chuquicamata Underground project consists of the transformation of the prosperous open-pit mine into one of the largest and most efficient underground operations in the world, allowing the exploitation of resources beneath an open pit deposit that has been giving wealth to Chile for over 100 years.

While the open pit’s profitability has begun to decline, beneath that pit there are more than 1,700

million tons of copper reserves that have been quantified, with an average grade of 0.71%.

Andrés Avendaño, Project Manager explains, “We can exploit through macro-blocks these reserves, through the extraction process known as block caving, and the underground mine will comprise three levels of production.

We’ve just developed part of the first level and the main infrastructure of the mine

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

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ORICA - WEBGEN™ USE OF WIRELESS ELECTRONIC BLASTING SYSTEM (WEBGEN™ 100) AS SOLUTION FOR BLAST PRECONDITIONING IN CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND MINE In 2018, Codelco invited Orica to the first preconditioning of the Chuquicamata Underground Mine Project. Mine which use Caving method to extract the ore body through macroblock variant with a copper mining production rate close to 140,000 t / day.

Project’s engineering studies considered the application of preconditioning through hydraulic fracturing technique and blasting also (both) to capture several benefits, key to accomplish stages such as: • Ensure a correct connection with the subsidence crater.

• Better flow, limiting the lateral direction, towards the West Fault (FW).

• Challenging extraction rate and ramp up, subject to geomechanically considerations or limitations.

• Rock mass quality impact (decrease).

• Reduction of secondary fragmentation and its economic benefits.

• Less hang ups and improvement of around 30% in secondary fragmentation, due to smaller size and quantity of oversize at the draw points.

• More uniform material size with better material handling.

Blast preconditioning is based on the reduction of the rock mass resistance and variation of its properties through shock waves propagation, using a high-speed explosive through multiple initiation points. The main objective of this confined blasting is to define several interaction zones into the same hole and between them, to reduce the rock mass properties, creating a zone “preconditioned by the explosive”.

Codelco gave Orica the implementation, loading, blasting and technical monitoring of the first preconditioning with explosives at the mine. Since Orica had previous experience to implementing a comprehensive service with Subtek™ Deep bulk emulsion and i-kon III™ electronic blasting system at Codelco Andina, El Teniente and Salvador from 2000 onwards.

For the implementation, an anchoring system with rope was placed in the upper part of the holes according to the design height, and a “garland” composed of a set of WebGen™ primers, arranged on the rope and raised every 8 mts through the rope. The use of WebGen™ primers provided a great operational benefit and initiation assurance, as it did not have wire like conventional electronic detonators that in previous experiences some were unintentionally cut or damaged generating high leakage, losing some initiation points in every hole and decrease technique performance.

For this stage, Orica with a provider develops two mechanized lifting systems allow the lifting of the steel ropes, emulsion dewatering hose and garlands, and in the same way in the construction of a cement stemming (20m to 32m) to lift and arrange the cement injection pipes and bulk. This made it possible to reduce the exposure of personnel by moving them away from the collar of the holes, avoiding potential dangers of falling construction elements and rocks and reducing the physical exposure of personnel to risky situations.

In the loading stage, bulk emulsion “Subtek Deep ™” had to be injected through the central pipeline up to a height of 120m to 150m (2.0 to 4.0 ton / hole), with a mobile loading trucks (MCUs) with high pumping capacity (75kg / min) and 6-ton storage tanks developed

by Orica especially for this project. The great challenge consisted in avoiding stopping the loading, given the complexity to resume the emulsion injection.

For the blasting, the initiation is carried out using Orica’s WebGen™ 100 wireless system (without wire) remotely and safely from 700m distance from the blast (even from surface in instance), reducing operational interference with other development blasts at the same level or sector.

Finally, the first preconditioning with explosives in Chuquicamata project was successful, managing to prepare, load and initiate blast safely and remotely, delivering outcomes within the terms considered in the contract. We thank Codelco for its openness and support throughout the process for allowing us to implement innovative technologies that permits us to make the process more efficient and safer.

Preconditioning through blasting was implemented at Chuquicamata through a comprehensive blasting Service, only excluding the drilling process. This allowed Orica to use its proven technologies, including the development and test of new ones such as safe lifting systems, large capacity trucks (MCUs), among others. In this case and for the first time in its world application, Orica introduce new wireless initiation technology WebGen™ 100 for blast preconditioning initiation.

Figure 1. Wireless primer- WebGen™ 100 Blasting preconditioning was carried out, loading uphole in modules with triangular and / or diamond shapes composed of three to four holes with variable lengths from 130m to 150m and 6 ½ inches diameter, from undercut and production level, respectively.

www.orica.com/products-services/blasting/wireless/

CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT (ventilation and access tunnels).

The production of this operation began in 2019, and we are on the first of a seven-year ramp-up in which the underground mine will reach a production rate of 140,000 tons per day, in 2026.”

That figure means the production of about 320,000 tons of fine copper and more than 16,000 tons of fine molybdenum per year.

“This is a highly complex and long-lasting project,” Avendaño points out. “Due to its size, it’s being built in three stages. The initial stage, which was built to start production, involves the construction of all the permanent infrastructure that will last the life of the mine. Now we’re starting the second stage that provides sustainability for the first level of the project to reach maximum productive capacity. It involves the development of a series of macro-blocks around the first level and the pre-feasibility studies for the second level.”

The third and final stage is the construction of the second and third levels of the mine. Nicolás Miranda, the strategic planning manager for the project remarks, “With these characteristics, it’s a challenge to execute the engineering, construction and commissioning of this project and maintain strategic continuity almost twenty years from its first conceptualisation.”

Among the challenges of the construction are a 1km deep air extraction shaft, 140km of horizontal and vertical underground developments, 7.5km of a two-way access tunnel and another 7.5km

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Andrés Avendaño, Project Manager, Chuquicamata Underground Project.

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

tunnel for transporting ore through a conveyor belt system. Two Injection tunnels 4.3 and 4.4km long to bring clean air into the mine. But the technical challenges are just the beginning.

“It was not only a technical challenge but also a cultural one, establishing an underground mine and underground culture in an area with predominately surface operators,” says Miranda. “We had to change the culture to start operations.”

Innovation has also been a huge part of the project, with the implementation of semiautonomous LHDs operated from an integrated operations centre on the surface.

22 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

“We have remote control hammers, and on-demand ventilation that injects the necessary air into the work front allowing energy saving,” says Miranda.

MAKING THE CHANGE

All this effort in opening up the underground mine does not mean the open pit is finished, however. In fact, the operation has recently been extended.

Felipe Marinkovic, Construction Manager of the project points out. “Always in the original conceptualisation of the project the transition between the underground and overground operations was estimated to feature

Nicolás Miranda, Strategic Planning Manager, Chuquicamata Underground Project.

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

approximately 18 months when both mines were working at the same time. Also, the underground mine has been having positive results in its ramp-up, so we decided to extend the exploitation phase of the pit for another year, cause that coexistence between the mines would create more profit following the rough year of 2020.”

As well as hitting businesses economically, 2020 has also faced Codelco with practical challenges.

“During 2020 we were trying to award new contracts for the development of the underground mine to start the second phase,” Marinkovic recalls. “With the pandemic, we thought the best strategy was to extend the actual contracts of contractors who worked on the first phase of the mine. Rather than bring in new people, we

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realised it was a better decision to work with the contractors that have been working for five years on the project and know the site.”

In 2021 the project team has to ensure continuity in the exploitation of the deposit, this involves 110 kilometres of developments, the incorporation of 12 Macroblocks in production, and the assembly and commissioning of six crushing rooms.

A NEW PERSPECTIVE

As Miranda said, moving a lot of Chuquicamata’s previously open-pit focused workers into an underground environment involved a big cultural shift.

“We converted a lot of the operators from the open pit to the underground mine,” explains Miranda. “We took people from the open pit, we trained them for almost a year and then put

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT them into the operations of the underground mine.”

This decision to retrain their workers helped mitigate a lot of misgivings some had about the switch-over.

“When we started conceptualising the project some staff were very reticent about the underground mine because they thought they’d lose their jobs. But we transformed them to underground mine staff,” says Miranda.

Indeed, Codelco’s dedication to investing in and growing its staff’s capabilities is integral to Chuquicamata’s long-term success as a project.

“IT IS NOT ENOUGH TO HAVE PLAN; THE PRIMARY EMPHASIS HAS TO BE ON THE TEAM’S DNA.”

Felipe Marinkovic, Construction Manager, Chuquicamata Underground Project.

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“I would say that having a long-term staff means we seek the development of our staff,” Miranda points out. “We have a well laid-out succession plan.

We make sure all managers throughout the project come from within the company so there is career development within the project. We also give training spaces in matters of project management including professional qualifications, master’s degrees and even doctorates for the more technical subjects.”

This investment and support provide a common purpose has been essential to Chuquicamata’s success.

“It is not enough to have plans; the primary emphasis has to be on the team’s DNA. The people are the ones who build the project,” insists Miranda. “Both our organisation and designs must be flexible, actively managing risks. We

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Providing a

Solution from factory for E-Houses

Our digital technology of EcoStruxure™ for Mining on E-Houses is made of 4 applications depending on needs and priorities of our customers: • Remote supervision with mobile reporting • Smart digitization & operational safety through Augmented Reality • Automated maintenance procedures & data capture • Predictive analisis and monitoring for MV/LV equipment

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

have to install capacity for collective decisions and generate an identity for the team owners and contractors as one team. The whole team must be aligned and communicate constantly at the business level through collaborative work and business leadership. That’s what we have planned for the future. Take all that we’ve learned from the first stage and bring it to the second stage.”

Diversity has been a big part of making that team a success, as Miranda tells us, “I would like to highlight that we’re a team that mixes experience and youth very well, giving opportunities to the young and listening to experience. That is the key to these long-term projects.”

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“THE PRICE OF THE COPPER CAN BE VOLATILE, MEANING DECISION MAKING IS DIFFICULT THROUGHOUT THE VARIOUS STAGES OF THE PROJECT.” REMAINING FLEXIBLE

Today things are looking good for Chuquicamata in particular and Codelco in general.

Despite being forced to relying on skeleton crews across its operations last year, due to the strict measures imposed by the coronavirus outbreak, Codelco

has managed to grow the output from its mines by 2% to 1.618 million tonnes. The company reported pre-tax profits of $2.078 billion for last year, a 55% leap in profits that arrived amid growing global metal prices and high sales as markets began to recover from the pandemic. An 8.6% drop in direct cash costs down to $1.294 per pound has also helped Codelco’s profits, while increased production and a strengthening peso have also helped the company. The company’s copper sales grew by 1.5% year-on-year while higher ore grades have generated positive performances not only at Chuquicamata, but also at Codelco’s mines at Ministro Hales, Andina, and Salvador.

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

Looking back, Avendaño is proud of the outcomes of the project, even if it has differentiated from its earliest plans, responding to its growing knowledge of the resource, new challenges, and changes in the wider economic environment.

“The price of the copper can be volatile, meaning decision making is difficult throughout the various stages of the project,” says Avendaño. “As a consequence of that, there have been changes in the environment which led us to rethink the project mid-career.

The estimated completion of the project changed a lot, as the original project was not executable in the necessary timeframe.”

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This has led to significant reassessments of Codelco’s plans even as they are in action, but Avendaño sees this as a strength of the project.

“In certain stages of the project we have had to rethink things,” he admits. “But when you’re too frightened of getting something wrong you don’t have that drive that you can do it better. We designed this project in 2008 and 2009 with a different concept but

the price and costs change, the technology is different, so we had to redesign the project, changing from a design with maximum flexibility and autonomy to one that privileged efficiency and maximises productivity implementing new technology.”

At the same time as adapting to new challenges, Codelco also moves quickly to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

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TEAMS WORK. means completing projects by building trust. STRABAG Züblin Chile is proud to be a part of this exciting Codelco project. Partnering with ambitious teams within client and contractor and innovative technologies, allowed Züblin to achieve underground advances of up to 1,800 meters per month and 5 million working hours without lost time incident.

The STRABAG Group is a leader in the field of construction and technology, taking part in 12,000 projects per year worldwide. Our South American team has been involved in the regional mining and civil engineering sectors for more than three decades, because our value as partners rests on our commitment to quality, reliability and an innovative spirit. www.strabag.cl

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT

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34 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

“To see the future we need to understand the past and the achievements we made in meeting the target terms set for April 2019, our original date of production,” Avendaño says. “In October we started commissioning the mineral handling system. We also managed to save $700 million compared to the budget through the implementation of productivity levers. These good results motivated us to go in search of new challenges, reducing the amount of time taken to ramp up from seven to five years and negotiating new bids. We are in the process of a strong negotiation with our contractors to start the second phase.”

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CODELCO CHUQUICAMATA UNDERGROUND PROJECT Part of the reason this adaptability is possible is that Codelco boasts a modern, professional, transparent and auditable corporate governance.

There are demanding regulations in permanent review on transparency, probity and governance for the entire company, enabling the company to make clear, positive decisions in the field.

Avendaño points out, “Regarding the governance of Codelco, we’re extraordinarily robust which is important for this to work.”

That flexibility will be a key part of Codelco’s story going forward, as it has been from the outset.

“What we learn here is, first of all, we must plan with ambition,” reflects Avendaño. “We have to plan with ambition while running an empowered team.”

Avendaño keeps returning to the message that the hard

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technical areas of a project aren’t what makes you successful.

“The key to our success was in the behaviour of the organisation and the people and the softer aspects of project management,” he tells us. “One of the softer lessons we learned in the management of the project is that the project execution plans are a fundamental piece of design.

It’s a business imperative in every project. In matters of productivity, the gains are big, but you have to work with contractors as one team. I talked about this a little bit before, but a team needs its own identity, fully informed of its goals and motivating achievements. We have to celebrate achieving each goal. It’s important to have that continuous process to maintain the stamina and motivation of the team.”

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 35

RANDON GROUP

Sergio L. Carvalho, VP & COO, Randon Group.

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Photo: Jefferson Bernardes

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RANDON GROUP

RANDON GROUP, OPERATING ON A GLOBAL SCALE IN THE MOBILITY SECTOR, IS PURSUING A GROWTH STRATEGY DRIVEN BY THE SYNERGY OF TRADITION AND INNOVATION.

WHEELS OF GROWTH PROJECT MANAGED BY: DEAN BROWN

The Brazil-based business is a traditional conglomerate of companies with experience in the mobility sector spanning seven decades. The Group, headquartered in Caxias do Sul, RS, Brazil, consists of two manufacturing divisions - Assembler (trailers and rail cars) and Autoparts (brakes, friction materials, brake actuation, axles, suspensions, hubs and drums, fifth wheels) - and a Financial Services division (bank, consortium and ventures). The Randon Group’s products are available in over 100 countries, supplied from 24 manufacturing facilities and 6 distribution centres.

O

ver the last few years, the company has grown with an annual compound growth rate of 25%, driven by favourable market conditions as well as acquisitions, and recent financial performance indicates that this fast expansion is set to continue.

“We are a traditional business with a strong heritage and experience, but with the energy and enthusiasm of a startup. This youthful energy is an important factor in the business culture,” affirms the Group’s COO and Executive VP Sergio L. Carvalho, noting that that the company has almost doubled in size over the last five years.

A PEOPLE BUSINESS

The Group’s business model is one of Randon’s key strengths.

Diversification across several

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segments provides for a robust footing, and individual units benefit from the Group synergies in terms of procurement, technologies and innovation.

Mr Carvalho points out that it is also its organisational culture that differentiates Randon from competitors. “Our people are the core of the business. This is not something we have framed on the wall, but consider it a true company value and act accordingly,” he affirms.

He further explains that during the pandemic, the Randon companies have two main focus points: preserving the health of employees and the population and the sustainability of the local and global economy. The company has developed dozens of actions aimed at reinforcing collaborative initiatives aimed at controlling the pandemic.

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 37

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RANDON GROUP

High-performance and protective coatings for trailers and trucks.

“WE ARE A TRADITIONAL BUSINESS WITH STRONG HERITAGE AND EXPERIENCE, BUT WITH THE ENERGY AND ENTHUSIASM OF A START-UP.”

PPG’s coating solutions bring technology and innovation to the Randon group; driving efficiency, while transporting people and goods.

“Our group has been donating mechanical respirators to local public hospitals in addition to rapid tests, masks, hand sanitizer, food supplies, among other items. The company has also made some adjustments to its factories so that they could manufacture ventilators, an initiative developed in partnership with Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer, as well as plastic parts for face shields.”

Mr Carvalho further points out that despite the impact of Covid-19, the company achieved record performance in 2020

To learn more, scan the QR code or visit www.ppg.com

We are pleased to have been a part of the growth, consolidation and continued success of the Randon group as one of the biggest Latin America companies in the global transportation segment. Our partnership goes far beyond the delivery of quality coatings and services. A key tenet of The PPG Way is “We partner with customers to create value.” And that is a driving force in our relationship.

Photo: Daniel Streit

PPG

Our partnership is marked by dedication, transparency and development of innovative solutions that provide productivity, cost reduction and improved performance for Randon – while also creating a better experience for the company’s customers around the globe.

With operations in more than 70 countries around the world, PPG provides innovative solutions for a wide range of segments, including industrial, transportation, consumer goods and construction.

Through leadership in innovation, sustainability and color expertise, PPG maintains a long tradition of developing cutting-edge technologies and delivering lasting value to all its stakeholders, ensuring the highest industry standards and respecting the environment.

For PPG – and I know also for Randon – operating with integrity, safety and sustainability is much more than a commitment. It is a high priority.

The rich diversity of PPG’s 47,000 employees around the globe comprises various cultures, ethnicities and areas of knowledge that provide us with great competitive advantages. Those advantages make PPG a market leader – and a highly engaged partner committed to helping Randon to continue its global growth and success.

Marizeth Carvalho, Industrial Coatings Director, PPG Latin America. www.ppg.com

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Automatic Guided Vehicles transporting brake linings at Fras-le unit, in Brazil.

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 39

RANDON GROUP

Photo: Marcio Campos

Traditional conglomerate of companies with experience in the mobility sector spanning seven decades.

and managed to keep its supply chain reliable. “We have doubleor triple-sourcing so production remained unaffected during the pandemic. A large part of our supply chain is located in Brazil and we have supported the smaller suppliers to help them get through.”

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

In recent years, the Group has invested considerably in its future in line with its strategy of expanding its portfolio, capacity and global footprint as well as further supporting innovations and implementing digital transformation.

Mr Carvalho affirms that focus on innovation is a key part of the game, reflecting growing trends in the industry such as sustainability and environmental protection. The innovative edge is provided by the Group’s Technology Centre, located on an area of more than 90 hectares, which is regarded as one of the

40 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

main development complexes for Brazil’s mobility industry.

The Centre’s recent achievements include the new electric trailer, the Randon Hybrid R - the first electric trailer developed in South America - launched by the Assembler Division, and new products using advanced materials developed for the Autopart Division including new copper-free brake pads, a new trailer ABS system, new piston-type brake chambers, a lightweight trailer suspension system, a truck full-air suspension for MAN trucks and many more.

Seeking to improve the innovation of manufacturing processes, Randon companies are creating a new unit to act in the support and development of industrial automation - the Randon Tech Solutions (RTS) Industry, which will focus on providing solutions, special machines and smart manufacturing.

The new unit, expected to be commissioned in the first quarter

Warehouse for the trailer manufacturing unit at the group’s headquarters in Brazil, considered one of the largest and most modern in Latin America, with more than 800 storage positions and over 17 processing stations.

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RANDON GROUP

Organisational culture differentiates Randon from competitors. Our people are the core of the business.

Photo: Cesar Lopes

of 2021, will expand synergy between all Group units in the development of processes and intelligent systems of productivity.

“Added to a culture of constant innovation in processes and the qualification of the technical, operational and engineering staff, RTS Industry will accelerate the growth of our company with sustainability,” stresses Sergio Carvalho. “All of our 24 plants worldwide are going through a technological transformation aiming to get to the same degree of automation that can be seen in the most advanced countries such as Germany within the next three years.”

GLOBAL EXPANSION

Investments of recent years have gone not only into the internal capability but also into global expansion. Over the last

Photo: Marcio Campos

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four years, the company has completed some 12 acquisitions, the most recent of which include Ferrari Industrial, aluminium die casting operation, Nakata Automotive, a large suspension manufacturer, CNCS machining focused on the AG sector and Auttom in the field of industrial automation.

Business partnerships have been just as important a part of the growth strategy. In 2020, Suspensys, a unit that integrates Randon companies, and Volkswagen Trucks and Buses (VWCO) signed a partnership agreement for the company’s entry into the Modular Consortium maintained by the assembler. In an unprecedented partnership between the two brands, Suspensys will be responsible for the preassembly of pneumatic suspensions for Volkswagen trucks and buses. It will also be the supplier of the modular fullair suspension system jointly

designed by Suspensys and VWCO for its vehicle portfolio.

According to Sergio Carvalho, the consolidation of this business model, amid the challenging scenario that the world is living through, shows that the company is thinking about a future in which innovation and partnerships like this will be even more strategic.

“For many years Randon has kept a robust cash position, and financial management has stayed strong during the crisis. This position has allowed Randon to honour all its obligations and continue most of its investment plans in M&A, capacity expansion, innovation and technology and digital transformation. Always in line with the principles of business and environmental sustainability, and always valuing people and their talents - it is committed people that make Randon a group with a global presence,” he affirms, in conclusion.

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SERTEC GROUP

WE LEARN HOW THE SERTEC GROUP OPERATES AS A TECHNOLOGY-LED COMPANY, AND HOW IT IS REPOSITIONING ITSELF TO GROW IN THE EUROPEAN MARKET.

ENTERING EUROPE PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

The Sertec Group specialises in supplying body-in-white components such as aluminium and steel body part components to the automotive industry, and this narrow focus on the automotive sector has made them a leader in the industry.

A

t Sertec Group we’re 100% in the automotive industry,” says Ben Higgins, the Senior Vice President of Operations.

Manufacturing-wise the Group is currently positioned in the UK and mainland Europe with a technical centre in China. Sertec’s current size and scale, not counting the figures from last year when they were hit by the pandemic, place it at roughly £200 million in turnover across its manufacturing sites in Europe and the UK, where it employs 1,200 people.

“I joined the company in 2006 when we were a £30-millionpound turnover outfit across two sites,” Higgins recalls. “We’re now at £200 million across our global footprint, so the growth we’ve seen in the last 14-to-15 years has been tremendous.”

But Higgins insists this growth has not come at the cost of the company’s identity.

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“We are still privately owned, and we’re a family business, owned by the Mosedale family until 2016, with the founder’s children carrying the company on until a management buyout,” Higgins says. “We’re in a transitional phase with investors on board and we’re trying to be more of a corporation with the perceived professionalism in the way that works, but we’ve kept the family values and feel of the company.

The testimonials of people who join us show that working for Sertec is not like any other place.”

While the Sertec Group is well-established, it has also been undergoing something of a transformation. In the technology space, the company is still a lightweight vehicle specialist with a particular focus on the production and assembly of aluminium components. It’s a skill-set that has equipped them well for exciting new markets.

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SERTEC GROUP

Dave Steggles, Sertec’s Vice President of Engineering and Product Development.

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New PROFIL® Website

profil-global.com

We’re excited to announce the launch of the new PROFIL® website. In addition to its highly intuitive and modern site design, site visitors can experience new features like an interactive product search, interactive application overview, news section, and cost calculator.

Check out the new site here:

www.profil-global.com

PROFIL

SERTEC GROUP

PROFIL® is a proud supplier of mechanically attached fasteners into the Sertec Group. The partnership between both companies started with the launch of the Land Rover T5 Discovery in 2002. Since then, we have supported Sertec with innovative in die installation solutions on hundreds of die sets for transfer and progression processes on many models, providing the most cost effective solutions to Sertec and the OEMs . Since the outset of this successful partnership, the Sertec Group has installed over 350 million PROFIL fasteners into customer pressings. As both companies move rapidly to provide technical solutions for the EV market, this partnership will continue to provide the cutting-edge technologies needed to support these applications.

PROFIL® (a PennEngineering ® company) is the world’s premier global manufacturer of mechanically attached fasteners (MAF), an alternative to traditional weld fasteners, for the automotive industry. For over 50 years, PROFIL® has partnered with the world’s leading automotive OEMs to develop and engineer high integrity, cost-effective joining solutions for a wide range of demanding vehicle applications. PROFIL sells over 1.8 billion fasteners annually.

PROFIL® Mechanically Attached Fasteners (MAF) provide clean, cost-effective and high performing fastening solutions for virtually any automotive structural application, including BIW structures such as the upper body, under body, closures, EV battery trays and vehicle frames and chassis.

PROFIL® offers a broad range of MAF products and fully integrated, in-die or offline installation and feed systems, supporting customers from product design, tool and process development through serial production and after-sales technical support. Because the fasteners are joined to the application mechanically, they can be installed in the in-die process, which eliminates the need for secondary operations and reduces operating costs, including reduction or elimination of WIP, packaging, shop floor space, fork lift truck movements, power consumption and labour costs.

PROFIL® is the environmentally green choice for fasteners.

For further details of the complete product range, installation equipment and services PROFIL® offer as closed loop solution for fastener solutions please visit our new website.

WWW.PROFIL-GLOBAL.COM

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Dave Steggles, the Vice President of Engineering and Product Development says “Our lightweight expertise is secondto-none and that’s something we need to sell and market. We’re entering the electric vehicle space and have been successful with some awards in the UK for battery components as well as the casings that sit around the batteries,” “We’re looking at all possible avenues to add value for our customers. The family values, the company culture, are key but our technology offering and know-how are what we offer to new customers.”

Indeed, electric vehicles are set to become a key part of Sertec’s offering going forward.

“The electric vehicle space is the anchor. We’re making sure we’re not ignoring our core business, body-and-white, which is the cornerstone of the business today, but we see a lot of potential here,” Steggles explains.

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SERTEC GROUP

“In particular, we are looking to support both existing and new customers in the UK and Europe as lightweighting of body structures becomes critical in future Vehicle structures. Over recent years the Group have focused via our Research and Development teams, on the products and processes aligned to the emerging requirements for EV components needed in battery production.

“At the forefront of this approach, is our investment in a fully equipped Testing Lab, established in 2020. The testing lab has been invaluable in developing the Group’s abilities in designing and testing Busbars used in Modular Battery production. This has developed further with the installation of a fully equipped Low Volume laser production cell.

“This is currently being used to prove design concepts of assemblies requiring welding of dissimilar Busbar materials and it has proven to be pivotal in the Group’s nomination for the UK’s first mass-production Busbar assembly line, scheduled to go into full production Q3 2021.

With a well-established R&D Team, testing and production development facility, the Group is well placed and focused on supporting all our valued existing and new customers to meet the new technologic challenges of the future.“

Ben Higgins, Sertec’s Senior Vice President of Operations.

INVESTMENT IN STAFF

As well as positioning themselves to serve the growing electric vehicle market, Higgins is also keen to tell us about the ways Sertec is preparing to build a larger footprint in mainland Europe, including bringing new leadership into the organisation.

“We’ve got a new MD for our Hungarian facility, a European sales director who’s remotely located at the moment,” Higgins

46 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

“OUR LIGHTWEIGHT EXPERTISE IS SECOND-TO-NONE AND THAT’S SOMETHING WE NEED TO SELL AND MARKET.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

SERTEC GROUP

says. “We’re going to look at a technical centre in Germany similar to the one we have in China, and then a small plant in the north which we’re currently recruiting a new MD for. We’re repositioning our German plant as an electric vehicle plant using the known-how we’ve built up in the UK.” Leadership has been a watchword for Sertec during this repositioning, and the people they’re bringing in have exciting new ideas to bring to the table.

As Higgins points out, “Our new Managing Director in Hungary is really starting to come up with forward-thinking ideas and challenging the Board in the UK, which is what you expect from a really good general manager MD.” This ability to see deficits in their own knowledge base and bring people in who possess

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Based in the UK, Shiftec Limited has extensive capabilities to meet the individual needs of our customers including: • Cast, forged, pressed & machined parts.

• State of the art laser cutting facilities.

• Carbon composite and fibre glass design and production.

• End-to-end service design and engineering solutions for customers who have concepts and ideas that they want to create.

• Prototyping and full production for those customers who want a swift and effective manufacturing capability.

For more details about Shiftec please contact us at: Email: sales@shiftec.com | Tel: +44 (0)7551 123083 (Paul Jones)

GREAT BRITISH ENGINEERING

www.shiftec.com

SERTEC GROUP

SHIFTEC (WILLENHALL) LTD Shiftec Limited is a precision design and engineering business, based in the Midlands, that has been producing high quality vehicle operator interface controls and braking systems for use in automotive, off-highway and commercial vehicles for more than 60 years. With extensive capabilities in cast, forged, pressed, machined, and laser cutting across a significant range of standard parts, Shiftec is able to offer a range of solutions to meet each individual customer’s demands.

the knowledge and ideas they need has been a real driver in Sertec’s repositioning, and a similar story is visible in the electric vehicle space.

The team at Shiftec has been working with Sertec for almost a decade as a Tier 2 supplier providing metal presswork and pressed assemblies predominantly for their automotive clients.

This partnership has developed over time to suit both businesses in terms of volume and capability, allowing Sertec, as a Tier 1 supplier, to best service their markets in a timely and competitive way.

“We have a great relationship with the team at Sertec”, says Chris Baugh, Managing Director of Shiftec (Willenhall) Ltd. “They are a very important client for us and, they know and appreciate the extra mile that we go to make sure that their customers’ production lines aren’t compromised”.

“Over the years, we have been able to develop our business to suit the requirements of our clients, including Sertec, and have extended our capabilities to include additional state of the art laser cutting facilities as well as carbon composite and fibre glass which has seen significant growth over the past year”.

Chris and the team at Willenhall provide an end-to-end service able to design and engineer solutions for customers who have concepts and ideas that they want to create, through to prototyping and full production for those customers who want a swift and effective manufacturing capability.

Chris Baugh, MD, Shiftec.

For more details about Shiftec please contact us at sales@shiftec.com or call Paul Jones on +44 (0)7551 123083 www.shiftec.com

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“A couple of years ago now we recognised from an engineering point of view that entering the electric vehicle market would be a challenge for us, although there was a lot of crossovers. There were an extra expectation and challenge on the engineering side of things, it was expertise we didn’t have in abundance,” Higgins recalls.

“So at that time we went out and brought some big hitters in, toplevel engineering specialists.

We appointed someone to the board and brought in program and engineering managers at a different level to what we had, and we’ve integrated them into our culture.”

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SERTEC GROUP

As well as bringing in leading experts in the field, Sertec is also nurturing new talent.

“On the other end of the scale to that we have an extensive apprenticeship scheme, with 30 active apprentices across different areas, including maintenance, engineering, and business,” says Higgins. “We have a big investment in those guys and they graduate each year out into the business. We also have a graduate scheme we started last year. It was really about identifying the key elements we need to fill and go out and really make the customer believe we could deliver what we’re promising.”

This is essential, as the scrutiny Sertec’s engineering capability will come under in the electric vehicle sector is intense. As Higgins says, “You’ve got to have the people

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SERTEC GROUP

“OUR NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR IN HUNGARY IS REALLY STARTING TO COME UP WITH FORWARD-THINKING IDEAS & CHALLENGING THE BOARD IN THE UK, WHICH IS WHAT YOU EXPECT FROM A REALLY GOOD GENERAL MANAGER MD.” there and customers have to believe they are experts.”

Between the Sertec Group’s repositioning in Europe, and their work to enter the electric vehicle sector while still serving all their old customers, the future is one with great growth potential.

“The ambition over a fiveyear road map is to build up to a £50 million level, which was our original target three or four years ago before Brexit, and Covid and their consequences happened,” Higgins says. “We expect to see a recovery and the European and electric vehicle markets will be key to that.”

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Jeffrey Goh, Star Alliance CEO.

STAR ALLIANCE

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS HIT THE FLIGHT SECTOR HARD, BUT IT’S ALSO SHOWING THE WAY FOR THE FUTURE OF AIR TRAVEL.

FRICTIONLESS

FLIGHT PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

Star Alliance is an organisation that started out in 1997 as a collaboration between five airlines on three continents: United Airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Thai Airways, Air Canada, and Lufthansa. Over the last 20 years, its membership base has grown to encompass 26 airlines around the world. All that time the organisation’s ultimate goal has been to create a global network that allows a customer to seamlessly travel from any point on the Earth to any other.

A

s well as seamlessly connecting flights, Star Alliance has worked to unify the frequent flyer programmes of its membership, so that someone taking part in one member-airline frequent flyer scheme would accrue points or miles credit from any other member airline when travelling on that carrier.

Star Alliance launch event, Frankfurt Airport, May 14th, 1997.

Having accomplished its ambition to provide the largest global network of any airline alliance, three years ago, on the Alliance’s 20th anniversary, Star Alliance further expanded its goals.

“We decided to focus on making the customer experience and journey better within the Alliance, with a vision to become the most digitally advanced airline alliance, offering seamless travel experiences and a competitive loyalty proposition,” says Jeffrey Goh, CEO of Star Alliance. “Our focus was squarely on the customer experience. We asked how we could leverage digital technology and automation to align ourselves with a new norm of customer expectations.”

This shift in expectations has been driven by fundamental changes among air travellers.

Unlike even five or ten years ago, modern customers are mobile-first, used to always

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26 MEMBER AIRLINES. ALL COMMITTED TO A SEAMLESS TRAVEL EXPERIENCE. We work together, so you can fly with confidence.

Whether it’s leveraging the latest advances in technology for a unified and seamless journey.

Implementing next level facial recognition software for a frictionless and touchless experience.

And leading the way for trusted hygiene and safety standards.

Find out what’s coming next at staralliance.com

STAR ALLIANCE

Star Alliance focuses on digital technology to meet expectations of mobile-first customers.

being connected and expecting information on-demand and services at their fingertips.

“In 2017 when we started our focus and journey on the customers’ experience, we were clear that leveraging digital technology was the way forward,” Goh tells us. “As I talk about seamlessness, I don’t just mean the physical seamless experience of a smooth transfer, but that digital technology lets us create a seamless transactional experience as well.”

Anyone who’s booked a long-distance flight has had the experience. You book a flight from Heathrow to Perth through British Airways, but one leg of the journey is flown with Malaysia Airways. The first leg of the journey is fine, but there is no way to book a specific seat on the Malaysia Airways flight through British Airways, even if you’re willing to pay for it.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

“What we’ve done is use digital technology to solve that problem,” Goh says. “Our first pairing back in 2017 was between United Airlines and Singapore Airlines. A United Airlines customer could go through its app or website, select the seat on Singapore Airlines through the United Airlines app or website without having to leave the app.”

But while Star Alliance has been working towards an industry transformation, the sector has seen an even greater impact arrive in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic.

FLIGHT PATH TO RECOVERY

“The impact of the coronavirus crisis on the aviation industry has been devastating. It is the darkest and deepest crisis the industry has ever had to confront,” Goh says. “This is not just about the airline members of the Alliance but the industry in general. Collectively we’re looking at staggering financial losses and impact on people.”

With jobs, passengers and number of flights being slashed by half or more, and nearly 50 airlines shutting down altogether, it’s hard to overstate the crisis.

“We hoped for an early recovery back in April and May time. We were talking about ways to restore confidence in air travel, looking at incentive plans to drive the return of air travel, but very few of us could have predicted not only how deep this crisis would go, but how prolonged it would be, not just in aviation but in a global society as a whole,” Goh tells us.

“Any plans we had on inspiring confidence all had to be shelved or put on the back burner for the time being because of the continuing crisis.”

However, Goh points out, the journey back has already begun, particularly with domestic travel.

“In markets with reasonably sized domestic travel, some green shoots are appearing.

There’s a sizeable domestic

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STAR ALLIANCE

air travel audience,” he says.

“But many of our members who depend on international travel continue to be impacted by border controls and restrictions, whether in relation to testing requirements or quarantine impositions.”

The key to recovery for international flights, Goh argues, is a fundamental change to quarantining procedures towards screening and testing travellers to control COVID. “The arrival of vaccines is a welcome development, but we don’t want to rely entirely on them as a means to reopen borders and rekindle travel,” Goh says. “If we wait for broad vaccination globally there will be not too much of an airline industry left.”

For Goh’s part, he is sure that when passengers do return to the airways in full, they will have new expectations of the industry.

As Goh tells us, “Customers will expect a hygienically safer experience. That expectation

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All 26 member airlines are committed to trusted hygiene and safety standards, so that customers can fly with confidence.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

STAR ALLIANCE

With Star Alliance Biometrics customers can enjoy a more contactless and touchless travel experience.

“CUSTOMERS WILL EXPECT A MORE HYGIENICALLY SAFE EXPERIENCE.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

was there before the crisis and we expect it to continue going forward. We at Star Alliance are very focused on delivering on that. There will be greater hygiene safety and a more frictionless and touchless experience throughout the journey.”

Often, technologies that were already being applied before the pandemic are finding new relevance. Two years ago Star Alliance started looking at biometric facial recognition as part of its seamless promise.

“The idea was that you could register your digital identity once and use it multiple times in multiple places,” Goh says. “That idea is still there but has taken on a new dimension, offering that contactless experience, or at least reducing the amount of touch. With our solution, you don’t even have to remove your mask when you stand before the biometrics camera.”

This system is already being used at selected gates in Frankfurt and Munich, and Star Alliance is planning to roll it out further. At the same time, Star Alliance’s original goal of a unified, seamless travel experience remains core to their vision.

“There are many more places where we’ve used digital technology in this regard, so a Lufthansa customer travelling

by United Airlines could check the status and location of their check-in bag without leaving the app,” Goh says.

This, and Star Alliance’s further digital developments, have only been possible thanks to the Alliance’s close work with a number of partners.

“We won’t be able to do this on our own,” Goh insists.

“Collaboration has to be the key to unlocking customer promises.”

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

DATO’ LEE YEOW CHOR, GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF IOI CORPORATION BERHAD, A GLOBAL PALM OIL BUSINESS, DESCRIBES WHAT IS DRIVING INDUSTRY CHANGE IN THE REGION THAT IS THE WORLD’S LARGEST PALM OIL PRODUCER.

TRANSFORMATION OF MALAYSIAN PALM OIL SECTOR PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI), a leading global integrated and sustainable palm oil player stands at the forefront of the industry’s transformation. Running a successful palm oil business consisting of upstream plantations in both Malaysia and Indonesia and downstream resource-based manufacturing business in seven different countries, the company applies a handson management approach and excellent agronomic practices. IOI is ranked highly as one of the most efficient major plantation owners, producing one of the highest oil yields in the industry.

I

OI’s resource-based manufacturing business consists of three segments: refining, oleochemical and specialty oils and fats. The company owns two palm oil refineries in Malaysia and four oleochemical manufacturing plants in Malaysia and Germany. Its specialty oils and fats manufacturing business is carried out by its 30%-owned associate company, Bunge Loders Croklaan, which has manufacturing operations in various parts of the world.

Dato’ Lee Yeow Chor, speaking in his capacity as IOI

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Group Managing Director and also as Chairman of the Malaysian Palm Oil Association, provides an insight not only into his company and its prospects but also into the palm oil industry in Malaysia and Indonesia as such, and the current changes that the sector is facing and needs to accommodate.

“In terms of production, Malaysia and Indonesia together produce about 85% of

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

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BDO IN MALAYSIA & ITS REGIONAL OPERATIONS BDO in Malaysia is a member firm of BDO International, the world’s 5th largest network of professional firms providing audit & assurance, advisory and tax services to businesses ranging from established multinational conglomerates to growth-oriented organisations, whether public or private.

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BDO in Malaysia, together with its regional operations, provide services covering the full breadth and depth of Audit & Assurance, Advisory, Tax and Business Services & Outsourcing for our clients.

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

global palm oil volume as they have ideal climatic conditions – a narrow belt of 5° above & below the equator with good rainfall,” says Dato’ Lee, pointing out that the industry is over 100 years old - oil palms started to be commercially grown as a crop in Malaysia in 1907, first by the French, and then by other European entities.

He points out that palm oil is the world’s most consumed vegetable oil. It is used not only in cooking but also in snack ingredients and infant formula.

Palm oil can also be processed into oleochemicals, i.e., vegetable-based chemicals as a substitute for animal-based and petroleum-based chemicals, and also as biodiesel, a renewable fuel.

“RECENTLY COMPANIES LIKE OURSELVES HAVE INTENSIFIED THEIR DIGITISATION PROCESSES. WITH THE PANDEMIC, TECHNOLOGY AND DIGITISATION HAVE BECOME CRITICAL BUSINESS SUCCESS FACTORS.” DIGITAL BUSINESS

Dato’ Lee further acknowledges that despite agriculture being a traditional sector, modern technology and innovative methods have been employed in oil palm cultivation to increase productivity and reduce agricultural inputs.

Some companies use tissue culturing to produce clonal planting material (non-GMO), and UAVs or drones are deployed to conduct block

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

boundary and contour survey, census on planting density and disease detection.

Modernisation and digitisation are topics close to Dato’ Lee’s heart - last year he was awarded the Digital Transformation CEO of the Year for Malaysia by the renowned international research firm International Data Corporation (IDC), in recognition of his efforts to have successfully undertaken his company’s digitisation and transformation journey.

“Recently companies like ourselves have intensified their digitisation processes. With the pandemic, technology and

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digitisation have become critical business success factors, “ he points out.

IOI implemented the SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System in its downstream resource-based manufacturing business more than 15 years ago, and in 2018, the company decided to implement the SAP ERP System together with the Electronic Plantation Monitoring System (ePMS) using handheld devices in its oil palm plantations to control crop quality and the movement of crops to factories.

“This has been an ambitious project, involving 107 business units across 170,000 hectares

of land, an area 2,5 times larger than Singapore to give you a picture of the effort involved,” says Dato Lee, explaining that the digital transformation programme was initiated with the vision of optimising activities across the entire value chain to maximise productivity, minimise cost and to cope with the fluidness of market conditions.

Moving forward, IOI is already exploring ways to further automate routine business processes by enabling robotic processing automation (RPA).

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

SUSTAINABLE PALM OIL FUTURE

Reflecting on what drives successful palm oil planting in Malaysia and Indonesia, Dato’ Lee says: “ It is an inclusive agricultural sector where 35% of the land is owned by small farmers each managing less than 5 hectares of land. Oil palm planting provides employment and uplifts the income of the rural population, and it also works as a catalyst to improve infrastructure. It also provides an important source of income for migrant workers that have come to replace the younger generation moving to the cities.

Today, of the 800,000 working in the sector in Malaysia, about 45% are workers from less developed countries.”

Dato’ Lee affirms that as oil palm is grown on the vast land area in the two countries which still have large tropical forests, growers have recognised the importance of subscribing to sustainability principles focused not only on the protection of the environment but also on workers and community.

To this end, the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil) was established in 2004, jointly by the large growers and a few leading household goods multinational companies to form a global certification body with over 3,000 members that aims to make sustainable palm oil the norm. While RSPO is voluntary, there is another body that provides countrywide mandatory certification - MPSO (Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil). As of today, around 90% of Malaysian growers are certified (the remaining 10% are smallholders). All of IOI’s Malaysian plantations have been RSPO-certified since 2015 and were MSPO-certified in 2019.

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IOI City Tower Two, Selangor, Putrajaya, Malaysia Multivision Tower, 12th fl, Kuningan Mulia Kav. 9B, Jakarta, Indonesia Tel: +60 38 0219 322 | Email: wcsi-info@id.wilmar-intl.com | www.wcs-global.com

Wilmar Consultancy Services (WCS) is a leading SAP consultancy. Our purpose is to help our clients leverage SAP and IT solutions to improve their business processes and drive growth.

WCS is a SAP Gold VAR Partner with a multi-disciplinary team of over 300 consultants who are highly skilled in bridging the gap between business and IT. Over 200 companies in 15 countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, China, South Africa, Ghana, USA, and the Netherlands have tapped on our consultants’ expertise to transform their business operations - & achieve higher business growth.

WILMAR CONSULTANCY SERVICES - ADVANCED CHANGE OF IOI GROUP IOI Corporation Berhad (IOI) is a leading global integrated and sustainable palm oil player. They are recorded on the Most Advertise of Bursa Malaysia Berhad and exchanging as MYX: 1961. The group was founded in October 1969 by Tan Sri Dato’ Lee Shin Cheng’s. Their palm oil commerce comprises an upstream ranch in both Malaysia and Indonesia and a downstream resource-based fabricating business. With hands-on management approach and excellent agronomic practices, they are positioned highly as one of the most efficient major plantation owners to produce one of the highest oil yields in the industry.

Their resource-based fabricating commerce comprises three portions: refining, oleochemical, and strength oils and fats. They claim two palm oil refineries in Malaysia and four oleochemical fabricating plants in Malaysia and Germany.

Their forte oils and fats fabricating trade is carried out by our 30%-owned relate company, Bunge Loders Croklaan (once known as IOI Loders Croklaan), which has fabricating operations in Malaysia, the Netherlands, USA, Ca. To keep up with the development of digital transformation, in July 2018, led

by Group Managing Director & Chief Executive Dato’ Lee Yeow Chor, IOI Corp had as of now actualized the SAP Venture Asset Arranging (ERP) Framework in its downstream resource-based fabricating commerce more than 15 a long time ago. In 2018, IOI Corp has chosen to actualize the SAP ERP Framework alongside the Electronic Ranch Observing Framework (ePMS) employing a handheld gadget in its oil palm manors, which may be an essential agrarian business. The computerized transformation program was started with the vision of optimizing exercises over the complete esteem chain to maximize efficiency, minimize fetched, and to manage with the fluidness of advertising conditions.

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Interviewed via new straits times, the CEO of IOI, Datuk Lee Yeow Chor said, “This is a far more ambitious project, involving 107 business units across 170,000 hectares of land, and involving more than 1200 users – many of whom are based at remote areas with unstable internet connectivity,” said Lee. The group-wide SAP system was implemented in several roll-out stages to streamline IOI Corp’s diverse and stand-alone systems into a single unified platform environment called the ONE IOI Integrated Platform. The SAP S/4HANA business suite is SAP’s 4th-generation ERP software designed to run on the SAP HANA in-memory database. The SAP system was selected as it had the agility to support plantation industry-specific requirements. With SAP S/4HANA, IOI Corp had fully integrated corporate information for real-time decision-making and analytics. The operations of the company are now more streamlined, and its processes have been further optimized.

Moreover since pandemic, technology and digitalization have become critical business success factors. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 widespread, the coordinates and mobile-enabled stage has engaged IOI Gather to function without disturbance whereas encouraging collaboration.

“This digitalization program was conceptualized before the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic. With the pandemic, technology and digitalization have become critical business success factors. At IOI Corp, having completed this program, we have become more resilient and ready to transform to the next stage of efficiency and innovativeness,” said Lee. www.wcs-global.com

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IOI CORPORATION BERHAD

Speaking about the future, he reflects that the focus will be on reducing the dependence on manual migrants through increased mechanisation, deploying more modern technology, and on increasing value-added applications, such as green chemicals that are

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renewable and biodegradable, nutraceuticals such as beta carotene and tocotrienols and renewable fuel. “Demand for palm oil is increasing globally and a zero-carbon policy is a target in many countries now.

The potential is therefore considerable.”

“DEMAND FOR PALM OIL IS INCREASING GLOBALLY AND A ZERO-CARBON POLICY IS A TARGET IN MANY COUNTRIES NOW. THE POTENTIAL IS THEREFORE CONSIDERABLE.”

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AGILE WIND POWER

AGILE WIND POWER IS SHOWING US THE FUTURE OF WIND POWER, BUT NOT AS WE KNOW IT.

DECENTRALISED

WIND POWER

PROJECT MANAGED BY: LEE PHOENIX

When you hear the phrase “wind power” it is pretty easy to guess what image has popped into your head. Wide green fields. Spinning wind turbines making a loud “Thrum, thrum thrum” noise. Not-in-my-backyard types writing angry letters and petitions to local government.

H

owever, talking to Patrick Richter, the CEO of Agile Wind Power, it is clear he has a very different vision for the future of the wind power sector.

The most immediate difference between Agile Wind Power’s turbines and the ones you are imagining is a question of orientation. Using Vertical Sky technology, Agile Wind Power has designed turbines on a vertical axis- vertically placed parallel blades rotating around the central axis, rather than radiating from a horizontal one.

This, in itself, is nothing new.

“They existed for a very long time, but mainly they are very small machines,” Richter says.

“Vertical Sky technology does not belong to the small wind power category. We are focusing on applications for commercial power production. Our rated capacity is very high, and our turbines are very large. The smallest we have is a bit more than 100 metres. So, we’re the first vertical axis turbines in a large scale/industrial scale format.”

The vertical orientation is not just for the sake of it, it brings

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material advantages to the turbine, including three times less noise than a traditional turbine, and a motion that is less risky for birds and bats. It also gives off less of the shadow flicker effect associated with traditional wind turbines and offers better use of space.

This means less pushback from communities and permitting authorities when trying to get turbines constructed, shortening development times. It is the result of a tough development process.

“It wasn’t possible to enlarge vertical axis wind turbines before.

It meant overcoming a lot of technical challenges,” Richter tells us. “We developed a core technology that can overcome those challenges, a pitch control system that adjusts the rotor blades in relation to the wind flow, reducing stress and vibrations that occur to that type of turbine, making it the door opener for increased use of vertical axis wind turbines.”

Patrick Richter, CEO of Agile Wind Power.

AGILE WIND POWER

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AGILE WIND POWER

“When you look at the whole energy transition, it’s clear that to realise the transition into a 100% renewable economy it is important to produce more and more power on-site, decentralised and distributed,” he says. “Wind energy has mainly been used in the context of the old methods of power production and distribution which is centralised production.

All the power plants today, built well into the 90s, were placed for central large power plants.

Whether they were nuclear, gas or coal, these centralised plants feed power into the grid to be distributed to the local houses and industries and commercial customers.”

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And yet, driving through the countryside, you are unlikely to see these vertical wind turbines in any wind farm in the foreseeable future.

“Our turbines are big enough to produce power economically for energy-intensive applications, but we aren’t planning implementation through wind farms,” Richter explains. “We’re behind meter operations, water treatment facilities, data centres, manufacturing companies.

Operations producing power for their own consumption.”

Richter is advocating for a whole new way of looking at power infrastructure. He is not just arguing for a move away from wind farms, but a move away from large, centralised power plants of all kinds.

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AGILE WIND POWER

A COMBINED SOLUTION

Neither is Richter arguing for a one-size-fits-all approach.

Rather than there being one solution to providing sustainable power, Richter foresees a variety of overlapping solutions.

“When you want to use renewable energy, you have the challenge that renewables cannot do production in a steady fashion, because it depends on when the wind blows, or the sun shines, and that is very difficult if you want centralised production,” he points out. “But you can overcome all of these challenges when you go more decentralised. When you use different renewable energy sources, wind, hydro, and solar, they are very good additions to each other. It’s complimentary, not competitive.”

Agile Wind Power’s large wind turbines offer a reliable energy source using technology developed over the last 30 years. It is now one of the cheapest technologies to produce power on a commercial level. Richter also points out that these turbines will be an essential tool for building a new, decentralised power distribution model.

“Wind farm turbines aren’t good for providing decentralised power. They are loud, they are big and nobody wants to live very close to a 4mw wind turbine,” Richter says.

“Which I can fully understand but it makes sense from a power generation perspective and bringing higher value power generation. What we overcome with our technology is all these obstacles to acceptance. With three times less noise, you cannot hear anything from our turbine if you stand beside it.

This opens up new possibilities for the technology which you cannot pursue with traditional wind turbines. We see high

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demand worldwide for that.

We have partners developing renewable energy projects in the decentralised sector, with a lot of questions and demands from customers for larger applications, industrial applications, greenhouses, and agriculture. A lot of older industries like concrete, steel, all these industries have very high-power demands, and with wind power, we can bring very good additional capacity to what they already have with solar power.”

Currently, Agile Wind Power can point to several dozen examples of water treatment plants in Germany facing demand to produce power for themselves with wind power. Many have been unable to get the permit for a wind turbine because of the

local pushback those turbines entail. Now with Agile Wind Power’s technology, they have the chance to realise that vision.

“We’re addressing a completely different market, not the traditional wind power market focused on windfarms.

We’re not competing with those manufacturers,” Richter explains. “Our market is the growing market of decentralised power generation.

100% renewable energy production is only possible with a decentralised energy economy.

We need a mix of renewable energy sources managed by IT solutions in a decentralised main grid, but at the moment there’s no technology to use wind economically and our technology fits perfectly into that niche.”

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BKTECH

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BKTECH

WE LEARN HOW AN ATTEMPT TO RECYCLE SOME FELLED TREES BECAME A VALUABLE PLAYER IN THE RENEWABLE ENERGY SECTOR.

A SWEDISH SUCCESS STORY PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

It all started on a dark and stormy night. It is a classic opening for a reason, but for BKtech it is also true. “The company was

founded due to the aftermath of a giant storm in southeast Sweden in 2005. A lot of the trees in the forest in south Sweden were damaged, a lot of trees were about to be destroyed,” explains Jimmy Rylander, BKtech’s CEO. “The company’s founder decided to start a factory to make wooden pulps from all these fallen trees. He was the son of a forest owner in the south-east of Sweden, so he had a lot of forests to take care of.”

B

Ktech’s first factory was built close to the founder’s family home, and in 2005 he started to produce wooden pellets for use in boilers and burners. He would sell them to villa owners and the industries within a 100km radius. As the business grew, he saw there was demand not just for the wooden pellets, but for the boilers and burners themselves.

“He started to develop his own boilers and burners business, at first pretty small facilities, and some years later he started to build even to industrial scale,” Rylander recalls. “These weren’t

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about producing energy, they were producing water steam and hot water.”

The business continued to grow over the following decade, until eventually it could no longer be contained on the founder’s parents’ farm. He bought a new facility and started to build mobile energy centers for industry fulltime. In 2017 the factory started to build the products it is still producing today, energy centers for industry producing water steam and hot water.

“By 2017 we had a turnover of around £2 million, and today we have a turnover of approximately £20 million,” Rylander says. “We

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BKTECH

have upgraded 30 different facilities in Sweden where we’ve delivered our energy centers. And that is where we are today.”

Rylander himself is a relative newcomer to this story, taking on the ground of Group CEO for BKtech last November.

From the outset, however, he has been able to see that BKtech has something special.

“We are building pretty largescale energy solutions, but they’re still mobile so we can drive them out to the customer,” Rylander points out. “We build and integrate everything in our own factory and drive it to the customer, even up to 15 MW. That’s unique. We’re the first in Sweden and probably the world to be able to produce 15 MW facilities that are 100% mobile.”

BKtech’s energy centers can be put on wooden skates and rolled into facilities already in place or set on a foundation that BKtech constructs adjacent to a factory.

THE CASE FOR SAVINGS

While the business has been growing consistently, it can still face challenges in winning over new customers.

“It almost always comes down to the financial side of things,” Rylander acknowledges.

“When a customer wants to go renewable in the energy field it means working in a field that is not what they do for a living.

Our customers want to produce products, launder clothes, peel

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potatoes etc.

So, when it comes to energy, this is not their daily business.”

That means it can be difficult to convince customers of the benefits of investing £1-3 million in an energy facility to become renewable. However, as Rylander points out, the case for BKtech’s solutions is a strong one.

“That is normally the biggest issue. They don’t understand why they should invest,” Rylander says. “But actually if we compare what we can give them and what they can get from gas or oil, we can produce the same amount of energy, but make it 40 to 50% cheaper to produce with wooden pellets or wooden powder even if they invest in a totally new facility. We normally make a ten-year contract with the customer. Over ten years they will save between 40 and 50% by changing from oil or gas to renewable fuels.”

As well as offering excellent value for money, BKtech’s energy centers can also be installed with the minimum of disruption to ongoing business functionality.

“We don’t interact with the customer’s own production processes for more than a week,” Rylander explains.

“They can have their production ongoing and produce their own energy and we put our

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BKTECH

installation on the cart, drive it to the production site, put it on the foundation, connect it to their factory and when we’re done they can stop their old oil burner and start ours. It’s seamless.”

While BKtech is looking to move into manufacturing its own boilers, it has also depended on strong relationships with a number of key suppliers, including VEÅ AB. “In the lower range of 1-15 MW we’re using VEÅ AB’s boilers and will probably continue to do so for many years to come,” Rylander says. “What we’re developing right now is a high-capacity range, with a smaller boiler than what we get from VEÅ AB but with similar capacity.”

“We think we will be there within three years from now, we’re growing very fast,” Rylander says. “We’ve started to get a lot of questions from outside Sweden, but we’re focusing on the Swedish market for now. We have a new sales director we’re putting in place and then we will be a bit more proactive in the world markets.”

To prepare the company to meet those markets, BKtech is once again looking at expansion.

“We have limited space where we are today. So, one of the next steps is to build new

facilities, boilers, burners and power plants,” Rylander says.

“The first will probably be in Sweden, but we’ve also ones coming in northern parts of Europe. It is possible we will be in Great Britain. Although we produce everything in our plant today it is easier to have people on-site who come from the country we are going to deliver to, to get past language barriers, for example. So we want to have partners in each country, agents, start-ups to sell things for us in different markets. That will be the next step in our international expansions.”

READY FOR GROWTH

Over the last four years, BKtech has seen its revenue grow by 1,000%, and its next goal is to grow its turnover from 200 million Swedish kronor to 1 billion.

“WE ARE BUILDING PRETTY LARGE ENERGY SOLUTIONS, BUT THEY’RE STILL MOBILE SO WE CAN DRIVE THEM OUT TO THE CUSTOMER.”

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ALPHA MANUFACTURING

ALPHA MANUFACTURING, THE AWARD-WINNING CUSTOM METAL FABRICATION COMPANY, CONTINUES TO INVEST IN SMART DEVELOPMENT.

MOVING TO SMART OPERATIONS

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ALPHA MANUFACTURING

Alpha Manufacturing, based in Hixon in Staffordshire, is an industry-leading subcontract sheet metal fabrication supplier.

The company was initially established within the Bri-Stor Group, a UK-based vehicle conversion company, to meet internal demand for metal components, but now 75% of the business is generated by external customers across a range of sectors from automotive and construction to retail and health care.

A

lpha’s extensive capabilities in CAD design, prototyping, laser cutting, laser/punch combination, CNC punching, CNC folding, turning and machining, welding, powder coating and assembly mean that

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the company can offer the complete sub-contract service.

Managing Director Paul Clews says: “Over the last decade, the business has grown to offer a complete “one-stop shop” for customers

Paul Clews, MD, Alpha Manufacturing.

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Innovation-Led Industrial Electronics Darlington EMS is an innovation-led supplier of contract electronic manufacturing services, based in south Manchester. We specialise in PCB assembly, wiring harnesses, panel build and design, providing a full service from concept and prototyping through to production. We are a trusted supply chain partner to customers operating in a range of industry sectors including automotive / vehicle conversion, lifting equipment, instrumentation and control equipment.

Darlington EMS Ltd Unit 1A Castlehill, Bredbury Park Ind. Estate Stockport, SK6 2SU, United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)161 494 2059 E: enquiries@darlingtonems.co.uk

www.darlingtonems.co.uk

DARLINGTON EMS Darlington EMS is a leading supplier of contract electronic manufacturing services. We provide a full service from concept and prototyping through to production including PCB assembly, wiring harnesses, bespoke panel build and a comprehensive design consultation and support service. We have exceptional in-house skill and capability and strive to achieve manufacturing excellence in everything that we do.

We are a supportive and trusted supply chain partner. Our experience spans multiple sectors and our customers include leading organisations in automotive / vehicle conversion, instrumentation, lifting equipment and others. We work with our customers to understand their unique needs and requirements, solve their challenges and get things right.

We have excellent documentation control processes and our facility operates in accordance with Lean manufacturing principles to ensure optimum efficiency.

This enables us to be flexible and responsive to our customers’ needs while delivering uncompromising quality. Delivering the highest standards of quality is a key focus and we are proud to be accredited to ISO 9001.

We continually invest in the talent in our business, with ongoing training and development opportunities for each member of our team. This, combined with our commitment to embracing the latest technology and innovation in our industry, has secured our reputation as a best in class contract electronics manufacturer.

If you would like more information on how we can help you, please give our team a call on 0161 494 2059 or email: enquiries@darlingtonems.co.uk www.darlingtonems.co.uk

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Proud partner of Alpha Manufacturing for over 20 years.

Freight Options Ltd Unit 4A, Grindley Business Village Uttoxeter, ST18 0LR UK E: speedybobs@hotmail.co.uk T: +44 (0)1785 616129 M: +44 (0)7432 735845

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ALPHA MANUFACTURING

with sheet metal fabrication and integration requirements.

This is also what distinguishes us from our competitors, who mostly operate a limited range of specific machines with a lower level of automation and robotisation.”

“We offer a full metal design and engineering service, nationwide delivery of our finished products and quick turnaround prototyping capabilities, all under one roof.

Moreover, our wealth of design and engineering knowledge enables us to advise customers on enhancements for reduced cost and increased efficiency, which ultimately brings their operating cost down,” he points out.

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“OVER THE LAST DECADE, THE BUSINESS HAS GROWN TO OFFER A COMPLETE “ONE-STOP SHOP” FOR CUSTOMERS WITH SHEET METAL FABRICATION REQUIREMENTS.” SMART FACTORY

Over the years, Alpha Manufacturing has developed a cutting-edge facility capable of operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Consistent investment in the latest and most sophisticated machines and equipment available to the metalwork sector has enabled the company to stay at the forefront of the industry.

In 2020, the company achieved an important milestone - the completion of its first fiveyear phase of an extensive investment programme worth over £4 million, the purpose of which was to secure Alpha’s position as one of the most technically advanced factories in the industry, utilising hightech machine automation to realise a smart factory vision.

Installations included stateof-the-art automated sheet metal processing machines such as the Trumpf TruBend Cell 7000, TruPunch 5000, Trumatic 6000 and Salavagnini P4 Lean Panel Bender. All of which have full autonomous integration with the excellent STOPA Automated Storage System, extended in 2020. The entire system now runs for 62 metres down the centre of the Alpha factory

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ALPHA MANUFACTURING

and houses in excess of 600 tonnes of raw material and partprocessed items with a total of 207 pallet spaces available.

Paul Clews says: “We’ve achieved everything we set out to do and more, and this final investment will take us to our goal in terms of automation and efficiency. We’re not unique in buying the best machinery; a lot of companies have highspecification technology.

However, we aim to differentiate in our operations, through the highest levels of efficiency and productivity. “ “The STOPA system provides the ability to identify, locate and deliver any piece of sheet steel, punched/laser part or folded sub-assembly to any location at the touch of a button. In doing this, we dramatically reduce the amount of waste from our processes in terms of people movement and component transportation.”

been manufactured. Protective screens are also being produced for a leading internal screening supplier and just recently, the first units of a new range of integrated sanitisation and cleaning stations were completed ready for distribution into the stores of a leading UK retail brand.

“During the first UK lockdown, we initially reduced our manufacturing operations to a skeleton staff but we were soon back to full production with new, effective safety guidelines implemented across the business to meet a spike in demand for various Covidrelated products - a market we knew nothing about a year ago,” says Paul Clews. He affirms that the supply for the company’s traditional sectors will continue, with these new jobs boosting the business until the existing customers demand resumes.

DIVERSIFYING THROUGH THE PANDEMIC

THE HUMAN FACTOR

He further acknowledges that the company has now moved to its Vision 2025, a strategic plan for the next five years that sets out KPIs plus further investment in more automation and robotisation as well as continued reduction of the carbon footprint. The company will thus continue its journey towards digital transformation, undeterred by the current pandemic.

Alpha’s factory never completely stopped production throughout the entire lockdown period, primarily due to demand from customers involved in supporting key workers and companies providing protective equipment.

Demand for sanitisation units rocketed with Alpha producing 300 per day during peak production and to date, over 10,000 units have

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While investment in automation will dramatically reduce the amount of manual labour on the shop floor, the management of Alpha Manufacturing is aware that human resources will continue to be a key part of the expected business growth.

To this end, the company encourages and trains every member of its team to develop their own individual skills to maximise the company’s potential and also considers the younger generation, its future engineers.

The Bri-Stor Group launched its fully-accredited Apprenticeship Scheme in 2010, attracting 100 apprentices to date, of which around 30 have been recruited by Alpha Manufacturing since. Many of its apprentices go on to further their careers in the business, and those with exceptionally high levels of drive and determination go on to achieve a Level 4 qualification, with the opportunity to gain a full degree.

“I AM PASSIONATE ABOUT PROMOTING THIS WAY OF TRAINING THAT BRINGS SUCH VALUE TO BUSINESSES, AND IT IS EXCITING TO SEE THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE NEXT GENERATION OF ENGINEERS FOR THE FUTURE.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

ALPHA MANUFACTURING

“I am passionate about promoting this way of training that brings such value to businesses, and it is exciting to see the development of the next generation of engineers for the future,” says Paul Clews. “We have so many success stories in our company of people who started at 16 on the shop floor and progressed all the way up - including myself and my counterpart Simon Webb, who is Managing Director of our sister company Bri-Stor Systems. It is not just university graduates who can become company directors.”

“The fact that apprenticeship has become again a valued and recognised path of education, offering some great opportunities, will bring far-reaching benefits.

Developing local technical skills is the key to making British manufacturing great again,” he concludes, affirming that Alpha Manufacturing is proud to participate in that development.

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JEKKO

Diego Tomasella, Jekko CEO & President.

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JEKKO

LOCATED IN THE HEART OF ITALY’S NORTH-EASTERN INDUSTRIAL REGION, JEKKO IS INCREASING ITS GLOBAL MARKET SHARE WITH ITS VERSATILE, EFFICIENT AND GREEN MINI CRANES.

MAXIMUM VERSATILITY, ENDLESS POSSIBILITIES PROJECT MANAGED BY: CONNOR LOVE

Jekko, a leading global mini crane manufacturer, is capitalising on more than 45 years of experience in the lifting and handling sector.

Formerly part of Ormet, a specialist in truck cranes and loading equipment, the Jekko brand was officially registered in 2007, and the business was eventually divested as an independent company in 2016.

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he first mini crane prototype was developed exactly 20 years ago, in 2000, and the innovative and alternative solutions soon generated considerable interest in the market. Today, the company offers cutting-edge lifting solutions, namely mini cranes and articulated crawler cranes on tracks, ideal for operations in restricted spaces.

Jekko exports its products all over the world via a network of more than 35 official dealers. The

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company is particularly strong in Europe with a new German subsidiary just established to support sales in Europe’s largest market. In line with rising demand, the company has recently expanded its capacity, acquiring an additional plant, and now runs three facilities (around 28.000 m2) employing more than 100 people.

REVOLUTIONARY SOLUTION

Jekko’s product range includes telescopic mini crawler cranes, articulated cranes on tracks, mini pickers and telescopic cranes on tracks with cab, of various dimensions and lifting capacities.

The company also offers a wide range of attachments including hook or hydraulic jibs, grabber handlers for pipes and beams, vacuum lifters for glass panes as well as lifting beams.

The innovative machines are designed to operate both indoor and outdoor in areas

which are difficult to access or characterised by uneven terrain, such as residential construction, renovation works, glass handling, industrial maintenance, mining, oil and gas industry, and many others.

“Jekko strongly believes in the importance of continuous innovation to be able to offer cutting-edge and safe products to its customers. For this purpose, we have established Jekko Innovation Centre (JIC) which is responsible not only for in-house research and development but also for external projects,” says Managing Director Diego Tomasella.

In line with its innovative focus, the company has recently launched a ground-breaking product - a new JF545 V-Max model, a revolutionary solution that improves on the versatility and multitasking characteristics of the company’s previous flagship, the JF545.

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JEKKO

“JF545 V-Max is the new version of the JF545 articulated crawler crane, one of our bestselling models already known for its great versatility and many other strengths,” says Mr Tomasella. “The name “V-Max” speaks for itself, where V stands for versatility and Max for maximum. We believe that the JF545 V-Max has huge potential and that it will be a very catchy solution for both our established customers and new buyers. We’re already receiving many requests.”

The JF545 V-Max has a wide range of applications, from its traditional use in construction, industry, logistics and handling or laying in confined spaces to more innovative applications.

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and suitable to be used with many different tools while still being user-friendly.

Mr Tomasella points out that the new JF545 V-Max stands out in particular when used with a grapple saw applied in greenarea maintenance. “We believe that our solution will bring a revolution in the tree care industry. Pruning and felling activities have always been risky for operators, using more than one machine at a time. The new JF545 V-Max with grapple saw allows the operator to cut, rest on the ground and sort the branches or trunks with a single tool.”

“The operator can remotely control both the crane and the grapple saw from a safe distance and with a broader view - a real turning point in terms of safety.

Moreover, thanks to its compact dimensions, the machine has a good reach in extremely

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JEKKO

confined and narrow spaces getting as near as possible to the work area.”

TWO DECADES OF GROWTH

With the new model the company aims to raise the bar of multi-tool and multitasking machines to the very top: thanks to an additional and independent hydraulic circuit, the jib of the JF545 V-Max fits an even wider range of tools. The product has already generated considerable interest in the United States and Canada as well as in Europe, including Italy, Germany, France, Holland, Finland, Norway, and many others.

Safety and versatility are not the only attributes that Jekko’s machines have to offer. In line with recent trends, environmental protection and sustainability play an increasing part in the design. “Our projects reflect the inclination towards ‘greener solutions’ such as battery-powered machines and electric engines,” affirms Mr Tomasella. “We decided to focus on lithium batteries: they perform better and last longer than standard batteries, and both customers and the environment can benefit from this solution.”

Speaking about recent market developments, he admits that the business has been affected

by Covid-19, as customers’ behaviour changed towards more economical solutions, meaning that the company learned to be versatile, focusing on lean production and a faster response.

He affirms that at the beginning of 2021, the company stands strong. “In 2020 Jekko reached a double milestone: at the JDL exhibition in France, we delivered to our French dealer, ATN Platforms, our 2000th crane, exactly 20 years after

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the first mini crane prototype was designed. The 2000th unit was a new SPX650 model, one of the latest designs by Jekko, officially launched last July.”

The company is set to continue to invest in both R&D to develop new models to complement the product range and in its manufacturing capability. Right now, a new production line is being installed that will double capacity. To this

end, staff numbers are planned to increase by about 5%.

In concluding, Mr Tomasella affirms that Jekko’s future looks promising: “Considering the forecast for the 2021 budget, we have a very good feeling for the next 18 months. Our vision is to grow the market that is searching for specific and “green” equipment such as the machines we already have in our product range.”

SPX650 model, the latest mini crane presented by Jekko.

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

WOODWARD L’ORANGE, A PIONEER IN STATE-OF-THE-ART INJECTION TECHNOLOGY, IS USING ITS INNOVATIVE STRENGTH TO MEET THE DEMAND FOR SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS.

MARINE INDUSTRY GOES GREEN PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

Woodward L’Orange GmbH, a German engineering manufacturing company headquartered in Stuttgart, is a leading manufacturer of injection systems for diesel engines worldwide, currently employing some 1,400 people at its locations in Germany, the USA and China.

Common-rail injector for 2-stroke applications: up to 5 injectors per cylinder either in pilot injection mode or in HFO main injection mode.

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

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he company offers the entire product range in injection systems, including state-of-the-art common-rail technology for a range of applications such as marine power and propulsion systems, oil and gas processing, power generation, locomotives and special-application vehicles.

Dr Andreas Lingens, General Manager and Vice President,

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Woodward L’Orange, points out that in terms of market share and innovative technology, L’Orange is a market leader, with the largest number of applications in service across all industrial engine segments high-speed, medium-speed, low-speed, within the 1 to 60 MW range.

L´Orange pioneered the evolution of common-rail technology with its world-

first launch in 1997 of the S4000 MTU high-speed diesel engine.

Today, L’Orange’s common-rail systems are used in all 3 engine categories, in high speed, medium and low speed.

While common-rail technology is associated with diesel engines, it is also used to ignite the gas-air charge in dual-fuel marine and Powergen engines.

Reducing emissions and greenhouse gases (GHG) throughout all applications ranks among Woodward L’Orange’s top priorities. Due to the very different types of applications with their respective duty cycles and use cases, there is a variety of emission legislations specific to each engine application and each region of the world. The marine engine legislation mandated by the IMO (International Maritime Organization) has the biggest environmental impact due to its worldwide span and its relevance for all 3 engine categories.

The latest amendments coming into force in 2020 and 2021 to reduce marine engine sulphur oxide and nitrogen oxide emissions, respectively, pushed for significant technology evolution in fuel systems and exhaust after-treatment. In addition, the IMO has committed to decreasing the marine industry’s total emissions of climate-damaging gases by 50% by 2050 (versus 2008).

Considering the long life of vessels (typically 30 years of operation), the maritime industry and its partners are taking rapid action to develop relevant solutions.

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

High-pressure dual-fuel injector for future marine LNG applications: injects diesel pilot (or main injection) plus LNG at ~500 bar.

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GREEN DEVELOPMENT

The IMO’s ambitious GHG reduction target is already driving new propulsion system technology and new sustainable fuel solutions. While electrification and hybridization offer opportunities in shortdistance applications, other solutions are required, especially in the area of international sea traffic. These applications require liquid fuels with high volumetric energy density to transport goods and passengers at reasonable transport rates. There are significant opportunities in the carbon content of the fuel and in the engine technology to inject and burn such fuels.

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

The first stage of fuel decarbonization in maritime operation can already be seen.

Liquid natural gas, stored at -163°C onboard a growing number of vessel types (LNG tankers, cruise ships, ferries, container vessels), offers an immediate opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions by 25%. Furthermore, dualfuel technology significantly reduces pollutant emissions (particulates and sulphur oxides by over 90%, nitrogen oxides by over 50%). Dualfuel marine engines burn natural gas (methane) as their main fuel (instead of heavy oil) and employ a diesel fuel pilot injection (1-2% of the energy) to ignite the gas in the combustion chamber. As well as the gas admission valves and controls, Woodward L’Orange supplies the liquid fuel system to the major marine engine builders.

The total effect of GHGreduction, however, cannot fully reach the theoretical 25% improvement natural gas offers over diesel (HFO or MGO). Methane slip into the exhaust system has a high compensating effect due to its high global warming potential.

This is relevant for 4-stroke engines, but much less so for 2-stroke engines.

Woodward L’Orange has taken the detrimental effect of methane slip seriously and for several years has been producing so-called highpressure direct injection systems for LNG. Methane emissions can be almost entirely eliminated by injecting liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the combustion chamber – reducing the total GHG emission by 25%.

The latest Woodward L’Orange HPDI generation currently under development injects LNG into the combustion chamber at 500

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HPDF injector nozzle with 1 central diesel needle and 3 needles for the main fuel.

bar. Diesel, as the pilot injection/ ignition fuel, is injected into the combustion chamber at up to 2200 bar. This new dual-fuel injector generation also allows diesel operation when gas is unavailable.

While some 25% GHG reduction, combined with nearelimination of particulates, sulphur oxides, nitrogen oxides, is available today, the route to near-zero emission is under development. The goal of climate neutrality for marine propulsion systems can be achieved with socalled PtX fuels, which are sustainably produced with

hydrogen as a starting point.

Ammonia and methanol are especially well suited to marine applications since they can be transported in liquid form at moderate pressures and their production process is relatively low in energy consumption.

Woodward L’Orange is already developing such technology with the first series of applications coming in the second half of the decade.

“Our dual-fuel technology allows the transition from diesel to gas, a significant improvement in terms of GHG and pollutant emissions, and with the aid of carbon-neutral

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

fuels, is the route towards nearzero-emissions. We can see demand increasing across all 3 marine engine categories. We have been a market leader in this segment and see our dualfuel technology as an important growth area of our business,” says Dr Lingens.

LOOKING AHEAD

The innovative focus continues to be a strong competitive factor and L’Orange’s diesel technology combined with Woodward’s innovative gas and control systems is a winning factor towards green marine propulsion systems. With the combined scope, the company is now able to deliver complete fuel systems including engine controls. “Innovation will carry us into the future. Our standard level of investment in R&D is around 7% of revenues and seeking new technologies with an increased focus on sustainability will continue to be a core part of our business development,” says Dr Lingens.

“WITH THE HELP OF P2X-FUELS, FUTURE MARITIME PROPULSION SYSTEMS EMIT NEARZERO POLLUTANTS AND ARE GHG-NEUTRAL. OUR CURRENT DUALFUEL SOLUTIONS - USING LOWER-CARBON FUELS SUCH AS LNG OR LPG ALREADY DEMONSTRATE A SIGNIFICANT PROGRESSION DOWN THAT PATH TODAY.” 88 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

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WOODWARD L’ORANGE

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Galo Rivera, MD, Accra Brewery.

ACCRA BREWERY PLC A PROUD PART OF ABInBev

ACCRA BREWERY PLC (ABL) IS ONE OF THE LARGEST BREWERS IN GHANA AND WITH ITS RICH PORTFOLIO OF AUTHENTIC GHANAIAN BRANDS IS SET TO CAPTURE GROWTH IN THE BEER CATEGORY.

BREWING SUCCESS PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

This year, Accra Brewery PLC commemorates its 90th anniversary.

Registered in 1931 under the name of Overseas Breweries Limited for the purposes of establishing a brewing industry in the then Gold Coast, the business developed over the decades under various owners, continuously increasing its footprint. In 1997, SABMiller PLC (then South African Breweries) acquired controlling shares in ABL and in 2016, the company became a member of the largest brewer in the world, Anheuser-Busch (ABInBev).

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ountry Managing Director Galo Rivera, describes the latest developments: “Accra Brewery is a company of owners dedicated to celebrating national pride, creating great moments by brewing and sharing only the finest. Together, we look forward to creating many moments to fulfil our dream of bringing people together for a better world.

We have become a very important operation for the African business, in view of our performance and market potential.”

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“Celebrating 90 years of making beer brands loved by millions of Ghanaians, proud of brewing some of the finest beers in Africa, is a major milestone. This has become even more important in the face of the pandemic - despite restrictions imposed in the spring of last year, we delivered strong double-digit growth in the last six months of 2020, and that growth continues as we speak,” he points out.

FUELLED BY A DREAM

The company holds a portfolio with a range of brands in the following categories: clear beer, stout, flavoured beer, non-alcoholic malt and imported brands, including two of the biggest global brands, Budweiser and Stella Artois.

The clear beer group includes the country’s leading brand, the iconic CLUB Premium lager, and Eagle lager that has recently renewed its look and feel (“New handsome Look, same great taste”). The stout category is best represented by Eagle Extra Stout, a popular, fast-growing beer offered at an attractive price.

“Adding a bit of flavour, we have our much-loved Shandy, with only 2% alcohol - a super refreshing, preferred brand for those who want to stay in control while having a good time. Within the non-alcoholic category we offer a nutritious beverage, Beta Malt, enriched with vitamin B1, B2, B3, B5 and B6,” says Galo Rivera, adding that some innovations will be launched soon.

He explained that the key factor that has pushed the business into its leading position is the company culture.

“Dream, people and culture are our greatest strength. We are a company of owners, who take results personally and lead by example. The people in Accra Brewery are agile, always challenging the status quo, leading by example, not only managing the business but transforming it. We are fuelled by a dream, not a mission or vision a dream takes you beyond what you think is possible, challenging you to achieve the impossible.”

“Our company leaders are what makes ABL a great company, a company that is continuously working to create a diverse

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VODAFONE BUSINESS – A RELIABLE PARTNER FOR BUSINESS SUCCESS IN A DIGITAL WORLD For the past eight years, Vodafone Business has proven to be an invaluable partner in Accra Breweries’ quest to modernise the company’s operations in its goal of providing top-notch beverages for their various customer segments.

Vodafone Business provides seamless connectivity solutions for Accra Breweries, including the provision of high-speed internet services at their local office and a dedicated secure link between their South Africa office and the local office here in Ghana. In addition, Vodafone Business provides tailored mobile services to Accra Breweries’ employees to help Accra Breweries fulfil its business mandate, which has provided critical support amidst the COVID-19 pandemic in ensuring business continuity; and allowing Accra staff Breweries to collaborate seamlessly even when working remotely or virtually.

By connecting people, places and things, Vodafone Business helps organisations to succeed in a digital world. With unmatched expertise in connectivity backed by a World-class Internet of Things (IoT) platform, they have repeatedly delivered digital innovations tailored to drive business success across a wide-ranging variety of sectors ranging from FMCG, Pharmaceuticals, Extractive, Commerce, Mining, Agriculture, Government, Education to various SME and SOHO businesses.

Businesses need flexible, easy-to-use technology to stay relevant and competitive in the rapidly changing world of work. Vodafone Business fills this gap astutely by helping client businesses embrace digital technologies to stay ahead.

Their range of simple-to-use, worry-free and cost-effective digital communications solutions comprise: - - - - - -

Mobile and business connectivity Fixed data networks Cloud and Hosting Internet of Things (IoT) Unified Communications Mobile Money

Having worked with Vodafone Business for close to a decade and experienced remarkable business returns, and having observed their growing track record of similar success stories in other sectors, Accra Breweries can vouch for their relevant expertise and fully recommends their services to any business which seeks to stay ahead in an increasingly digital world.

www.vodafone.com.gh/business/smart-business/

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ACCRA BREWERY PLC A PROUD PART OF ABInBev

and inclusive environment that fosters opportunities for everyone to grow at the pace of their talents. Through our culture, we ensure we have the best people, and with the best people we can deliver the best beer,” he affirms.

ABL has a number of training programmes in place for each department, run by each leader and supported at the global level to make sure employees stay engaged, continuously developing, not afraid of making mistakes on their journey. “Mistakes are a source of learning and I try to convey the following message to my team: we don’t lose - we either WIN or LEARN,” says Mr Rivera.

STANDING STRONG

As a responsible employer, the company is also very aware of its social role.

Sustainability and corporate social responsibility are crucial to the company’s strategy, embodied in a number of widereaching initiatives to support young people, education and the health sector. An example is the Smart Drinking and Road Safety initiatives to further create awareness and educate consumers to drink responsibly.

Last year, ABL started a partnership with Environment360 (E360) and Miniplast Limited, under which women waste pickers were employed to collect empty Beta Malt plastic bottles for recycling.

E360 supervises the collection of the empty Beta Malt PET bottles which are weighed, recorded and valued to pay the waste pickers. The empty bottles are then transported to Miniplast Ltd. to be recycled and made into tables, chairs and bowls that are sold locally while the rest is exported.

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Support to local communities has been intensified during the pandemic. The company provided 10,000 bottles of hand sanitiser to the Ghana Health Service to support front line workers, and hand sanitiser was also donated to the Adabraka Polyclinic, the Association of Ghana Industries and the Adabraka community. ABL has also strived to enforce the safety protocols, to help the economy to recover fast.

While handling Covid-19 has been a challenge, the pandemic has intensified efforts to achieve internal improvements and highlighted the importance of partnerships.

At times of limited personal contact, Vodafone Ghana was one of those that proved to be a key player in providing modern technologies for the delivery of reliable connectivity so that the business could keep running remotely.

“Supported by our partners, we have learned to be agile, creative and insightful, and reflecting the shift in market preferences we have achieved an impressive business growth and zero job losses due to Covid-19,” Mr Rivera summarises the recent business performance.

“That is something to build on in years to come. We stand strong, geared towards another 90 years, aiming to create more jobs, and positively impact our communities. There are great opportunities ahead and we will continue to support and actively participate in Ghana’s economic development.”

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ACCRA BREWERY PLC A PROUD PART OF ABInBev

“WE ARE FUELLED BY A DREAM, NOT A MISSION OR VISION - A DREAM TAKES YOU BEYOND WHAT YOU THINK IS POSSIBLE, CHALLENGING YOU TO ACHIEVE THE IMPOSSIBLE.”

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ALGALIF ICELAND

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ALGALIF ICELAND

FROM THEIR HOME IN ICELAND, ALGALIF IS LEADING THE WAY IN SUPPLYING HIGH-GRADE NATURAL ASTAXANTHIN PRODUCTS.

LEADING A YOUNG INDUSTRY PROJECT MANAGED BY: DEAN BROWN

Algalif’s mission is to help solve the nutritional needs of current and future generations through the development and delivery of sustainable, high-quality microalgae ingredients. As well as producing astaxanthin products, Algalif also possesses a portfolio of immune-health ingredients under the Nutramunity™ Beta-Glucan (NBG®) brand, for use in food, beverages, nutraceuticals, sports nutrition, and personal care products.

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Orri Bjornsson, Algalif Iceland’s CEO.

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he business is part of the international ingredients company Sana Pharma Holding, which was founded in 2002 to work in the ingredient manufacturing, food supplements, medical devices and over-the-counter medicines sectors. Sana Pharma has presences in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic, and a team of more than 150 employees.

As part of that group, Algalif is able to provide high-grade natural astaxanthin products from microalgae, including ingredients and finished formulations.

“We’re a biotechnology company using and selling microalgae products since 2014. We’re based in Iceland after starting out in Norway and have mostly been focused on

selling one ingredient called astaxanthin,” explains Orri Bjornsson, Algalif Iceland’s CEO. “The business has been growing fast since the beginning. We had a $10 million turnover in 2020 and expect to achieve $13 million this year. We have 40 employees here in Iceland and have started investing $31 million with an expansion project starting this spring making us the biggest astaxanthin producer in the world.”

CLEAN ALGAE

Algalif has committed itself to providing a reliable supply of high-quality, pure, sustainable astaxanthin from algae. The company’s specialised indoor production process has been designed for pure Icelandic water and renewable energy to deliver high yields of premium quality.

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With a lifetime of over 50 years and a consistently high light transmission, glass offers a cost effective and productive solution.

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“We grow our algae here in Iceland. We use renewable energy for everything we do.

We have an abundance of fresh water in Iceland, unlike some other companies working with microalgae,” Bjornsson tells us. “We have very high-quality production processes, with strong levels of control at every stage. So when all of that is brought together with the fact that Iceland is a green country, most of our customers prefer to buy from us because of the clear quality of the product for use in a variable environment.”

Indeed, Algalif’s Icelandic location is a crucial part of the company’s identity. The country provides the perfect starting point for Algalif’s algae cultivation in its astoundingly pristine environment, free of contaminants and pollutants, as well as access to abundant, pure water and a continuous supply of renewable energy.

This last advantage is critical, as astaxanthin production needs energy, and electricity

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ALGALIF ICELAND

requirements can be a huge contributor to the environmental footprints of manufacturers that rely on non-renewable energy resources such as fossil fuels.

Iceland is rich in hydro and geothermal resources and generates 100% of its electricity from clean energy. Having access to that is an essential part of Algalif’s process in bringing its products to the marketplace.

The Algalif facility draws 100% of its power from geothermal energy, and its proprietary lighting system enables that facility to reduce overall energy consumption by 50%, in addition to providing for optimal microalgae growth, productivity and yield.

As well as electricity, water is another essential ingredient in the growth of algae, and once again, Iceland gives Algalif access to an abundant supply of some of the purest water in the world. Icelandic water is extremely clean, low in minerals and almost sterile from its source. However, just because this water is plentiful doesn’t mean Algalif will be wasteful with it.

Algalif’s production methods allow for close to 0% water evaporation, where some other manufacturers lose up to 20% of water per day. Algalif minimizes cooling, heating and water movement during its production process, drastically reducing water-waste in the facility.

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“WE HAVE AN ABUNDANCE OF FRESH WATER IN ICELAND, UNLIKE SOME OTHER COMPANIES WORKING WITH MICROALGAE.” A GROWING INDUSTRY

Algalif is off to a strong start, with a healthy, and growing business.

“We’ve done quite well from the beginning, especially in the last two-to-three years. We see a bright future and the market is growing steadily,” says Bjornsson.

However, Bjornsson is also quick to point out that this is only the start of their journey.

“This industry is very new and undeveloped in many ways, so when we started, we had many challenges to overcome,” Bjornsson says. “The technology wasn’t fully developed and we had to replan and reorganise most of our major systems. The light installations, for instance, weren’t the right type so we had to change that completely.

We had to install cooling units to control the temperature because the heat created from using a lot of energy. There were a lot of technological challenges but in the last few years we’ve been doing very well in solving those issues completely without too much of a hardship for the company.”

That they are operating in such a young industry brings other challenges with it as well, particularly in terms of human resources.

“Because the industry is undeveloped there is not an abundance of talent out there.

So, our focus has been on retaining people as long as possible, finding people with good background and good education, and keep training them,” Bjornsson says. “We send them to seminars and conferences to develop their skills and they stay with us in the long run. We have a core team that has stayed with us for many years.”

But while the industry is young, with the energy, water and human resources Algalif has behind it, Bjornsson is predicting great things for the future of the company.

“I see us growing quite fast over the next three or four years to become the biggest producer of astaxanthin in the world,” he says. “I foresee us expanding our offering into other kinds of algae over the next two-toten years. We can develop the market in significant volumes and become one of the biggest microalgae growers in the world with our expertise helping us to continue to grow for the foreseeable future.”

“I SEE US GROWING QUITE FAST OVER THE NEXT THREE OR FOUR YEARS TO BECOME THE BIGGEST PRODUCER OF ASTAXANTHIN IN THE WORLD.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

ALGALIF ICELAND

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BALADNA DAIRY

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BALADNA DAIRY

TEACHING WE LEARN HOW A QATARI DAIRY IS BECOMING AN EXEMPLAR OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY.

SELF-SUFFICIENCY PROJECT MANAGED BY: HAYDEN TURNER

Just to the north of the Qatari city Doha, spread over an area of 2.5 million square metres, sits the Baladna Dairy. This state-of-the-art facility provides enough capacity to house 24,000 cows in a comfortable and well-conditioned environment, allowing them to reach their production capacity in comfort. Baladna Dairy’s farms have been specifically designed to mitigate significant changes in climate, protecting their cows while giving each animal sufficient space to move freely.

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he animals are milked through a modern mechanism using milk quantity readers. The milk is then put through Baladna’s onsite factory that offers filling and packaging, as well as production facilities for dairy products including cheese and sweets such as Halawat Al-Jubn and Majuqa.

This is all done in aid of Baladna Dairy’s mission, ensuring customers’ wellness through offering natural, nutritious and tasty foods and

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beverages while maintaining the most rigorous food safety and biosecurity protocols. In doing this, Baladna Dairy hopes to become the most trusted brand of nutritional foods and healthy beverages in Qatar, while also expanding into new markets.

Baladna Dairy’s journey to achieve these goals is guided by a strong, founding set of principles. First among these is the importance of food security, ensuring the satisfaction of Baladna’s customers and exceeding their expectations.

Next is a commitment to raising the level of veterinary care, using the best veterinarians and their expertise to promote the healthcare of its cattle.

Taking care of its livestock is a clear priority for the company, which cooperates with experts in livestock breeding and production.

In this way, Baladna Dairy is about to provide high-quality food products through the best international practices, while adhering to traditional

Qatari values: Showing pride in its achievements, hospitality and adhering to tradition, selfreliance and responsibility.

But perhaps one of Baladna Dairy’s key values is sustainability, and in their pursuit of this aim, Baladna has become an example for the industry to follow.

AN EXAMPLE TO FOLLOW

Baladna has risen to the position it occupies now through adversity. The company was one of the key factors in helping Qatar achieve dairy selfsufficiency after a diplomatic crisis led to the country being blockaded by its neighbours.

“Before the 2017 crisis, Qatar was in a situation where 90% of local dairy was being imported, so there was tremendous foreign reliance,” explained Malcolm Jordan Baladna’s CEO. Qatar is not the last country to face these challenges, but the lessons Baladna has learned are ones it is keen to pass on to others. Recently, the company has started working with the

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SUPREME INTERNATIONAL Supreme International is a proud partner of Baladna Dairy and was honored to be chosen as the Feed Processor supplier for this project. We are delighted to be partnered with Baladna Dairy in their journey building one of the most technologically advanced, productive dairy operations in the region. The challenges associated with securing global food supply are immense, our diverse international experience and our 25 plus years of TMR feeding in the region allowed us to bring an expertise and confidence in providing reliable, proven feeding technology to Baladna Dairy. We are excited to be part of Baladna Dairys’ mission of providing farm fresh, nutritious dairy products to the region markets and beyond.

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BALADNA DAIRY

government of Malaysia to help it establish its own dairy self-sufficiency. Indeed, Jordan believes that there are many parallels to be drawn between the challenges facing both Malaysia and Qatar.

“Malaysia is actually in a very similar situation right now – 97% of the country’s dairy is being imported. It may have a lot of farms locally, but not many of these are for dairy,” Jordan said. “The climatic conditions in Malaysia are also presenting challenges we’ve more or less seen before, a situation where it is challenging for dairy farming and for obtaining economically viable yields. One of our main challenges there in the start is to create a suitable environment to thrive even when it’s hot and humid such that high yields, maybe around 40L per cow, can be obtained.”

Qatar’s success in establishing its own food security has made it a go-to destination for other countries that are facing issues in that area, and Malaysia in particular had reached out to the Qatari government before Baladna was involved.

“We are now working with the government-run Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA) on this project – FELCRA has about 250,000 hectares of farmland currently mainly used for palm oil and we’re at the planning and development stage right now, finalising our business case,” Jordan has explained. “We’ve got some suitable sites in mind and worked out arable crops to feed cattle and other details, so will be announcing the agreement formally in the next few months – progress has not been helped by the pandemic,

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to be honest, but we’re definitely still committed to the project.”

Malaysia may be only the beginning of the journey for Baladna, however, with many other locations across South East Asia and Africa looking to establish self-sufficiency.

The need for this kind of guidance has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has also driven a number of other consumer trends across the food and beverage industry in Qatar and the Middle East as a whole.

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“Apart from the underlying trends which have remained unchanged such as quality, freshness and taste, we now see a lot more cooking at home and demand for local products,” said Jordan. “The local aspect especially has been growing for a bit, but we expect this to be amplified much more moving

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forward post-COVID-19 now that people are aware about the importance of food security.”

Baladna sees itself as having a significant responsibility when it comes to food security within Qatar, and even before government COVID-19 guidance came in, it was taking every precaution. This

meant appointing crisis teams to drastically increasing the company’s safety stock levels in case of disruptions to supply routes. Baladna Dairy increased its stock of milk proteins and hydrocolloids to last six months, and cattle feed to last a year.

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BALADNA DAIRY

NEW PROSPECTS

As well as sharing what they have learned, Baladna’s people are also open to learning new things themselves, and the company has launched 80 new product SKUs over 2020 to keep up with the latest trends.

These new products span across every category from milk to yoghurt to creams and more.

“We’ve already launched 50 of these new SKUs, and 30 more will be launched over the next few months,” Jordan has said.

“Especially before Ramadan, that’s when some of the most major launches such as cooking creams and whipping creams will come so people can cook for the festival season. We’re also dabbling into the juices category and have 100% mango and guava juices with no sugar added, as well as long-life juices with a six to nine-month shelf life.”

We cannot wait to see what they do next.

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EYETHU BEVERAGES SOUTH AFRICA

WHEN THESE TWO ENTREPRENEURS LAUNCHED THEIR OWN BEVERAGE COMPANY, THEY HAD BIG PLANS. THEN 2020 HAPPENED. THEIR PLANS HAVE HAD TO CHANGE BUT THEIR AMBITION HASN’T.

CREATING SOUTH AFRICAN BEVERAGES PROJECT MANAGED BY: MALVERN KANDEMWA

When Mike Veysie and Ndumiso Madlala, both business veterans, decided to launch a company together, they did so with a strong vision in mind.

“Our strategy from the company’s inception was to acquire assets at well below Net Asset Value and put management structures in place to grow the business and develop our own brands and do a lot of contract work,” Madlala recalls. “It was founded in 2019 by myself and Mike Veysie. We acquired our first asset in August 2019, a cidery, and we started off supplying a traditional (Multinational) client, but in future we intend to launch our own brands.”

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etween them, Madlala and Veysie were a powerhouse of experience in the beverage sector.

“From a management perspective both Ndumiso and I have considerable and unique experience,” Veysie points out.

“I’ve been in the industry for 26 years, Ndumiso was the founder of a company called Soweto Gold, which was the first breakthrough in converting a craft beer into the mainstream in South Africa.”

As well as their wealth of experience, the pair had also purchased a unique asset that would prove a huge boon for the business even in troubled times.

“In terms of our current unique selling point, our plant was built 20 years ago by Bulmers Cider company, then the largest Cider company in the world. Bulmers was subsequently bought by Heineken, and the South African plant was bought by Diageo who then sold it to us. It’s a unique, fully automated site that, despite its size, with a capacity of 40 million litres of cider per annum, can be run by one person. South Africa’s cider market accounts for around 400 million litres, so our site can produce 10% of that total volume,” explains Veysie. “We have a cost-effective production facility and have some great brands, a lot of innovation and a lot of experience in the industry.”

“But what’s key is we also have brands lined up which we’ll be launching very soon with very good South African heritage,” Madlala adds. “One

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brand that we own, was taken off the market in the early 2000s but has very good memories associated with it and we think it’s going to do very well. It was one of the first cider brands in South Africa, so that will be relaunching to the market sometime this year.”

AN INCUBATOR FOR TALENT

On top of its experienced leadership, strong brand and a unique manufacturing facility, from the outset Eyethu also inherited an extremely qualified staff.

“When we bought the business we took over the staff that had been working for Diageo. We had a fairly small staff complement of five people managing this highly automated facility, a very highly skilled and competent staff,” says Veysie.

“Subsequent to that we’ve brought in another five people from around October when we began to pick up additional projects.”

Madlala tells us, “We brought a fully automated plant that requires highly-skilled cider makers. So we’re fortunate to have two highly-skilled cider makers on board.”

Eyethu is also looking to nurture new talent, within and beyond the business.

“We’re bringing in learners as we expand our business and we would like to set up an ‘incubator’ where we can bring in young entrepreneurs and train them up based on our experience, enabling them to work in the industry,” Veysie

says. “We’re working with a company in South Africa to set up these training programmes, creating a training syllabus specific to the food and beverage industry.”

A SOUTH AFRICAN BEVERAGE

However, Madlala and Veysie’s vision wasn’t just about building a new business, it was about creating transformation in a uniquely South African space in a market typically controlled by international corporations.

“What’s important to note is the Liquor industry in South Africa is dominated by large multinationals such as AB InBev, Diageo, Heineken, and Halewood International. There’s been very little opportunity for transformation in this industry,” Madlala points out.

Indeed, Black Economic Empowerment plays a central role in Eyethu’s philosophy.

“The government of South Africa has made a big push to encourage BEE and part of

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EYETHU BEVERAGES SOUTH AFRICA

that process is for companies to receive a scorecard on BEE performance,” explains Veysie.

“Based on that scorecard if they supply to your business you would get certain points. We’re falling behind as a country on empowerment and our vision was to create the largest Blackowned Beverage company in South Africa, including bottling, cider, ready-to-drink and carbonated soft drinks. That’s the all-encompassing vision for this business.”

PIVOTING THE BUSINESS

However, in 2020 that vision would encounter some severe challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown in South Africa. The South African government saw fit to ban the sale of alcoholic products last

March, a move which would have a huge impact on Eyethu.

“Our business was thriving from its inception, it was highly profitable, but from March with the ban on alcohol sales our business came to a halt and we had virtually no business up until October,” Veysie recalls.

Immediately, Veysie and Madlala worked to adapt the business to its new circumstances.

“In October we took a view to pivot our business to use our facilities to generate income to cover our overheads and began working with a major cider producer to enhance their value chain. We now have a whole variety of new projects that weren’t part of our original business plan, but we’ve been pivoting and creating new opportunities to survive through

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the pandemic,” Veysie says.

It meant that Madlala and Veysie’s well-laid plans would have to undergo some changes to keep the business afloat, especially as access to capital became an issue.

“The cider plant was planned as our first acquisition, we then intended to put in high-speed packaging lines to fill ciders, ready-to-drinks and carbonated soft drinks,” says Veysie. “Then we put in an offer to acquire a mid-sized distillery that can do 200,000 litres a month at the end of 2019. Because of the Covid situation, we have decided not to go ahead with that acquisition.

Fortunately, Eyethu’s early successes meant the company had resources to fall back on.

“We were profitable for our first eight months of operation and were self-funding. We had built up a war chest that we used to fund ourselves through the period where we were unable to manufacture. Now

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EYETHU BEVERAGES SOUTH AFRICA

we’re reviewing opportunities to raise capital and finance the new projects,” Veysie says.

While it’s been a turbulent year, talking to Madlala and Veysie it’s clear that their enthusiasm for the company hasn’t been dampened, and neither has their ambition.

“The future? We’ve had to relook at the future,” Veysie admits. “We’ve created new opportunities using the facilities of the factory to cover our overheads and that’s been successful. We are decanting apple juice concentrate, and producing sugar syrup. We’re also looking at producing hand

sanitiser because we have large blending facilities. That’s what we’re doing short term.”

Longer-term is when their real ambition begins to show.

“We’re also looking at export opportunities, supplying the cider base internationally, including a cider producer in Belgium,” Madlala says. “We can produce very competitively, and the key is the launch of our own brands. South Africa is the second largest cider market in the world, after the UK, dominated by Heineken and Distell. We want to be the third-largest player in the cider industry in this country.”

“WE CAN PRODUCE VERY COMPETITIVELY, AND THE KEY IS THE LAUNCH OF OUR OWN BRANDS.”

Ndumiso Madlala COO and Mike Veysie CEO, Eyethu Beverages South Africa.

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ALTRAD

ALTRAD ARE THE CRITICAL HUMAN INFRASTRUCTURE THAT ENHANCES THE LIVES OF MILLIONS,

BY THE VALUE-ADDED SOLUTIONS IT PROVIDES IN SUPPORT OF THE NATION’S VITAL ASSETS.

2026 VISION PROJECT MANAGED BY: GLEN NEWTON

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ALTRAD

“Quite simply, a journey at Altrad begins with a desire to create a better tomorrow,” says Chris Garland, Altrad’s Director of Operations (offshore). This will turn out to be a recurring theme in the discussion about Altrad, a company that aspires to be the most trusted and valued support services company.

With over 7,250 people across the UK and Ireland, Altrad’s goal is to deliver extraordinary outcomes for its clients.

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ut it is also a company that has been going through a period of change, in advance of the launch of the new Altrad 2026 strategy, which was rolled out at the end of February 2021.

“From an external perspective, things might have looked quite quiet during 2020, but the truth is, we have been really busy,” Garland says. “We’ve been learning from the lack of focus and absence of strategic direction of the past – by putting in place a highly motivated, client-oriented organisation that has the skills and competence to deliver value-enhancing solutions to our new and existing clients.”

The new approach has been gathering momentum, as seen in the form of two new contract awards during 2020. The first of these is a contract for the provision of fabric maintenance services for one of the leading oil and gas operators in the southern North Sea. In addition to that, Altrad has been awarded a hookup and commissioning contract for the provision of temporary access, engineering design, insulation, corrosion and fire protection, rigging and LOLER support to enable the hookup and commissioning of the Tolmount offshore gas platform.

“But that’s just the start of our repositioning journey” adds Garland. “We are refocusing our efforts to create deeper, and more meaningful relationships with several new clients and a number of like-minded, strategic partners who share our values, excitement and vision for the future. I hope to be in the position to announce further successes as 2021 unfolds.”

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ALTRAD

A TIME FOR TRANSITION

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Whilst Altrad is changing - their markets are changing faster than at any time in our lifetime, driven by growing concern over climate change, the energy transition and rapidly advancing digital technology.

Garland believes this change will create challenges, but also considerable opportunities for Altrad.

“Whilst we see significant growth potential in our traditional offshore oil and gas markets today to expand our presence, in the longer term these markets will inevitably see a contraction, reflecting lower production levels,” Garland acknowledges. “That said, we have a range of skills that can be deployed to support offshore decommissioning activities as these assets enter the decommissioning and abandonment phase.”

As well as providing its services in the fields of decommissioning, Altrad is also well positioned to aid the growing markets that are rising to take their place in the transition.

“Some of our existing markets such as clean fuels, are experiencing rapid growth and investment, such as renewable energy, nuclear power generation, nuclear new build and nuclear decommissioning,” Garland says. “Indeed, Altrad are well placed to capitalise on such growth opportunities as we support several renewable energy generation assets and have an enviable position in nuclear power generation - as we support EDF’s entire fleet of UK nuclear power stations, via a £350 million contract we signed in early 2020. We have a strong presence on EDF’s 3.2GW Hinkley Point C nuclear new build project and provide a range of services in support

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ALTRAD

of the UK’s decommissioning programme for Sellafield and Magnox. We also work at Capenhurst, Springfields and Aldermaston – contracts that are delivered by over 1,000 Altrad nuclear professionals, every day. In addition, we are currently pursuing emerging markets such as hydrogen and carbon capture, which may not be 100% financially viable today, but they are attractive and well suited to Altrad’s skills and expertise.”

Altrad is characterised by curiosity, which Garland describes as “a trait which helps us find solutions to the most complex of challenges – allowing us to work collaboratively with our clients to find a better way, and never stop asking ‘what if?’”

Chris Garland, Altrad’s Director of Operations (offshore).

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The next “What if?” on Altrad’s list is its strategy to become a net carbon zero business by 2030 or sooner.

“During 2020, we made some extraordinary progress on this journey; we are now recycling 90% of everything we can and we have banned the use of all single-use plastics,” Garland says. “We’ve powered all Altrad offices using only renewable energy sources and will make the majority of our vehicles electric by 2023, with our first electric vehicles already deployed at Fawley refinery.”

POWERED BY INGENUITY

There is one resource that makes all these achievements possible. As Garland says, quoting the company’s new strapline, “The ingenuity of our people creates endless possibilities”.

“That’s not just a collection of nice words, it’s what differentiates us, as it’s our people that set us apart,” Garland says. “It’s an incredible feeling to know that when I go out to visit clients, there is no way I can oversell their competence, commitment and entrepreneurial spirit.”

From access services, asbestos removal and asset integrity services through to environmental and chemical cleaning, insulation, mechanical, specialist coatings, fireproofing and much, much more, whatever the fabric maintenance challenge, Altrad has it covered.

“No matter how complex the challenge, our people make a difference as we solve challenges through innovation, creativity and teamwork, putting the outcomes of our clients at the heart of our thinking,” adds Garland.

Of course, for that to happen, sourcing new talent is a priority.

“But it’s also about creating a balanced team, as we

celebrate the importance of having a diverse and inclusive workforce,” Garland insists.

“We provide an inclusive environment where our people can bring their whole-self to work, feel connected and have the space they need to grow – giving everyone an opportunity to reach their full potential.”

Garland believes that in today’s highly competitive market, traditional approaches alone are not enough, so Altrad deploys alternative strategies in its recruitment efforts, which include attracting military veterans and ex-offenders.

“But it doesn’t end there,” Garland says. “Our plans for this year will encompass attracting more women than ever into the sector, via expanding our traditional recruitment processes, supported by a female modern apprenticeship scheme.”

All these efforts are going towards creating a very different, and much stronger version of Altrad. By 2026, Altrad will be 75% larger than it is today.

“Diversification will make us a more resilient, stronger business which is able to absorb an economic shock or a downturn in any of our chosen markets,” he tells us.

“This will provide security to our clients, our people and our shareholders.”

Even now, Garland’s message is clear.

He says, “We are not just back in the market, we have re-structured and now have in place one of the most dynamic, client-oriented organisations in the sector - and we are hungry for success.”

Pull Quote: “From an external perspective, things might have looked quite quiet during 2020, but the truth is, we have been really busy.”

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BRABENDER

BRABENDER, A TECHNOLOGICAL MARKET LEADER IN HIGH-QUALITY LABORATORY EQUIPMENT FOR THE FOOD, FEED, RUBBER AND PLASTICS INDUSTRIES IS STEPPING INTO NEW FIELDS OF BUSINESS.

THINKING BEYOND BOUNDARIES PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

Germany-based Brabender is an expert in designing and manufacturing measuring devices and process technology at lab scale for raw material control, quality assurance and product development. With its high quality, precise process and measurement technology, Brabender optimises the efficient and sustainable use of raw materials and resources together with its customers for better, innovative products and thus a better world - so much the company slogan that encapsulated the core business.

E

stablished in 1923 by Carl Wilhelm Brabender, the company is proud of its almost century-long history marked by significant innovations, including Brabender’s flagship products - the world’s first Farinograph (wheat flour quality tester) launched in 1928, followed by the first Plastograph (laboratory tester for plastic materials) eight years later. More recent innovations include ViscoQuick - a state-of-the-art viscometer for the characterization of flours, starches and other viscous and pasty masses; MetaStation - a new generation

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of drive units with web-based software, TwinLab-F 20/40 and TwinLab-C 20/40 - extruders for food, feed, plastics, rubber and other applications respectively; and the FarinoAdd-S300 used for analysing gluten-free materials, to name just a few.

Brabender’s solutions, often custom-made to meet specific customer requirements, are mostly applied in the food, feed, rubber and plastics industries but are also used by universities and research institutes. Its Farinograph is world-wide the most applied instrument for measuring flour quality in the milling and baking

industries and is the heart of the Brabender 3-Phase-System for baking.

PLANT-BASED, GLUTEN-FREE

In recent years, Brabender’s portfolio has been changing in line with new requirements for a higher level of automation and digitisation providing time savings, convenience, connectivity and efficiency, as well as new requirements emerging form novel applications.

Jessica Wiertz, Manager Applications, affirms that the focus on new fields of business has intensified: “We have recently stepped into several areas which are new for us, such as gluten-free materials, meat analogues, proteins, algae, feed and aqua feed.”

Giving some examples of this new direction, she mentions the PlantPROMISE (Plant PROtein Meat alternatIveS using Extrusion) project initiated by the Wageningen University in

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BRABENDER

Farinograph-TS with FarinoAdd-S300 for analysis of gluten-free flours.

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BRABENDER

Packaging film made of seaweed.

Jessica Wiertz and Matthias Mayser, with bio and fossil based film. the Netherlands with Brabender being one of the partners, focused on the development of new, high-quality meat replacement products, as well as on a better understanding of quality attributes of meat analogues.

Gluten-free materials is another area of increased focus - Brabender is collaborating with University College Cork to investigate the addition of water and other decisive criteria for gluten-free raw materials and formulations, using its FarinoAdd-S300 and other Brabender solutions.

Jessica Wiertz points out that international partnerships and networking are a key part of the game. In October last year, Brabender became a member

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of Bridge2Food, the research network for plant-based food ingredients, in which all the value chain takes part. “The Bridge2Food ecosystem is a unique industrial-scientific network”, she explains.

“Plant-based foods are an emerging market that requires further research, as well as machine development and analytical techniques. Within the ecosystem, Bridge2Food connects relevant partners to jointly tackle these challenges”.

Brabender offers the network its expertise and wants to gain further experience in the application of alternative protein sources to further develop and adapt its product portfolio to the needs of the market.

High-moisture extrusion of vegetable proteins for developing meat analogues.

ENVIRONMENTAL FOCUS

Matthias Mayser, System Architect, New Technologies, adds that bio-based polymers are another area that the company has been focusing on recently.

To this end, Brabender joined BioFon in May 2020, a network of companies from research, industry and certification institutions intended to strengthen the development and establishment of biopolymers through project cooperation. By using bio-based raw materials, the use of fossil raw materials is reduced, thus supporting climate protection. In addition, biodegradable biopolymers will counteract the accumulation of plastic waste in nature and the oceans.

“We are involved in a number of novel research projects focusing on environmental issues, such as the development of packaging materials from algae, a joint initiative with the Technical University of Dresden and the University of the Philippines,” continues Matthias Mayser.

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“WE HAVE RECENTLY STEPPED INTO SEVERAL AREAS WHICH ARE NEW FOR US, SUCH AS GLUTENFREE MATERIALS, MEAT ANALOGUES, PROTEINS, ALGAE, FEED AND AQUA FEED.” BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 119

BRABENDER

He explains that the research project deals with macroalgae as a viable alternative to fossilbased plastics.

Brabender contributes its expertise in raw material characterization and extrusion processing.

Successful investigations were carried out using different Brabender analytical devices for characterization and quality assessment of the macroalgae raw material and the development of a suitable measuring method. Extrusion processing of the macroalgae into a film by means of a Brabender TwinLab-C twinscrew extruder and Univex flat film take-off was also successful.

“Rubber waste recycling is yet another field we are involved in, participating in a project to develop a new onestep recycling process, using our Brabender TSE 20/40 twinscrew extruder,” says Matthias Mayser. The new process to be developed should enable smalland medium-sized manufacturers of EPDM rubber to independently recycle their production waste into a secondary raw material that can be used for new products.

Brabender Customer Center, Duisburg, Germany.

Pulses: an alternative protein source.

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BRABENDER

OPEN FOR BUSINESS

Jessica Wiertz reflects that the recent pandemic has accelerated progress towards more efficient ways of working, highlighting new opportunities in terms of digitisation, online conferences, webinars and expertise exchange.

The company has introduced remote visits to its new lab facilities for customers to join live trials (also with the customers ‘materials), training and workshops, and has used the time spent without customer visits and travelling to intensify product research and development.

Despite limited travel, Brabender’s global reach remains unrestricted – indeed, quite the contrary. With its laboratory and manufacturing facilities in Germany and the US and a network of international sales partners, the company is set to stay close to its customers, providing its expertise and support throughout the product life cycle, says Matthias Mayser. “We foster long-term relationships with our business partners, some of whom have been with us for decades.

Human capital is a key part of our business and we greatly value both our own employees and our business partners.”

Jessica Wiertz affirms that Brabender is continuously looking for new partners to promote innovative ideas, products and processes. “Over the years, the traditional company has transformed into an innovative business, an active participant in emerging developments.

Supported by investment in digitisation and automation, we will continue to develop from a supplier of lab devices to an R&D partner aiming at gradually increasing our market share in the existing and new markets, such as battery technology, ceramics and cosmetics.”

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SAFAL GROUP

WE TAKE ANOTHER LOOK AT THE SAFAL GROUP, TO SEE HOW THEY ARE CONTINUING TO MANUFACTURE PRODUCTS IDEALLY SUITED TO THE AFRICAN MARKET.

BUILDING FOR AFRICA PROJECT MANAGED BY: JAMIE WAITE

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SAFAL GROUP

African identity runs through the Safal Group like a name through a stick of rock. The company is strongly committed to providing products that meet the needs and purposes of African people, but beyond that, they want to do it in a way that is sustainable, ethical and will leave our planet intact for generations to come.

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T

he Safal Group does this across several core fields of expertise. The first of these is Safal Technology, an umbrella which includes Safal’s coated steel businesses, Safal Engineering, provides for Safal’s building solutions companies, and the Safal Coated Steel businesses that make metal and colour-coated steel that has been specially developed for use in African conditions.

That coated steel forms the basis of a wide variety of proprietorial products sold through Safal Building Solutions, such as sheeting and cladding systems, light

steel trusses, decking sheets and even entire steel buildings ready to erect on site.

Every one of Safal’s products is designed and manufactured in Africa, and looking at the company’s work it is clear they are proud of that African heritage and identity. These products are sold under respected brands, trusted to deliver durability and long-term value.

The Group’s history goes back to Mombasa, Kenya in 1962, when it opened its first manufacturing facility.

By 2003, all of Safal’s operating companies were brought back

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SAFAL GROUP

into one entity under the name “Safal Investments Mauritius Ltd”, or “the Safal Group” as it would become known.

Over the last 60 years, the Safal Group and its subsidiaries have gathered the insights and experience necessary to keep at the very forefront of the premier building systems and solutions market, standing on a foundation of decades of technical, design and engineering expertise.

Today, the Group is responsible for manufacturing a huge variety of building solutions for East Africa’s fastgrowing construction markets, as well as exporting inwards to all adjacent countries in the greater region.

BUILDING NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Success breeds success, and the Group’s reputation has meant that the company continues to attract the cream of talent. As Anders Lindgren, CEO of the Safal Group, told us when we spoke to him last year, “I think the good thing is we know the value of a good brand name, and here we’re very well known.

We’re reputable as a company which attracts good talent and works in a number of countries.

We’re not multinational but we are international and we can give opportunities around the region.”

That brand name is attached to a company culture that people are keen to be a part of.

“I think also this whole in-road of creating a good platform for people and taking care of them is essential,” Lindgren said last year. “People don’t go to work only for salary, they go to do something new in a comfortable environment, and I think we have that family culture and those values. That and the opportunities we provide brings people in.”

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SAFAL GROUP

Safal Group’s strong culture and identity have informed the company’s strategy going forward. When we last talked with Lindgren, his goals for Safal were clear.

“Our strategy has not changed,” he said. “We’ll continue to drive the building solution side of the business as much as we can. I think we will continue to keep up strong service, good people and develop even more our good trust, building solutions, moving to solar. There are a lot of opportunities there.”

The latest opportunity Safal is pursuing comes from Safal Group subsidiary, Uganda Baati Ltd, Uganda’s preferred provider of quality building construction materials. The building solution, SAFBUILD, has been designed to bring down property development times while reducing expenses for customers and contractors alike.

In February this year, the new product was unveiled by Uganda’s Minister of State for Housing, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the Board Chairman of Uganda Baati, Dr Alan Shonubi and Business Head, George Arodi, at the Kampala Serena Hotel.

Arodi has said of the products, “The launch of SAFBUILD is in line with our effort to address the current construction needs and help customers meet tight property development timelines as they seek more space for investment and expansion.”

The product itself is a preengineered steel building solution made from high-tensile, cold-formed, and galvanizedsteel structures which can be easily assembled on-site within a space of 12 weeks. These structures are optimised with high-tensile galvanised steel to ensure durability and maximum strength.

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It’s an ideal solution for the construction of warehouses, factory sheds, parking sheds, market sheds, horticultural and agri-processing buildings, institutional buildings, workshops, places of worship and much more.

TAKING RESPONSIBILITY

Of course, the Safal Groups achievements are all carried out with the goal of adding to Africa by being a responsible and involved corporate citizen.

The Group has an extensive portfolio of social investment programmes focused on the communities where it operates.

Its attention is particularly focused on those most afflicted by poverty and social disadvantage, with three main areas of interest based on how the Safal Group can make the greatest impact. These are Education, Health and Shelter. These three peoplecentred areas of interest are matched by a fourth Corporate Responsibility Programme, which focuses on the Environment.

Environmental concern runs throughout the Group’s business, with Safal’s manufacturing processes dictated by the practices that will minimise their environmental impact. Reforestation, land rehabilitation, recycling and resource protection are core themes in the Safal Group’s initiatives.

These initiatives are all inspired by one of the Safal Group’s core pillars, “caring towards the community and environment, in all we do”. The Group is working for the mutual benefit of its

people, their families and the wider communities it operates within.

The company strives to offer opportunities and services that will empower Africans to improve their livelihood, as individuals and as a society.

The Safal Group’s ultimate goal is to do this not only through corporate social initiatives but also by creating wealth and adding value for millions through its economic impacts.

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ATLANTIC NICKEL

AS THE MOVE TO MORE SUSTAINABLE FORMS OF ENERGY SWEEPS EVERY INDUSTRY, NICKEL IS GOING TO BECOME A KEY RESOURCE, AND ATLANTIC NICKEL IS WELL PLACED TO MEET THAT NEED.

PREPARING FOR

THE ENERGY TRANSITION PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

Atlantic Nickel owns and operates one of the largest openpit nickel sulphide mines in the world and the only one in operation in Brazil. The Santa Rita nickel mine, which Atlantic Nickel restarted in 2019, benefits from world-class facilities from more than US$1 billion previously invested in its existing processing plant and associated infrastructure.

A

tlantic Nickel is on the sweet spot in terms of offering the right kind of deposit, using simple, fit-forpurpose technology to produce a product that generates the lowest carbon footprint but is also easier to be applied, in an industry that’s going to be very attractive in terms of growth,” says Paulo Castellari, CEO of Atlantic Nickel.

Atlantic Nickel acquired the Santa Rita mine from an Australian listed company that went bankrupt. Following the buyout, Atlantic Nickel revised its operating plants completely and carried out a detailed analysis of the deposit to better understand the asset.

“It started operations safely just over a year ago and we’re now

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getting to our target production rate,” Castellari tells us.

The mine is producing nickel, copper, and cobalt, with a life of mine of 34 years. Today, it’s clear to see why the asset is an appealing prospect, but that was not always the case.

“This asset was not well understood but our technical team saw the potential and saw the coming changes in the industry,” Castellari recalls.

“We revised the operating model to overcome any challenges faced in the past and maximise the opportunity, operating it as an open-pit mine for eight years. Then we’ll develop an underground mine where we will reach ores with better grades, to increase production from approximately

20,000 to 30-35,000 tonnes.

We’ll be producing nickel sulphide for at least 34 years.”

Based in the State of Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil, the Santa Rita mine has all the appropriate licenses and is operating to the highest standards in terms of safety and ESG practices. From a location and infrastructure perspective, it is also perfectly placed. Santa Rita is only 140 kilometres from the Port of Ilhéus where Atlantic Nickel exports its product. The mine is also supported by good logistics and is in a location that is attractive to recruits and only a couple of hours drive away on very good roads.

But as well as being well placed, Atlantic Nickel has an invaluable group of people on its side.

“We have a good team that understands mining, and because we’ve invested a great deal, we have been able to clock a C1 cash cost of just under three dollars a pound, and a US$ 3.92 /lb all-in cost in sustaining CAPEX,” Castellari says.

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ATLANTIC NICKEL

Paulo Castellari, CEO of Atlantic Nickel.

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ATLANTIC NICKEL

“THIS ASSET IS ONE NOBODY BELIEVED IN, BUT OUR TECHNICAL TEAM SAW THE POTENTIAL AND SAW THE COMING CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY.” A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY

Atlantic Nickel will need every ounce of that expertise to get the most out what Castellari believes to be a once-in-acareer chance to make the most of a deposit under ideal conditions and at the perfect time for the market.

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“We have been able to identify a unique opportunity to exploit a very rare sulphide deposit. We’re working safely, responsibly and deploying world-class, fit-for-purpose standards with a team that understands the geography and the industry in the long run,” says Castellari. “We expect 1820% compound annual growth rates in the battery industry and we’re well-positioned because we have the right product, produced in the right way.”

Seizing this opportunity is a huge operation, with a number of challenges.

“We understand open-pit operations very well. We started operations before the plan and

we’ve done seven shipments already in 2020, generating income to our shareholders in a healthy way,” Castellari explains.

“But we need to fine-tune the system. We’re going through the normal processes to optimise our assets. We understand underground mines, we’ve worked there and known what’s important, but it is the start of this process.”

Atlantic Nickel has already carried out a preliminary economic assessment for the underground expansion and the numbers look extremely favourable. Now the company is starting its next stage, refining their plans, carrying out prefeasibility studies, and looking at its options.

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ATLANTIC NICKEL

“This is where we need to be very cautious and keep applying our methodologies,” Castellari says.

A POSITIVE IMPACT

As well as yielding positive results for the business, Atlantic Nickel constantly bears in mind how its work will influence wider society.

“Nickel has positively impacted the region’s GDP. There are other mining ventures in the state and they understand the importance of the industry very well,” Castellari points out.

“We’ve been doing this for many years now and this is something very close to our hearts.”

Atlantic Nickel’s work to aid local communities has its foundation in the long experience Atlantic Nickel’s leadership have in the mining sector.

“We’ve each worked in large, respected mining firms in the past,” Castellari says. “I myself have spent 25 years in large mining companies at various different stages of the mining value chain. We have developed a number of strategies that are really world-class.”

These include rolling out social integration schemes that look at all the facets in a society, environmental, economic, and social, and see where they meet, allowing Atlantic Nickel to take part in that society.

“We’re not a company that comes in, generates value and leaves. We work together to make sure things work well for the community,” insists Castellari. “We’ve invested just over $2.6 million. We’ve been targeting schools in a strategy linked to the wider advisory strategy on education. We’ve also been involved in rainforest conservation. Almost 80% of our mine’s employees are local and we have a local supply chain programme.”

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This is why Atlantic Nickel sources its uniforms from local suppliers, among many initiatives where the company is sourcing locally, encouraging and empowering local businesses.

MOVING FORWARD

For Atlantic Nickel, this has been a year of ramping up. They have overcome the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and are

now looking to optimise their open-pit operation.

“We’re now optimising the rest of the value chain, optimising mining activities and plant productivity. For the next 12 months, that’s where our focus is,” Castellari says.

“In parallel with that, we’re investing in understanding the deposits better. We’re going to detail the first level study that we’ve done for the

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ATLANTIC NICKEL

underground mine to ensure we have the right numbers.

But from a more strategic point of view Atlantic is ready to become a well soughtafter long-term supplier. We have a strong but flexible sales portfolio, four years of committed production, and a good spread in terms of geography and customers.”

As well as moving forward with the mine itself, Atlantic Nickel is also in close contact with the end-users of their output, particularly in the rapidly growing area of battery manufacturing.

“We produce a concentrate that contains nickel, copper and cobalt mainly - all these materials will be used in the oncoming energy transition,” Castellari explains. “We all know the pressure all sectors in the industry are feeling around the energy transformation. We’re the best placed to feed the battery market straight away. Our ore goes through one process as opposed to other nickel products that have to go through a number of different means to eventually become nickel sulphate. We want to be placed as a key supplier in the battery metals market.”

“WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO IDENTIFY A UNIQUE OPPORTUNITY TO EXPLOIT A SULPHIDE DEPOSIT THAT’S VERY RARE.”

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CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

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CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY IS A GLOBAL MANUFACTURER OF EQUIPMENT AND WEAR PARTS THAT ARE ENGINEERED TO OUTLAST & OUTPERFORM – MUCH VALUED ATTRIBUTES IN THE MINING INDUSTRY.

SOLID WEAR

RESISTANCE PROJECT MANAGED BY: TREVOR GRETSINGER

Carriere Industrial Supply Limited (CIS) has decades of experience in manufacturing and delivering cost-effective wear products and services to the mining industry, as well as to other sectors.

Founded in 1964 by Armand Carriere in Cobalt, Ontario, the company first specialised in wear solutions for the surface mining operations of the Adams and Sherman iron ore mines. In 1983, the company opened a branch in Sudbury and consolidated its operations there, focusing on wear solutions for the underground operations of the Sudbury area mines.

W

Mickey Obradovich, General Manager, Carriere Industrial Supply Limited.

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hile the initial focus was on distribution, in the early 1990s CIS expanded into the manufacturing of valueadded products and services providing innovative solutions for both wear liner material and bucket design. Today its customer service, along with its manufacturing capabilities, enable the company to meet the increasing demands of Canadian markets outside of north-eastern Ontario, as well as those overseas.

General Manager Mickey Obradovich explains that the family-owned business has gone through multiple milestones that have helped the company to grow. In the 1980s and 1990s, CIS revolutionised the hard-rock mining industry with the introduction of the first mechanical load haul dump (LHD) buckets. Since then, the company has delivered many innovative solutions, backed by best-in-class equipment management software and service.

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DOMITE® has worked hand in hand with Carriere Industrial Supply for over 20 years.

We have seen tremendous growth with Carriere who emphasises the same values as Domite®.

“We value working with Carriere, because we know that Mickey Obradovich and the team is never satisfied with the minimum. They always want the best and they are willing to try new products and solutions to remain the best.”. - Domite’s team

Learn What we can do for you www.domite.com Chutes Hoppers Apron Feeders

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CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

Founded in 1980, B&D Manufacturing is a dynamic Canadian company that designs, manufactures and distributes innovative products and technologies to increase production and improve safety for the Mining Industry globally. Originally established as the inventor & manufacturer of the globally recognized Portable Align Boring Machines, our product line has expanded to include support equipment for large Mining haul trucks and Mining heavy shovels at surface operations, as well as heavy support equipment operating in underground mines. In addition to our OEM product line, we support a variety of clients with custom design, fabrication and manufacturing, onsite repair and rebuild services.

Our customers trust us to provide quality products and a high level of service. Our goal is to build customer relationships the same way we build products – for the long haul.

B & D Manufacturing 4703 Regional Road Chelmsford, Ontario Canada P0M 1L0

Tel: +1 705-855-2363 ext 227 Email: sales@bdmfg.com rfq@bdmfg.com www.bdmfg.com

CIS’s product portfolio is divided into four main groupings, the largest being customised mechanical LHD buckets that are modularly assembled onsite; mining truck bodies and wear liners to protect the material handling infrastructure.

Decades of innovation have resulted in creating the lightest, most robust, and bestperforming underground load haul dump buckets in today’s mining industry.

CIS also has a long-standing reputation as the leading expert in equipment linings and wear protection. All its designs incorporate industry-leading wear-resistant materials that enhance performance and extend service life.

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PROVIDING SOLUTIONS PROVIDING SOLUTIONS IN THE MINING INDUSTRY SINCE 1964 IN THE MINING INDUSTRY SINCE 1964

Rematech Industries Inc. has been a leader in conveyor belting, rubber and urethane moldedSOLUTIONS products, and PROVIDING corrosion and abrasion since 1964.1964 IN THEresistant MINING linings INDUSTRY SINCE

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PROVEN RESISTANCE

“We focus on wear and the bulk of our manufacturing is based on that focus. Wear liners vary in size and configuration, specific to each piece of equipment that needs cladding.

New equipment is customdesigned with considerations made regarding the material being mined, material impact, abrasion, weight, and access for routine inspections,” explains Mr Obradovich.

to Greater Sudbury’s 2015 community builders.

Thank your for making a difference in our community.

Tel: 705-674-0742, fax: 705-671-0941

email: sales@rematech-sudbury.com BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM www.rematechindustries

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CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

CANADA’S LEADING PLATE PRODUCER • Featuring in-plant Heat Treat capability • Offering a wide range of advanced plate grades for high-strength, abrasion-resistant or ballistic applications • Continuously pushing our limits with expanding plate capability and enhanced delivery

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He points out that as opposed to the past, when short term cost was a key issue, customers’ prime concern now is equipment reliability and long-term savings. “Concerning fabrication, we focus on abrasion and durability and try to find the right solution for the component in question.

Being able to actively handle materials is one of the main focuses that most of the miners have right now, so we develop different products for different types of mining and try to make the designs complementary to the functionality of the solutions that the miners are looking for.”

CIS puts a great focus on both engineering and data capture, which is also one of the company’s differentiators.

The company has some 25-30

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CARRIERE INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY

years’ worth of measurement data that has been generated from its extensive work and captured in software programs developed in-house.

For example, the company’s Wearmaps is wear-liner mapping software that provides circuit flow mapping, equipment wear liner arrangements, detail shop drawings, and usage analytics derived from the sales history. Bucketwear, another software system developed in-house, similarly maps the mobile equipment circuit per mine site, and provides details on the life cycle and maintenance predictability on a mining bucket.

“We are helping tech companies connect with the mining industry. Because of our history and experience in the mining sector as well as the proprietary software we have embodied in our products, we can provide valuable information which the tech companies do not possess. We have a pretty broad group of programmers inhouse, which allows us not only to speak their language but also to add value to their softwarebased products,” says Mickey Obradovich.

not been particularly affected

by Covid-19 and following the introduction of safety protocols has successfully maintained its manufacturing capability, while the sales team have had to adapt to digital communication.

“Not seeing clients face-to-face is not ideal, but we continue to grow and I’m proud of our team who did extremely well in these difficult circumstances and have relatively quickly overcome the challenges.”

He affirms that the company is set to face the new opportunities emerging from the market changes. To this end, CIS has recently invested heavily in automation. Further investment is expected to go into four robotic cells designed to increase automation and

support the company in its efforts to produce and commercialise new products, as well as to improve product quality and reduce environmental impact.

The plant is also in the initial stages of expansion, to be completed over the next two years.

“A lot is going on, we need to meet the need and the only way we can do it is through automation and fabrication expansion,” says Mr Obradovich. “We see a lot of traditional mining projects in the general vicinity (which, in Canadian terms, means a 3,000 km radius) and a lot of development and exploration projects now getting green lights for production. We will be part of that development.”

“WE ARE HELPING TECH COMPANIES CONNECT WITH THE MINING INDUSTRY.”

INVESTING IN DEVELOPMENT

It is not just the innovative focus and extensive experience that set the company apart, he points out. “Our key competitive advantage is our people. We have a culture of creating what is best for our customers and of working with them as if their operation is part of ours. This culture has been supported not just by investment in new products and manufacturing techniques but also in the development of our people, to grow with the business.”

Mr Obradovich acknowledges that from the operational perspective, the company has

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ESTRELLA RESOURCES LIMITED

Christopher Daws, Estrella’s MD & CEO.

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ESTRELLA RESOURCES LIMITED

WE LEARN HOW ESTRELLA IS GENERATING VALUE FROM OLDER MINING SITES WITH MODERN TECHNIQUES AND A WEALTH OF EXPERIENCE.

THE BENEFIT OF

EXPERIENCE PROJECT MANAGED BY: MALVERN KANDEMWA

Estrella Resources is a West Australia-based nickel sulphide explorer dedicated to the West Australian Tier One mining jurisdiction.

W

estern Australia is an area we are wellversed in operating in, particularly the NorthEastern Goldfields region,” says Christopher Daws, Estrella’s Managing Director and CEO. “We’ve been operating here for 20-odd years exploring West Australian nickel properties. In 2017 we decided to focus our efforts at Estrella Resources in that direction and become a dedicated nickel explorer, and we also have nickel rights to four historic nickel mines mined in the late 70s and 80s.”

The company’s operations are geared towards generating long-term shareholder value, guided by a Board with extensive experience in the exploration sector and an innovative approach to the mining and development of metal deposits.

A STRONG PORTFOLIO

As well as a wealth of expertise, however, the company also possesses an impressive asset portfolio.

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The Carr Boyd Nickel Project situated approximately 80km NNE of the City of KalgoorlieBoulder in Western Australia, has become a major focus for Estrella Resources Limited thanks to a recent nickel and copper discovery while drilling into the T5 electromagnetic target.

“The Carr Boyd Nickel Project is one of only a very limited amount of prospective intrusive complexes for nickel mining in the region. The nickel bearing pipes here were discovered in the 1960s, and only four intrusive complexes within Australia had been explored and mined for nickel sulphides at the time we purchased the property,” Daws tells us.

“We believe Carr Boyd can be a producer of significant size, and that sets us apart from other junior explorers that simply don’t have the geological setting that can deliver extremely large nickel sulphide orebodies.”

This project covers the Carr Boyd Intrusive Complex, a 75 square kilometre mafic igneous complex that is home to nickel and copper sulphide occurrences – the most significant being the Carr Boyd Rocks mine.

Estrella’s recent reverse circulation drilling into the T5 target has intersected 11 metres of a mineralised basal contact zone, including 5 metres of strong matrix-style nickel and copper sulphides. It’s a result Daws is clearly excited about as the most significant discovery the company has achieved at this project to date. The company is now planning for future drilling in the area.

Carr Boyd is not Estrella’s only nickel sulphide resource exploration play, however.

“We’ve got a couple of other arrows in the quiver. Carr Boyd is our flagship project, but we have ownership of the Spargoville Nickel Rights located approximately 25km west of Kambalda that had four historic nickel mines that operated in the early part of the 1980s but has seen no modern exploration,” Daws tells us.

Spargoville was first discovered

by Selcast Exploration in the late 1960s. Estrella acquired the project when the company bought WA Nickel Pty Ltd, giving Estrella access to a large database of drill holes, surface sampling and underground channel sampling of the project area. Advances in modern geophysical exploration and metallurgical processing

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methods mean Estrella Resources foresees broad exploration opportunities and targets to follow-up in Spargoville’s surrounding area. It’s an MO that is serving Estrella well.

“We believe we can apply modern technology and thinking to expanding those resources so they may be able to put back into production,” Daws says. “Particularly in light of the strengthening nickel price environment driven by electric vehicle and battery electrification we’re now seeing rapidly rolled out globally.”

While the demand for nickel is clearly on the rise, Estrella is also able to set itself apart from the other explorers in the field.

“We’re looking at these intrusive bodies that haven’t been explored more aggressively since their initial discoveries,” explains Daws.

“The Intrusive Complex that is a scene at Carr Boyd we believe can support very large discoveries of massive sulphide nickel ore bodies, and that is one of the major reasons they are appealing to us.”

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Geolithic can “Add Value” to projects by de-risking, looking at economic parameters and thinking differently about untapped geological models/ concepts that may not have been considered or tested.

Contact us if you wish to discuss how Geolithic can assist your Company. www.geolithic.com.au

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geolithic@iinet.net.au

“PARTICULARLY IN LIGHT OF THE STRENGTHENING NICKEL PRICE ENVIRONMENT DRIVEN BY ELECTRIC VEHICLE AND BATTERY ELECTRIFICATION WE’RE NOW SEEING RAPIDLY ROLLED OUT GLOBALLY.” HOMEGROWN KNOWLEDGE

Of course, a strong resource portfolio alone isn’t enough, and like most junior mining companies Estrella has faced challenges in terms of access to capital.

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ESTRELLA RESOURCES LIMITED

“When you set out to take on high-risk exploration, dollars are usually limited, but once you have more success it gets a little bit easier and we’re finding that with Estrella,” Daws admits.

As well as financial backing, Estrella’s projects also require human capital, but the labour market in this field is particularly competitive.

“There’s only a small pool of qualified or well-experienced nickel geologists, and when the market improves, they’re well sought-after and it costs a reasonable amount of money to keep them,” Daws points out.

When it comes to finding those experienced staff, Daws is fortunate to be able to draw upon his own long experience within the industry.

“It comes with the local homegrown knowledge. When you’ve been working for so long in the industry you build up contacts and sources of information. I have been working for over two decades

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ESTRELLA RESOURCES LIMITED

within the West Australian resources industry and I’ve come across a number of good geologists in my time,” he tells us. “Neil Hutchinson is one chap we headhunted in 2005 to come work with us. We hired him from a fairly dynamic explorerproducer at the time and we’d kept in touch. When Neil came out of employment about a yearand-a-half ago to set up his own geological consultancy we got back in touch with him and he came on board to run Estrella’s exploration operations.”

As well as drawing on his own experience and connections, Daws has also seen wordof-mouth work as a valuable recruitment tool.

“Neil’s well-connected and he allowed Estrella to tap into other resources and other geological personnel including a new appointment coming in from Poseidon Nickel who previously worked with Neil,” Daws recalls. “It comes down to personal relationships built up over many, many years, and we can tap into that when looking for skilled personnel.”

Ultimately, Daws has found that success breeds success.

“Good quality people are always looking to come onto a successful project. Geologists have a habit of wanting to put their names to discoveries,” Daws says.

Estrella’s current operations seem like the perfect opportunity to put names to new discoveries. It’s clear talking to Daws that he is optimistic for the future.

“We’re extremely bullish about what is developing at Carr Boyd in terms of where we’re heading,” he says. “We believe we’ll deliver a worldclass nickel sulphide resource of significance that will ultimately determine the result for Estrella and its shareholders.

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We’re driving up our market value through successful drill campaigns.

The continued exploration activity and drilling will drive a much higher sharemarket valuation over time and eventually, we’ll be in a position to have a world-class ore body

to dispose of or develop, or someone may buy us out or assist us with developing the asset.”

One thing never changes, however.

“Drilling and exploration are our priorities,” Daws insists.

“GOOD QUALITY PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS LOOKING TO COME ONTO A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT. GEOLOGISTS HAVE A HABIT OF WANTING TO PUT THEIR NAMES TO DISCOVERIES.”

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES HAS UNDERGONE SIGNIFICANT CHANGES OVER THE LAST TWO YEARS TO MAXIMISE ITS GOLDEN OPPORTUNITIES.

RESTRUCTURED

TO GROW PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

Incorporated in May 1992, Golden Star Resources Ltd (GSR) is a well-established mid-tier Canadian gold mining company operating the Wassa mine on the prolific Ashanti Gold Belt in Ghana. With one of the largest land packages of any company operating in the country and a history of nearly two decades of gold production, the company is well positioned for prospective growth.

A

ndrew Wray, the company’s President and CEO, who joined the board of the company two years ago and was appointed to his role as CEO in 2019, explains that the last few years have been a period of profound business change. In 2018, La Mancha, a gold exploration and production company with assets in various parts of the world, acquired a 30% stake in the business with the idea of developing the potential of Wassa and then broadening the business beyond. Since then, the La Mancha stake has grown to 35%.

He says: “Wassa is a significant resource of about 10 million ounces, which is quite unusual. We are a small to medium size business but, given the size of the resource, we have the potential to turn into a very large producer. This

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is what makes us different from other companies of our size.”

He affirmed that La Mancha became involved with a clear vision to profoundly change the business. “We put a new corporate team in place, set up an office in London, which being in the same time zone and a lot closer to the asset - eased communication and significantly improved the management of the asset. That was a strategic shift in the business.”

Another was a financial restructuring. For the previous decades, GSR was floating just above water, focused on surviving, without a solid foundation. With the help of the capital injection that La Mancha brought, as well as the operational focus and management, the company managed to consolidate its financial position and set a clear path forward.

“Last year was very important for us. It was the first year of the new team in the business and of implementing major changes.

The result was soon visible in the strong performance of the mine, achieved in the middle of the pandemic. We have set up clear targets and have a highquality team in place to drive the business forward,” Andrew Wray affirms, pointing out that the focus is not just on making the most of the current asset but also on stepping up investment in exploration.

BEYOND THE MINE

While developing the business, consideration for the local environment is strong. Ghana is a stable jurisdiction with a century-long history of mining and good existing infrastructure - aspects that present a clear advantage: 99% of GSR’s workforce are Ghanaians and 50% of those come from the host communities.

“The strong Ghanaian team has proved to be a great benefit during the pandemic with restricted international travel, when we had no expats on site.

We are also very focused on

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Andrew Wray, President and CEO of GSR.

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HEAVY PLANT SPECIALISTS. At S.E.F. LTD we pride ourselves in providing a one stop shop solution for parts, components and reconditioning supply for mining and quarrying industries. Our large workshop is home to our exceptional fitting engineers and parts team who oversee each order to ensure details are met. Our quality and service are unrivalled, and we can offer more cost-effective parts and components than our leading competitors. We tailor each order to your individual needs working to your timelines which makes for a seamless transition from order to delivery.

COMPONENT RECONDITIONING WORKSHOP We strive to produce the best quality reconditioned components. We pride ourselves on a dealer level service at a more competitive cost by ensuring all components are completed to the original manufacturer’s specification and where possible the components are sent away for the manufacturers seal of approval by undergoing a dyno test. Each recon follows the same process and once rebuilt the components are painted in their original colour and baked to harden the paint to a glossy finish. Prior to delivery they are then vacuum packed in a foil bag to ensure the component arrives to site in its best possible condition supported with a 6-month corrosion resistance. Finally, all components are boxed in wooden crates to protect your investments during transit. All components are supplied with individual fitting seals and gaskets.

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With 2 state-of-the-art labs in Ghana, ISO17025 accredited and covering the West African region (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Cote d Ivoire), we provide: Geochemical Analysis to provide a major boost to the mining and mineral industry at our new world-class lab located at Tarkwa on the Bankyim Ahwetieso road in Ghana Environmental Monitoring and Analytical Services to support environmental and Industrial/Occupational Hygiene projects at our lab near the Tema harbor (Maslab).

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

local supply chains, i.e. services and consumables supplied from local communities. This not only mitigates risks to the supply chains and logistics, but also hugely benefits the local communities.

During the pandemic, having local procurement was another advantage, as the business was less exposed to supply chain disruptions,” admits Mr Wray.

Supporting and helping to develop local communities has been a continuing effort that started way back. Through the development foundations, Golden Star works in partnership with local people, establishing a long-term commitment to the betterment of the community and local economic development.

“The focus is on turning our efforts into sustainable results rather than just making

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

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GOODYEAR’S NEWEST HAULAGE TIRE FOR SEVERE OPERATING CONDITIONS The new Goodyear RM-4A+ tire leverages years of innovation to bring you extreme ruggedness and versatility that can help reduce your operating costs. The RM – 4A+ is part of Goodyear’s diverse Large Haulage lineup, which also includes RM-3A+, RM-4B+ and RT-4A+ to offer the right tyre for every vehicle in your fleet.

Distributor: Rana Motors & Metal Works Engineering Co Ltd - Ghana (+233 54 433 2019) West Africa Tire Services Ltd - Mali (+223 77 88 64 07) | Burkina Faso (+226 76 98 58 18) Nigeria (+234 813 884 3676) | Guinea (+224 62 80 49691) | Ivory Coast Mining Tires - Consultancy, Sales, Service & Repairs

RANA MOTORS & METAL WORKS ENGINEERING CO. LTD. Rana Motors & Metal Works Eng. Co. Ltd. was incorporated 40 years ago in Ghana by the Chairman Mr. Mohammed Ahmed Odaymat in Ghana. Rana group is a multi-faceted business group having interest in Manufacturing & Distribution. Goodyear Tyres & KIA Motors are flag ship brands of the automotive division.

Rana’s Off - The – Road (OTR) Goodyear Tyre Distribution Agreement established about 15 year ago has brought immense value to the Mining companies & mining Contractors in West Africa. It was the First Tire Company in West Africa to stock Mining Tyres locally in West Africa & provide Mining Clients with “Just in Time” Stocks.

In addition, Rana offers Earth Moving Tyre Management & Consultancy services to its clients, by which the customer gets the “Most Suited tyre” which would provide them with Value returns for money invested on Tyre resources.

Rana has a strategic Tie-up with REMA Tip Top, the leading Mining Tyre Repair Specialists in the world which has brought further value to the Mining clients.

Rana has established supply & maintenance infrastructure for mining tyres across West Africa, and has presence in Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Nigeria & is known as West Africa Tire Service Limited (WATS Ltd) in these countries.

Rana today is a reliable supplier for Mining Tyres and is associated with most major Mining companies & Mining contractors in West Africa through supply &/or service contractors.

With a clear vision from its management, Rana’s professional team across West Africa & Goodyear has relieved many mining operations in West Africa of the challenges they faced on the mining Tyre front.

Rana is associated with Golden Star Wassa Ltd for the past 12 years by providing onsite tyre management services and consignment stock of tyres for their entire fleet of earthmoving equipment’s , support equipment’s and light vehicles by providing value additions.

Rana Motors & Metal Works Engineering Co. Ltd. P.O Box 7617 AN, Accra North – Ghana www.ranamotors.com

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Feasibility Studies | Engineering and Procurement Construction and Commissioning Project Management | Consulting Services www.gres.com.au Perth +61 8 6272 6000 Brisbane +61 7 3838 8000 Tucson +1 520 326 0062

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Wilhelm Limited CIVIL ENGINEERS & CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTORS

Wilhelm Limited specialises in Building works, Road works, Earth works and Mining projects and have a proven record in working excellently within this environment. We are proud to fulfill contracts for Golden Star Resources and enjoy a great working relationship.

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Wilhelm Limited P.O.Box 1141, Teshie-Nungua Estates, Accra, Ghana Tel: +233 (0)21 813 688; Mob: +233 (0)24 437 7314 Email: wilhelmconstruction@yahoo.com & wilhelmconstructionltd@gmail.com

SALES & AFTERMARKET SUPPORT OF COMPRESSORS & ANCILLIARIES

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Compressor Technique Services Ltd Tema, Ghana Email: info@ctsltd-gh.com Tel: +233 303 319 207 www.ctsltd-gh.com

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Magnum Force Security The Ultimate Security Solution

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donations,” says Andrew Wray.

To this end several initiatives have been established, including the award-winning oil palm project as an alternative livelihood project for artisanal miners and other community members.

As an industrial productivity solutions provider, we are a comprehensive supplier to the construction, exploration & mining industries. Our products comply with the highest world standards. We have a complete range of top quality, hard wearing equipment and consumables for the most challenging industrial applications.

Forte Logistics links up with top quality brands and manufacturers to proffer cutting-edge solutions to customers. Our team members are specialists in their respective areas of operation and have close to fifty (50) years of combined working experience.

FORTE LOGISTICS Nyameso Bediem Obuasi, Ghana

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Tel: +233 (0)244 210 577 / (0)203 333 134 Email: info.forte.logistics@gmail.com www.forte-logistics.business.site

“WE WANT TO DEVELOP A SUSTAINABLE AND DIVERSIFIED BUSINESS FOCUSING ON ENVIRONMENTAL REHABILITATION AND CREATING A SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY BEYOND THE LIFESPAN OF THE MINE.” “Sustainability is core to our strategy. We want to develop a sustainable and diversified business focusing on environmental rehabilitation

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

and creating a sustainable industry beyond the lifespan of the mine,” he emphasises. As the winner of the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada 2018 Environmental and Social Responsibility Award, Golden Star remains committed to leaving a positive and sustainable legacy in its areas of operation.

CLEAR PATH FORWARD

Speaking about the plans for the coming months, Andrew Wray says that the vision is clear: “We are already an established producer, with a view to expanding the production base over the next five years to achieve a potential of 250,000 - 300,000 ounces which, in African terms, will make it a pretty big operation.

This demonstrates our longerterm thinking on developing infrastructure around the mine as well.”

He further affirms that what was a transformational year for Golden Star, the operational performance of Wassa stood out with the delivery of the improved production guidance range, despite the numerous challenges that have arisen as a result of the pandemic.

The mine continued to operate throughout the pandemic and investments in longerterm infrastructure were increased, with a paste fill plant and electrical upgrades commissioned in Q4 2020.

Investment is set to continue in 2021 in significantly ramping up drilling to better understand the ore body as a precursor to increasing production, as well as in stepping up exploration activities with a view to

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

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GOLDEN STAR RESOURCES

accelerating the systematic testing of the numerous inmine, near-mine and regional exploration targets.

“2021 will be a critical year. We have established a clear path forward, including balance sheet restructuring and loan repayment. There will also be an increased focus on acquisition opportunities.

Following the restructuring, we are an attractive business and growth is a clear part of our strategy. Consolidation is one of the themes expected to emerge in the gold sector over the next year or two and we want to be an active participant in that process,” concludes Andrew Wray.

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REDPATH MINING AFRICA

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REDPATH MINING AFRICA

WE LEARN HOW REDPATH AFRICA IS BRINGING IN WORLDCLASS SKILLS FROM THEIR GLOBAL GROUP, AS WELL AS SEEING WHAT IT CAN OFFER ITS COUNTERPARTS ABROAD.

ON THE RIGHT PATH PROJECT MANAGED BY: LEE PHOENIX

Redpath was founded in Canada by Jim Redpath in 1962.

The company started as a local mining contractor, later expanding and becoming a global service provider. In 2006 the company was sold and bought by Dr Helmig and his German company, Aton GMBH. Redpath now reports to Aton, a private company owned by Dr Helmig.

R

edpath’s global head office is in North Bay Canada, with regional offices in Dortmund, Germany, Reno in the USA, Santiago in Chile and an office in Brisbane, Australia with a satellite office in Perth. Redpath operates across the globe and has projects in territories as diverse as Russia, Indonesia and Mongolia Redpath has executed numerous projects in 8 countries in 3 languages.

Redpath’s African operations are owned by Mauritius based Redpath Africa Limited and operated out of a regional office in Johannesburg. In Africa, Redpath has executed projects in Burkina Faso, Ghana,

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Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana and South Africa.

“That’s the global reach of the company,” says Lawrence Schultz, Managing Director of Redpath Africa Limited.

CROSS-POLLINATION

It’s a company that attracts great talent, as Schultz explains, “Redpath is a company that everybody would like to work for. We believe you’re not a number, you’re a person. We believe in our people, they’re the best asset we have.”

Redpath Africa’s faith in its people is reflected among its clients, not only because of the highly trained and dedicated staff it puts on its projects, but

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because of the global network of expertise, it can draw on.

“We have a lot of clients requesting Redpath execute projects for them because we’re recognised globally.

We have different skill sets in different parts of the world and we can reach across and crosspollinate,” Schultz points out.

“For instance, our Australian counterparts are very good decline developers. They are world-renowned for getting the best advance rates. In Africa, we’re the best sinkers in the world and get the best advance rates in the vertical shaft sinking environment. So we crosspollinate these skills.”

“WE HAVE A LOT OF CLIENTS REQUESTING REDPATH EXECUTE PROJECTS FOR THEM BECAUSE WE’RE RECOGNISED GLOBALLY.”

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REDPATH MINING AFRICA

This cross-pollination has been a big focus for Redpath Africa lately, with an inflow of talent from Redpath Australia.

“In Australian development, they specialise in the blasting of underground tunnels to access the ore body and remove the ore. You get decline development - tunnels that go down about 8 degrees from the horizontal - and they’re normally ramped and turn around on themselves to get down to the bottom,” Schultz explains. “Australians are renowned for getting the best advance rates on these tunnels, better than anyone in the world.”

Historically, Africa has not managed to achieve comparable decline development advance rates, especially when using mechanised means. As a result, Redpath Africa has been working with its Australian sister company to bring Australians into South Africa, not just to utilise their skills, but to learn from them.

“The skills transfer between Redpath Australia and Redpath Africa allows us to upskill South Africans working on various projects,” Schultz says. “As part of the collaboration, we are bringing in Australian rig operator and maintenance skills, and cross-pollinating to get to the same kind of production efficiencies in Africa as the Australians enjoy.”

At the same time, Redpath Africa exports its shaft sinking skills to Australia and Canada, as South Africa is renowned for having the best shaft sinkers in the world.

“That’s how we collaborate across the different entities.

Redpath Africa is a separate entity, as is Redpath Europe, Redpath America and Redpath Australia, but we all collaborate and share our knowledge and

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skills where we can,” Schultz says.

SOFTER SKILLS

While Australians bring a great deal of expertise to the table, Schultz is the first to emphasize the value and need for local knowledge.

The technical skills Australia is introducing to Africa need to be partnered with knowledge of in-country business practices and softer skills and experience relating to local cultural sensitivities.

“We don’t just bring in our Australian colleagues and leave them on their own on a project.

We assist in managing client expectations and fully manage the nuances that come handin-hand when working on-site in Africa. We’re African and we know Africa,” Schultz points out. “When collaborating with our Australian counterparts on African projects, we place a great deal of importance on training and coaching them to cross-cultural sensitivity and awareness. It’s about behaviour more than anything else. In Zambia, for instance, they are culturally not confrontational people. So when we bring the Australians in we have South Africans there to handle the softer issues, such as what language to use and how to conduct yourself in certain settings. From previous experience, we are well versed in cultural competence in a range of African countries, including Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

We’ve been around, we know what the different cultures entail and how to deal with them, so that’s fundamentally our role.”

A Foundation for the Future Like many companies, Redpath Africa has just come out the other side of a deeply challenging year, but Schultz remains optimistic.

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REDPATH MINING AFRICA

“At the moment, with COVID-19, the second wave of infections and with new strains emerging, many people are feeling nervous about what the future holds. It will come to an end; it is only a matter of the damage being done in the meantime,” Schultz says.

He goes on to add “But after every crisis, there’s always opportunity. We know the global economy has taken a knock, but it will rebound and there will be opportunities to grow with that when it comes. We’re positioned correctly to take advantage of that growth. The future is dependent on how alert we are and how we manage our

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business. Our goal is to keep our finger to the pulse.”

Whatever happens, Schultz insists Redpath is engaged in essential work.

“We will always rely on mining, the only thing this world doesn’t mine is timber, foodstuffs and clothes. If you look in a motorcar, everything in a car has been mined, the metal, the fuel cells, the new generation batteries. So, there is an opportunity to execute projects and an opportunity for us, provided we stay ahead of the game, to be safer, faster and more competitively priced than our competitors,” Schultz says.

“That’s our fundamental goal.”

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CNG FUELS

CNG FUELS, A COMPANY ESTABLISHED ONLY SIX YEARS AGO, IS SET TO PLAY A LEADING ROLE IN DRIVING THE HEAVY VEHICLE MARKET TOWARDS THE GREEN OPERATION.

THE GREEN DRIVE PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

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CNG FUELS

CNG Fuels, the UK’s leading operator of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) refuelling infrastructure, develops, owns, and operates CNG refuelling stations offering zero-carbon fuel for HGVs. 100% of the fuel supplied by CNG Fuels is a sustainable and renewable biomethane approved under the UK Department for Transport’s Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme.

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T

he gas is sourced from waste feedstocks such as food waste and is the most environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternative to diesel for HGVs. It cuts vehicle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by as much as 100% and is 35%-40% cheaper than diesel.

BUILDING A NEW INDUSTRY

Set up in 2014 by Philip Fjeld and Baden Gowrie-Smith, professionals with a background in the natural gas industry and investment management, the vision was clear from the beginning - to build a nationwide

network of large public access biomethane filling stations in the UK, with all critical aspects of that process, i.e., design, construction and operation, accomplished in-house.

Six years on, the company is well on track towards that vision. “There were two critical milestones driving the business forward,” says Philip Fjeld.

“The first one was the RTFO approval, a fundamental step for the development. The second was achieved in December 2020 by securing £80 million in backing from Foresight Group to speed up the rolling out of our stations.”

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CIVIL ENGINEERING & GROUNDWORKS

Bridge Construction Limited Office 4B, Mill Lane Industrial Estate, Kirby Road, Glenfield, Leicester, LE3 8DX United Kingdom

Email: info@bridgeconstructionltd.com Telephone: +44 (0)116 287 9563 LinkedIn: Bridge Construction Limited Website: www.bridgeconstructionltd.com

WE DO THINGS RIGHT!

Bridge Construction are specialists in Civil Engineering and Groundworks, we are ‘The Infrastructure Constructors’. Working across the East & West Midlands and their surrounding Counties we offer a professional Contractor service delivering exceptional quality work using our own experienced in-house resources & selected specialist contractors.

Projects we regularly deliver are valued from £50k to £2M and include Highways, Roads & Footpaths, S278 Schemes, Drainage & Ducting, Car Parks, SuDS schemes including Attenuation and Flow Restriction, CNG Fuel Stations, Commercial Developments, RC Works, Excavation, Tank Installation, Temp Works, Traffic Management, Traffic Signals & Street Lighting, Kerbs & Edgings, Hard & Soft Landscaping & Fencing to name a few.

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From the simple to the most complex multi-disciplinary projects, we have our Clients needs covered, our professional Senior Management and on-site teams will deliver your project from contract award right through to successful completion. The attitude of the team is ‘can do’ and will discuss any design concerns or ‘change’ in an open and honest manner at all times to find the right way forward. Bridge Construction work at the highest level and to the highest standards, don’t be disappointed with your Contractor, use the best, use Bridge Construction.

Please contact us and we will be happy to discuss your project with you.

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The company’s position is currently unique.

Although there are other companies operating in the gas refuelling sector, these are typically focused on LNG fuel meaning that CNG Fuels currently has no real competitor. “It takes time to build up an industry. I’m sure there will be similar companies emerging soon but as of today, there is not much space for a lot of competition in this new sector,” Philip Fjeld reflects.

Speaking about the challenges that the business has encountered on its steep development journey, he admits that in the early years the biggest hindrance was the lack of suitable trucks which were still in development. Given recent market developments, that is no longer a bottleneck, but building a new large CNG station still has its challenges - the process of securing land, getting planning permission, completing ecological studies prior to construction takes a lot of time and planning.

Still, progress has been remarkable. “We now have 7 very large stations in operation and are aiming to have one in construction every six weeks,” says Philip Fjeld. “We are looking at a build rate of up to 10 stations per year. Unlike conventional filling stations, CNG stations are very large facilities that can routinely fuel 10-12 trucks simultaneously, up to 500 HGVs per day.”

TOWARDS ZERO CARBON

While elsewhere in Europe the CNG sector traditionally focuses on passenger cars and vans, CNG biomethane is designed for the commercial HGV market, which has been growing exponentially over the last few years as large hauliers strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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“The heavy truck sector has been the hardest to decarbonise and that is where we now see a steep growth,” says Mr Fjeld. “That development is the very core of our business - to establish a network of large multi-user public access biomethane refuelling stations so that large hauliers can transition their fleet from diesel to renewable gas. There are some 130,000 so-called articulated trucks running in the UK and that is essentially our core market the long-haul very heavy trucks on the roads.”

HGVs account for 4.5% of total UK greenhouse gases, so decarbonising the sector is essential to meet the UK’s goal of achieving Net Zero emissions by 2050. Bio-CNG is the leading commercially available solution at scale to reduce these emissions.

Fuel duty on biomethane is lower than on diesel and the government has committed to maintaining a clear advantage for gas-powered vehicles until 2032.

As one truck uses the same amount of fuel as some 60-100 passenger vehicles, it is clear that the environmental impact would be huge and large hauliers are aware of that. The John Lewis Partnership plans to run its entire 600-strong HGV fleet on biomethane by 2028, while parcel company Hermes also plans to replace its 300-strong fleet of diesel trucks. Other customers adopting biomethane include ASDA, Argos, Royal Mail, DHL and Cadent.

“Every customer that we bring on-board that gets rid of one diesel vehicle is actually taking 50-100 passenger vehicles off the road. That is a massive impact and that is why the HGV sector is such an important market for us,” says Philip Fjeld.

TURBOCHARGING PROGRESS

The financial injection from Foresight Group will speed up station rollout and the business is set to complete its projected 8-10 stations per year. In terms of location, the company is focusing on those areas with a critical mass of trucks, i.e., on major trucking routes and

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CNG FUELS

at key logistics hubs. Mr Fjeld explains that some 100 stations spread along the busy lines would provide enough coverage in the UK to move the heavy-mileage part of the HGV sector completely off diesel.

“We have spent a lot of time developing the market, educating the decision-makers, working with the government.

Now our focus is on execution.

We are currently holding back our growth - we have a lot of customers who would have ordered more green trucks if there were more stations available. So, at this point in time, we are our own bottleneck.

That is why the fundraising has been so critical, and why the focus on execution is so strong.”

“The ultimate aim is to decarbonise the long-haul, heavy-mileage HGV sector.

We are decades away from hydrogen being massdeployable but we need to do something today. There is enough biomethane available but what is lacking is the delivery device, the stations.

And that’s where our focus is now - to turbocharge station rollout.”

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QUALITY STEEL CORPORATION

THE HISTORY OF QUALITY STEEL CORPORATION, NORTH AMERICA’S LARGEST MANUFACTURER OF PROPANE STORAGE TANKS, IS A STORY OF STEADY GROWTH THAT IS SET TO CONTINUE.

THE STRENGTH OF STEEL

PROJECT MANAGED BY: ANDREW BOURKE 168 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

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QUALITY STEEL CORPORATION

Quality Steel Corporation (QSC), a leading manufacturer of propane storage tanks, anhydrous ammonia nurse tanks and other ASME-certified pressure vessels for domestic and commercial use, boasts a history of nearly seven decades. Founded by Lowry Tims in 1957, the company has continued to grow as a familyowned business, both organically and through acquisitions.

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Q

SC’s President and CEO Sean Wessel, a representative of the third generation of the family, describes the beginnings of the business: “The founder, my wife’s grandfather, originally owned a gas company but saw a need in his business for higher quality propane tanks.

Early on, QSC was a regional player focused primarily on one size (250 gals) of a tank – selling in the states surrounding Mississippi. In those early years, our company was able to get production up to 45k

tanks per year with one facility in Cleveland, Mississippi, employing some 90 people.”

Mr Wessel, who came to work for the business in late-2015 as the Chief Financial Officer and moved to his current role in 2019 following his fatherin-law’s retirement, highlights the key milestones that have shaped the company: “In 2013, we acquired our largest competitor at that time, American Welding & Tank.

Overnight, we added two more facilities – one in West Jordan, Utah and

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Youngstown, Ohio Commercial Metal Forming P.O. Box 599 - Youngstown, OH 44501 (Mailing Address) 1775 Logan Avenue, Youngstown, OH 44505

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Phone: +1 (800) 826-5363 Phone: +1 (330) 740-8300 Fax: +1 (330) 740-8599

www.cmforming.com

COMMERCIAL METAL FORMING (CMF) 2020 was a significant milestone for CMF as we recognized our 100th Year Anniversary; an accomplishment only achieved in the industrial manufacturing sector by .5% of all companies. Since 1920, we’ve evolved into an organization driven by a culture that accepts being responsible for the success of every person we touch. What we do in the business world is important, but the greatest impact is on those we touch in all aspects of our life. CMF has 3 manufacturing/distribution facilities – Youngstown, OH / Orange, CA / Saginaw, TX; propelled by an amazing group of 130 individuals that make up the Commercial Family. We are the largest privately held tank head manufacturer in the USA with the broadest range and most diverse set of capabilities in the market. Besides serving the U.S., Canada and Central America; we also export to the Middle East and South America.

The word transformation is commonly defined as a change to something different for the better. Inferred within the context of that definition is that once reached, it is a new final state. The contextual way we use transformation at CMF embraces a different endpoint; becoming a driving force for our continuous improvement and growth. The milieu for which we choose to use transformation is one that is infinite rather than finite.

Our drive is endless. Consequently, as we are transforming, we look to be acutely aware of opportunities to be uncovered that weren’t previously acknowledged or recognized; unmet needs that are new learnings which translate to future transformations. So, in the vernacular at CMF regarding transformation being infinite, we generate unending possibilities for continuous growth and improvement – in our people and in our actions.

Limitations, often self-imposed, restrict an organization; we as an organization don’t allow our scope of thinking to be limited. When we, the organization, believe that what we can conceive is limitless, infinite; what we can aspire to achieve is limitless.

The major Infinite Transformations of this past year can be summed up into three categories: • Innovation – realigning part of our manufacturing footprint with the installation of a closed loop manufacturing cell having unmatched product velocity; going from raw steel to a finished, packaged product.

• Learning Environment – realigned aspects of our business introducing deeper, integrated functionality.

• Talent Management – assessed and engaged the addition of a matrix performance system that compliments the in-place strength-based development plan.

The past year for CMF can be easily summed up as it’s not the challenges that we are faced with, but rather the opportunities we leveraged to excel. Instead of reacting to problems, we went on the offensive creating new paths for success. We grew individually and together in 2020; that’s the CMF way of doing things. www.cmforming.com

400 W. Railroad Street, Columbiana, Ohio 44408, USA Tel: +1 330-481-0200, Email: compcosales@compco.com, www.compco.com

Compco is America’s leading supplier of tank heads for the pressure vessel, water heater/storage, propane, and cryogenics industries. We operate mechanical and hydraulic presses with capacities ranging from 600 to 2,500 tons. For more than 65 years, Compco has focused on complete customer care, quality parts, and on-time delivery.

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QUALITY STEEL CORPORATION

one in Fremont, Ohio - and increased staff numbers to 250 employees. More recently, in April 2019, our parent company LT Corporation acquired another family business – LP Cylinder Service, a tank refurbishment business with two facilities based in Shohola, Pennsylvania. And finally, in October 2020, LT Corporation added another family business with some 40 employees to the mix in the shape of the Buckeye Fabricating Company in Springboro, Ohio.”

He explained that the acquisitions significantly enhanced the product offerings and enabled the company to expand into new markets. While LP Cylinder allows the business to hedge the new propane tank manufacturing business by refurbishing vessels and tanks, Buckeye Fabricating Company has extended the portfolio further - Buckeye is an industry leader in the fabrication of custom-designed weldedsteel ASME pressure vessels and non-code tanks, serving a variety of end-users in multiple industries.

BASED ON FAMILY VALUES

Quality Steel’s success comes from the pursuit of unrivalled quality. The company commands a significant market share in the propane industry in the US and Canada, and together with its sister companies’ LP Cylinder and Buckeye and under the LT Corporation umbrella operates from six facilities in four states in three separate time zones, manufacturing and refurbishing vessels and cylinders for sale in all 50 states and 10 foreign countries, altogether employing more than 400 people.

Today, ownership of the company remains with both the family, who holds a majority of the stock, and with the employees

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owning the remainder through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, established in 2004.

“Being a family-owned company, and not a division of some large conglomerate like many of our competitors, we are able to make changes quickly and react rapidly if consumers’ needs change. The partnership between employees and management promotes the focus on doing things right while maintaining the highest levels of quality.”

“BEING A FAMILY-OWNED COMPANY, AND NOT A DIVISION OF SOME LARGE CONGLOMERATE LIKE MANY OF OUR COMPETITORS, WE ARE ABLE TO MAKE CHANGES QUICKLY AND REACT RAPIDLY IF CONSUMERS’ NEEDS CHANGE.”

Lynn Hardin, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, who has been working for the company and participating in its development for over two decades, agrees that the human factor is key: “Our people are our great competitive advantage, as are the relationships we have been able to form with customers. We lead the industry with propane tanks in terms of lead times, delivery, quality and also with our customized delivery programmes.

The propane industry is a very small sector within the overall energy sector, made up of a lot of smaller companies; an industry where a handshake still means something.”

The family values have also helped to define the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the introduction of a range of safety measures and online staff meetings. “We made sure we protected our most important assets – our people, the core of the business. Our number one core value is Safety First. I firmly believe that these difficult times have made us a better company,” says Mr Wessel.

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“Unlike many others, the company did an excellent job,” adds Lynn Hardin, pointing out that the form of external relationships also needed to change. “We are a business heavily dependent on relationships that we have built, and those relationships need to be maintained. The various virtual platforms have worked very well for us, and - with a customer base spread across the US and Canada - have turned out to work even more efficiently than face-to-face interactions.”

INVESTING IN THE FUTURE

Despite the challenges of the pandemic, Mr Wessel insists that the company remains in robust shape, ready to face the future, and in line with the

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QUALITY STEEL CORPORATION

growing demand for propane tanks, is investing in increased capacity with two significant capital projects going on at two of its facilities – West Jordan, Utah and Fremont, Ohio.

In Fremont, roughly $13.9 million is planned to be invested over a period of five years, to add 40,000 square feet as part of an expansion of the facility.

The company broke ground in October with a targeted completion date of July 2021.

The West Jordan project follows a similar theme, increasing production area capacity, and enhancing office and meeting space for the company’s growing workforce.

Speaking about the longerterm strategy, Mr Wessel affirms that the intention is to continue to expand the company’s

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market share by maintaining and further enhancing its highquality products, excellent customer service and on-time delivery, through additional targeted capital investments in Quality Steel’s facilities. As before, people will remain at the core of the business, and investment in human resources, benefits, and training will continue to be an important part of the strategy.

“Our goal is to grow and diversify. Some of this growth will come organically while our parent company continues to seek and find suitable target companies that would further complement our core competencies, but also help us to diversify our product offerings for our customer base.”

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INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES

Frank Olsen, CEO of Inchcape Shipping Services.

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INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES

SHIPPING AGENTS CAN BE SEEN AS A NECESSARY EVIL IN THE MARITIME INDUSTRY, BUT INCHCAPE IS WORKING HARD TO CHANGE THAT.

BRINGING VALUE &

TRANSPARENCY PROJECT MANAGED BY: CONNOR LOVE

Inchcape Shipping’s history goes back to 1847 when it was established in India by a Scottish merchant, with its first customer being the British East India Company.

Since then the company has grown, developed, and changed hands to become the business it is today, employing around 2,500 people with offices in 60 countries covering over 2,200 ports. Between Inchcape’s own offices and its partner agents, the company is able to cover every major port in the world.

O

ur core business is to provide any services a ship requires when it calls into port. Those services can range from cargo-related services like customs clearance, arranging cargo movements, services related to the maritime asset itself, repairs, spares for maintenance, surveys and inspections,” explains Frank Olsen, CEO of Inchcape Shipping Services. “We also work with the soft assets - crew changes, getting people from their home country to whatever port they embark from. We’re a service provider to the world’s merchant fleets.”

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Inchcape serves all kinds of vessels, ranging from the military to cruise ships to tankers to container ships and any other kind of vessel you can imagine. As one of the biggest ship agents in the world, in one year the company handles close to 70,000 port calls.

“We’re arguably the biggest but it’s a tight race between three companies,” Olsen tells us.

WORKING SMARTER, NOT HARDER

As well as Inchcape’s impressive offering of core services, its Inchcape 360 portfolio also

includes a selection of services which it calls, simply, ‘Smart’.

“That relates to information, and we talk about three types of information,” Olsen points out.

“First there is static information, which is information about the port infrastructure that doesn’t change very often such as details about the port, key parameters i.e., depth of the draft, etc. Then we provide market intelligence relating to which ships are calling at which ports and what they’re doing there, and the commodity flows coming in and out of a port. The final piece of our information offering is the dynamic operational data. That means capturing all the timings and events that take place during a port call.”

For a shipowner and operator, this is invaluable information, allowing them to see why one ship may be performing better than another and helping to resolve any kind of dispute between interested parties when things are taking longer than is ideal.

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South America Argentina

HEXAWARE TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED Making the Most of Technology for Agility, Sustainability and Innovation Hexaware, a future-ready global IT services company, is all set to head into 2021 by redefining strategies for agility and sustainable transformation. The company has come a long way, bagging several accolades for its futuristic IT solutions.

In 2020, it kept the momentum going by scoring a hat-trick with Whitelane’s IT Sourcing Study among the top service providers.

Hexaware’s CEO, R Srikrishna, aka Keech, believes that changes in consumers’ behavioural patterns are driving evolution in the technology trends. These fastevolving trends and commitment to excellence inspire Hexaware to build creative solutions for technology-driven transformation. Hexaware is heavily invested in its ideology of AUTOMATE EVERYTHING®, CLOUDIFY EVERYTHING® and TRANSFORM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES® to usher industries into their next phase of productivity and performance.

Along with several other industries, Hexaware has helped clients from the Travel, Transportation, Logistics, Hospitality (TTLH) sectors to aim for long-term transformation and enduring growth. In the Manufacturing and Consumer segment, Hexaware enables digital transformation in sectors such as Discrete Manufacturing, Automotive, Construction, Energy, and Utilities, Contract Manufacturing & Electronic Manufacturing Services. The company has enabled enterprises in these sectors to reimagine customer experience transformation with cost optimisation and continuous process improvement.

Hexaware’s Global Travel and Transportation vertical serves Airlines, Airports, Travel Technology & Distribution, Shipping Services, Hospitality, Travel Management Companies and Logistics Service Provider segments across the globe. With its in-depth TTLH domain experience, blended with technology expertise, Hexaware understands every digital touchpoint across the business functions of Shipping, Transportation and Logistics in areas such as port agency operations, marine services, port and market intelligence, cargo management and delivery, last-mile service, warehouse management, and so on. The company provides services in system integration, development, testing and support for the applications of an enterprise, core business applications, automating workflows, infrastructure, mobile application, and delivers meaningful insights into data and analytics. Hexaware offers solutions to build resilience for organisations, digitally empowers workforces to improve operational efficiency while controlling costs and delivers real-time visibility across the business value chain.

To meet the ever-evolving customer expectations, organisations need to leverage disruptive technologies like biometric, blockchain, IoT, AI, mobility, extended reality and automation. To acquire and retain customers, organisations must work on identifying new revenue opportunities, improving operational efficiency, optimising costs and enhancing customer experience. Hexaware has aligned its offerings to help clients exceed customer expectations and turn them into loyal customers.

One such success story is Inchcape Shipping Services, a leading global Port Agency and Marine Services provider, which in December 2018 appointed Hexaware as its sole, strategic IT Operations and Transformation partner tasked with delivering a balanced portfolio of IT and Business initiatives, helping Inchcape realise both their external and internal ambitions. Hexaware setup a dedicated and secure delivery centre for Inchcape in Chennai, with a range of skills and expertise readily available for Inchcape to leverage.

Inchcape defined an industry game-changing technology strategy to drive true differentiation among shipping agents, as it provides principals with unprecedented transparency across all shipping activities, underpinned by

specialist products that deliver real-time information on global ports, operational events, market intelligence, and vessel traffic positions (AIS -Automatic Identification System); equipping customers with the data needed for dynamic decision making. Access to live information puts control and oversight in the hands of vessel operators, creating trust and closer collaboration with the port agent.

The formation of Inchcape’s strategic partnership with Hexaware has enabled the sustainable ongoing evolution of their core products as well as ensuring continuity of IT support to the business.

A key achievement of Hexaware is the delivery of ‘World of Ports’, a state-of-theart platform that provides key port parameters to aid charterers and shipping companies with the vessel to berth compatibility process. The platform also delivers Market Intelligence derived from tracking the commercial fleet globally with proprietary algorithms to estimate the cargo and quantity of the cargo onboard and the exact berths each vessel calls using geofencing to capture port events data for benchmarking of the vessel, fleet and terminal. This is further integrated with a cutting-edge Operations System, ‘Optic’, building trust through transparency of the vessel programme, real-time updates, standardised workflow and data across all port calls and locations. By capturing data from more than 70,000 port calls worldwide each year, Inchcape is able to benchmark operations, costs and performance metrics to enable principals to optimise their fleet utilisation and reduce port-related costs.

Hexaware’s strategy of ‘CLOUDIFY EVERYTHING®’ and ‘TRANSFORM CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES®’ reflects in all the above, whereby Hexaware delivered future-proof products deployed on cloud-native architecture, and also on SaaS-based low code stack.

On the end-to-end IT Operations front, Hexaware demonstrated exemplary capabilities in taking transitions across 60 countries and consolidating a Global Service Desk and the Network Operations Centre in India. This enabled uniform customer experience while reducing operational costs for reinvestment into Inchcape’s new digital products. During the recent global pandemic, Hexaware continued to deliver undisrupted services.

Key outcomes of the Inchcape-Hexaware partnership over the last two years are 1. 25% reduction in ITO spend 2. Simultaneous delivery of customer-facing digital products in an accelerated manner across a range of technologies 3. Increased cloud adoption at Inchcape by 70% 4. Improved application and infrastructure resilience With extensive and creative use of technology every single day, Hexaware works towards building resilient and future-proof solutions. The collaboration sets a great example of effective leadership, outcome-driven technology strategy and flawless execution.

A recent quote from Andy Ashwell, Group Information Officer, acknowledging this strategic partnership with Hexaware is a testimony to our services to Inchcape.

“Given the current circumstances, it would have been very easy for us to lose a year. However, with Hexaware’s help we did not. During the COVID-19 pandemic, not only were we able to help maintain global supply chains but we also significantly progressed the digitalisation of our business. Our global customers can now exploit the unique benefits derived from combining the largest port agency network in the world with class-leading digital products.” www.hexaware.com

INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES

“We coordinate all this information between shipowners, charterers, pilots and port authorities. We label this as ‘Smart Sight,” Olsen says.

“This is Inchcape proprietary technology that we built and developed ourselves because it didn’t exist anywhere else. We are unique in that we can pull this information from our global network of port agents, in addition to accessing all the AIS data, analytics and open-source web scrapings. We’re one of the only players with eyes, ears and boots on the ground to capture information that isn’t otherwise publicly available. It’s a valueadded service that we see growing.”

Inchcape’s Smart offering isn’t just about gathering information and making it accessible, it’s also about streamlining processes and using technology to save time and money for its customers.

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“The other aspect of Smart is what we call Smart Pay. One of the activities we’re involved in is procuring services on behalf of ship operators or owners.

We make payments to port authorities and local vendors on behalf of our principals,” Olsen tells us. “In order to do that we have established a smart way of handling payments that is far more cost-effective for the customer.”

“WE’RE ONE OF THE ONLY PLAYERS WITH EYES, EARS AND BOOTS ON THE GROUND TO CAPTURE INFORMATION THAT ISN’T OTHERWISE PUBLICLY AVAILABLE.”

Smart Pay is a single, fully integrated, multi-currency, transparent, digitally empowered platform that enables Inchcape to channel all transactions through one portal, enabling customers to take advantage of very favourable FX rates and banking charges.

A TRULY GLOBAL NETWORK

In an industry where the top spot is closely contested between the leading companies in the sector, Inchcape sets itself apart with the sheer comprehensiveness of its global network.

“Our global competitors have blank spots in some areas of the world, while we are truly global, with our own people, our own offices and vetted approved business partners,” explains Olsen. “The second big selling point for us is our procurement department. Strangely enough, we’re the only global agent with

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INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES

a dedicated procurement team, giving us much better control of our vendors and suppliers. We also utilise our large volume to get better buying power. When the world’s biggest ship owners go to a port, they still have less buying power than we do because we’re representing 30 shipowners in the same port.

The final differentiator is our Managed Services, a global coordinating centre managing all aspects of the port call operations for ship owners. It’s a complete outsourced solution.

What we call a HUB solution.”

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Of course, while Inchcape’s network reaches around the planet, so have the challenges of the last year.

“At the moment it’s hard not to mention COVID-19. It’s been an extreme challenge for us and many others and there are multiple aspects to that from a pure business perspective, particularly in April and May we saw a reduction in trading,” Olsen tells us. “We were able to address that effectively by adjusting our cost base and scaling our network according to activity.”

However, a dip in trade wasn’t the biggest challenge the industry faced. That was something far more dire.

“The other challenge, which became far more urgent, was that the lockdown and travel restrictions made it hard to perform crew changes. Being a seafarer myself, I understand it’s a huge strain on crew already away from families for nine months at a time when your contract is up and you can’t get home,” Olsen says.

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INCHCAPE SHIPPING SERVICES

It was a problem Inchcape immediately began work on addressing.

“We took the initiative in forming a cross-industry collaboration to approach port authorities, arrange charter flights and really try to find a solution to get serving crews home and fresh crews back onboard ships even during the strictest lockdowns,” says Olsen.

THE FUTURE IS GROWTH

2020 was a tough year for most businesses but Inchcape has achieved reasonably good results and is now fully committed to using its financial strength, experience and global position to grow. To do this, the company is looking at three main areas.

The first is mergers, acquisitions, and the consolidation of a very fragmented industry.

“There are a lot of local actors and we can help these smaller companies by putting them into the Inchcape network,” Olsen points out.

Secondly, the company is looking to grow geographically.

“Our network is unique but there are always new and emerging markets,” Olsen says.

Finally, Inchcape wants to develop and expand its product

offering, adding value for its customers. Shipping agents can be seen as a necessary evil or an unavoidable added costpoint, but Inchcape wants to go beyond that.

“We want to help our customers, giving them insight through information to plan their voyages better,” insists Olsen.

“We’re looking a lot at the total cost of operation for ship owners and operators. Rather than looking at individual cost items, we look at it across the whole voyage and the whole fleet to see how to run your business more effectively.”

A big part of this process means pushing for strong governance, compliance and transparency. In 2019 Inchcape kicked off “The Year of Transparency”, which continues to this day.

“There’s been a lack of trust between ship owners and operators and the agent. The industry has been seen as only wanting to maximise profit,” Olsen admits. “We want to change that and be part of the solution to reduce the cost of operations. It’s not enough to say, ‘You can trust us’. You have to demonstrate that through complete transparency, taking the steps we can to offer our customers the best deal we can.”

“WE’RE LOOKING A LOT AT THE TOTAL COST OF OPERATION FOR SHIP OWNERS AND OPERATORS. RATHER THAN LOOKING AT INDIVIDUALS COST ITEMS, WE LOOK AT IT ACROSS THE WHOLE VOYAGE AND THE WHOLE FLEET TO SEE HOW TO RUN YOUR BUSINESS MORE EFFECTIVELY.” 184 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

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Gabriel Rodriguez, Executive Director, Sans Souci Ports S.A.

SANS SOUCI PORTS S.A.

PUERTO SANTO DOMINGO, A PRIVATE, MULTI-PURPOSE SEAPORT BOASTING UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS, IS SET TO FURTHER ENHANCE ITS CARIBBEAN PRESENCE BY PURSUING CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT.

MODERN HAVEN IN THE CARIBBEAN PROJECT MANAGED BY: GARY SMITH

Sans Souci Ports S.A., a wholly private entity established 15 years ago, received the concession to operate the Port of Santo Domingo, located at the mouth of the marine entrance to the City of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, as part of a larger project to revitalise the general area. The aim was to integrate the port area and Santo Domingo’s Colonial City to create an attractive destination for cruise, yacht and high-end tourism.

T

he scope of the project was significantly more ambitious than simply revitalising the port, and its focus has changed over time.

Since the original concession came into force, some US$ 50 million has been invested in order to convert the Port of Santo Domingo into what it is today - a truly multi-purpose port that handles both passengers and cargos, with a clear roro focus,” explains Executive Director Gabriel Rodriguez.

Currently, The Port of Santo Domingo is the Dominican Republic’s leading multipurpose port. With more than 1,700 linear

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meters of berthing area, three passengers and cargo handling terminals and the capacity to warehouse more than 7,000 CEUs, the port serves cruise, general cargo, PCC, ferry and other ro-ro vessels, developing tailored solutions that help shipping lines handle more than 50% of vehicles imported to the country and nearly 80% of the trade with Puerto Rico.

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SANS SOUCI PORTS S.A.

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A PART OF A.P. MOLLER-MAERSK GROUP

The company has built a very strong presence in a few niches and, although the smallest of the country’s three ports handling large-volume cargo, handles 80% of the trade between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Santo Domingo is also the principal port for handling vehicle cargo for the Dominican Republic and is the only port in the country that does vehicle transhipment.

“About two years ago, which coincided with my joining the team, we started to build a large bulk cargo capability at the port, and this has been successful: in 2019 we handled half a million tonnes of bulk cargo and want to gradually build that volume up to a million tonnes and more,” says Mr Rodriguez.

Within the tourism business, the company operates two ferry and cruise terminals. PreCovid-19, the port handled about 100,000 passengers a year coming from Puerto Rico, and - with the Sans Souci terminal being the largest and most modern cruise terminal in the whole of the Caribbean thousands of cruise passengers.

The terminal also operates as a convention centre for the City of Santo Domingo.

Due to the diverse nature of its infrastructure, numerous commercial activities can take place concurrently, says Gabriel Rodriguez. “We operate as a unique entity that needs to adapt quickly and efficiently to a myriad of operations, from moving steel billets one day, to celebrating a fashion show in the same place the next. Speed, versatility and adaptability to very different circumstances are the elements that really characterise us.”

Adaptability is second nature to Mr Rodriguez himself. With a background in banking,

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SANS SOUCI PORTS S.A.

management consulting and mining, operating a port was a new venture for him. “I came to Sans Souci after seven years in the mining sector, a very different industry to port management,” he admits. “Still, there are some surprising similarities. Both are very capitalintensive businesses, both must operate very efficiently, serving international clients, and both have a strong focus on safety and security, as well as compliance with stringent environmental management practices. So, I could utilise a lot of my experience and was also lucky to find a team that was both very strong and very used to adapting.”

THE WAY FORWARD

Although the major investment in the revitalisation was made during the first five years of the project, the modernisation is far from complete. Last year, the company revamped Berth 10 which has a fuel terminal, and in partnership with the owner of the fuel terminal, it is expected that the company will take a place in the fuel market locally.

As the volume of cargo grows, more investment is spent on further improving the infrastructure to better suit the business. “At the moment, we spend around US$ 750,000 each year in improving the port but in the medium term we plan to expand the Sans Souci Terminal so that it can accommodate larger ships, increasing the transhipment capability,” says Mr Rodriguez.

“In the medium term, we aim to grow all of our business lines. In terms of the container business, this can be achieved by increasing connectivity with other parts of the world, be it Europe, China or Japan. We are also confident that we can re-position the Port of Santo

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Domingo as a destination of choice for cruise guests.”

These are ambitious plans after the difficult year of 2020, with its significant hit to sales and tourism falling to zero.

Still, the management remains optimistic. “We quickly focused on understanding how the pandemic will impact us and how to keep our people safe. We have implemented 72 different measures that allowed us to prevent transmission within our facilities, and we were able to avoid any furloughs or downsizing by re-arranging the work. We are very proud of how our people handled this difficult year and happy to say that we managed to protect all their jobs.”

Although the immediate future holds a high degree of uncertainty, the company is set

to further improve the efficiency and quality of its services, says Mr Rodriguez. “We firmly believe that we can learn to further improve, making sure we have the best alliances to do things the best they can be done. To this end, we have partnered with Fast Terminal, a wellestablished operator in the US, Central and South Americas, to help us to develop those unique capabilities that allow us to serve clients better but also to enhance our visibility.”

He affirms that significant investments are planned in further facility expansion as well as in human resources, in line with the company’s mission.

“We are clear that we are never going to be the largest port in the Dominican Republic, but we want to be the best,” he concludes.

“SPEED, VERSATILITY AND ADAPTABILITY TO VERY DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES ARE THE ELEMENTS THAT REALLY CHARACTERISE US.” BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 189

S.A. TALKE

S.A. TALKE PROVIDES FIRST-CLASS LOGISTIC SERVICES FOR THE CHEMICAL AND PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRIES IN THE KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA, WITH SAFETY AS A TOP PRIORITY.

EXCELLENCE IN CHEMICAL LOGISTICS PROJECT MANAGED BY: MALVERN KANDEMWA

S.A. TALKE was established in 2003 as a joint venture between the German ALFRED TALKE Group, Al-Jabr Group (Eastern Province), Saudi Arabia’s SISCO Group (Jeddah) to provide an end-to-end logistics solution for the chemical and petrochemical sectors.

T

he company leverages ALFRED TALKE’s European expertise in design, construction, and operation of logistic sites and capitalises on the local footprint and knowledge of both Al-Jabr and SISCO provides supply chain solutions, including onsite and off-site operations, packaging, storage, and transport, complemented by a wide range of addedvalue services focused on the logistics of chemical products in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

In 2019, the company’s volume throughput in Saudi Arabia was more than 18 million tonnes of chemical products. S.A. TALKE currently operates 16 projects in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, of which two were won in 2020, and the TALKE Group also has a strong presence in Oman, UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain.

Makhlouf Benzahia, Managing Director, S.A. TALKE, describes what is behind the company’s

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strong position: “Our teams are able to put together efficient supply chain solutions, optimise processes and maximise value for our clients based on an indepth understanding of the specific needs and requirements of the petrochemical industry, the result of many years of successful partnerships with our clients.”

He further points out that the company has also been involved in several turnkey projects on behalf of its clients. “Our involvement from the start means that our clients can benefit from our expertise in putting together the most efficient solution and from dealing with a single contact from the very beginning of the project.”

Makhlouf Benzahia, Managing Director, S.A. TALKE.

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S.A. TALKE

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S.A. TALKE

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Clients appreciate S.A. TALKE’s wide range of storage solutions suited to a large diversity of products, including silos for bulk storage, ambient and temperature-controlled storage solutions for hazardous and non-hazardous goods, bonded warehouses, and chemical storage facilities.

“All of S.A. TALKE’s facilities are designed to achieve optimal utilisation, efficient material flows, and are all equipped with state-of-the-art safety systems,” affirms Mr Benzahia. “We can maintain some of the most sophisticated packaging lines in the world, and our skilled employees are able to deal with a variety of specialised maintenance requirements including PLC programming and robotic palletizers. There is also a great focus on planning, a key factor in achieving an efficient

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S.A. TALKE

supply chain. The control tower concept is applied efficiently and effectively to achieve best customer service at a competitive cost,” he explains.

SAFE AND RELIABLE

Recently, S.A. TALKE celebrated a new milestone — the achievement of 12 million safe man-hours without a lost-time injury (LTI). This has been the result of a continuous effort to create an organisational culture where safety is a core value and always comes first.

All employees are continuously encouraged to drive the safety performance forward and are rewarded for generating creative ideas.

The Act Safety Program (ASP), Behaviour-Based Safety (BBS), and Leadership Safety (LS) are a few of the programmes which are implemented in S.A.

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TALKE, seeking to continuously improve awareness through a series of focused and interactive quarterly safety campaigns.

“The achievement of 10 million safe man-hours without an LTI in mid-2020 was remarkable considering that our team had to deal with various challenges due to the Covid-19 pandemic while serving our clients without interruption,” says Mr Benzahia.

“Our safety record is something we can all be proud of, something that sets us apart,” adds Andreas Goebels, Corporate HSSEQ Manager at S.A. TALKE. “We have created a work environment where our people are empowered to take actions, new ideas are recognised and success is achieved and celebrated together. With open communication, we have built a relationship with our people based on trust and mutual respect and we have developed a ‘can do’ attitude, enabling us to continue improving as a team.”

The company’s strong safety culture is well recognised. S.A. TALKE is assessed according to Gulf SQAS for transport and warehouses in Saudi Arabia and is also a member of Responsible Care, the chemical industry’s unique global initiative that drives unceasing improvement in environment, health, safety, and security (EHS&S) performance, together with open and transparent communication.

SHAPING THE FUTURE

It is not only internal improvements that the company continuously strives to achieve. S.A. TALKE is also involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities by partnering with the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) and local communities, and participating in

various waste-free environment campaigns, demonstrating a commitment to the environment and care for the community.

S.A. TALKE has been a valuable member of the GPCA since its formation and has been actively participating in all its supply chain conferences and annual forums under the flagship of ALFRED TALKE Logistic Services. Based on this positive experience, the GPCA collaboration provides an ideal platform for S.A. TALKE for knowledge exchange between producers, traders, and service providers at an international level.

Mr Benzahia notes that during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, S.A. TALKE has taken organisational safety culture to new heights. By taking the lead in designing and implementing prevention measures to stop the virus from spreading, S.A. TALKE has supported its clients, business partners, and employees in every situation.

Speaking about the future, Mr Benzahia affirms that S.A. TALKE is set to continuously enhance safety standards and promote social responsibility initiatives as well as development programmes for employees while focusing on expansion in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“Over the next couple of years, we will be investing heavily in increasing our warehouse capacity, diversifying our services portfolio so that we can offer additional services to existing and future clients. We will also be focusing on attracting local talent to continue building a strong local team. Our midlevel management and fast track programmes have both proved to be successful in developing local talent, and we wish to see more locals joining the logistics industry and building a career in this key area,” he reflects in concluding.

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