Business Focus Magazine Issue 78

Issue No.78

SPECIAL FEATURE: INCLUSION IN RECRUITMENT

FERREXPO

STEELING AGAINST THE PANDEMIC Exclusive interview with acting CEO Jim North on response to COVID-19 and already looking beyond it.

ALSO FEATURING: FINNAIR

Finland’s largest airline has shifted towards focusing on cargo.

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

Entering the market with a long-term strategy & flexibility to meet challenges.

JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES Positive prospects, in the face of challenges.

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 DAVID GARNER d.garner@ceomediagroup.com TIMOTHY GARWOOD t.garwood@ceomediagroup.com JOHN HOLLIMAN j.holliman@ceomediagroup.com MALVERN KANDEMWA m.kandemwa@ceomediagroup.com GLEN NEWTON g.newton@ceomediagroup.com MARK REYNOLDS m.reynolds@ceomediagroup.com JAMES RICHARDSON j.richardson@ceomediagroup.com GARY SMITH g.smith@ceomediagroup.com NEIL STOWE n.stowe@ceomediagroup.com DAVID TAVERNOR d.tavernor@ceomediagroup.com ETHAN THOMPSON e.thompson@ceomediagroup.com JAMIE WAITE j.waite@ ceomediagroup.com

DESIGN SCOTT ANDREWS design@ceomediagroup.com SARAH GREEN 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 2020 CEO Media Group.

FOCUS ON

INNOVATION Believe it or not, it is still 2020 and there is still around a quarter of the year left to go. It has been a hard time for many businesses, but out of that adversity, we have seen some inspiring stories of innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurship. In this month’s issue, we have been talking once again with Jupiter Hotels. The hospitality business might be the industry hardest hit by the events of this year, but in our profile, we discover how Jupiter Hotels is going the extra mile to serve the customers who need it while preparing for better times. We also revisited Flamingo Horticulture, who talked to us about the steps they have been taking to protect their people, their crops and the smaller businesses that rely on them.

I

n the last issue, we talked about the ways the coronavirus pandemic has caused some businesses to look at their sustainability policies with renewed scrutiny, and that is certainly visible in a number of our profiles this issue. GridCars talks to us about how their electric car fuelling infrastructure has fared through the pandemic and juwi Renewable Energy talks about how their solar energy business has adapted to the new normal.

There have also been some surprising success stories, such as ilke Homes, who reveal how their unique hybrid of construction and manufacturing is well suited to the conditions enforced by COVID-19.

As well as individual stories, we have also been looking at the wider picture, speaking to international terminals such as Sogester and the Red Sea Gateway Terminal to see how international trade and supply chain infrastructure has been faring.

But this pandemic will not go on forever, and like many businesses,

we are already looking forward to what might be on the other side. Many businesses have been looking into how they can contribute to increasing diversity and equality in the world through their work, so we have written a feature about increasing diversity in the workplace. Because whatever “new normal” exists after this pandemic, we want it to be a better world.

ON THE COVER Ferrexpo Go to page 16.

Issue No.78

SPECIAL FEATURE: INCLUSION IN RECRUITMENT

FERREXPO

STEELING AGAINST THE PANDEMIC Exclusive interview with acting CEO Jim North on response to COVID-19 and already looking beyond it.

ALSO FEATURING: FINNAIR

Finland’s largest airline has shifted towards focusing on cargo.

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

Entering the market with a long-term strategy & flexibility to meet challenges.

JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES Positive prospects, in the face of challenges.

3

IN THIS ISSUE

8

13

16

34

40

46 54

EVENT

MiningTech Africa 19 - 20th November 2020 Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa The leading mining technology platform in Africa

13

NEWS

Inclusion in Recruitment Building Diversity

LEADING ARTICLE

16

Ferrexpo Steeling Against the Pandemic

AUTOMATION

Greensea Systems Ocean Robotics for Smooth Operations

AVIATION, AEROSPACE & DEFENCE Finnair Carrying the Flag

COMMUNICATION & TECHNOLOGY DG World Tomorrow’s World FutureCard House of Cards

60

40

68

74

Ilke Homes Building the Future Kerama Marazzi Right on the Tiles

ENERGY & UTILITIES Gridcars Onto the Grid

78

juwi Renewable Energies A Sunny Outlook

90

ST1 Challenging the Conventional

98

4 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

CONSTRUCTION

FMCG

Flamingo Horticulture A Hardy Perennial

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

ISSUE NO.78

126

154

Jamestown Plastics True Heroes

160

Kimal A Trial by Pandemic

168

172

MINING

Nickel Mines A Nickel for Your Thoughts

SHIPPING, PORT & MARINE

National Marine Dredging Company Dredged For Success

178

Red Sea Gateway Terminal A Gateway to Opportunity

184

Sogester Container Terminal Frist Port of Call

190

Teinbridge Propellers Propelled Towards Success

138 104

Heineken Ethiopia Looking to the Long Term

114

Lion Brewery Doing a Roaring Trade

118

Nestle Helping Where They Can

126

Nestle Malaysia A Strong Performance

132

Uganda Breweries Home Is Where the Hope Is

138

142

HEALTHCARE, HOTEL & LEISURE

Jupiter Hotels Taking Hotels Through the Pandemic

MANUFACTURING

Bluetree Group From Printing to PPE

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

104 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

8 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

EVENT OF THE MONTH

EVENT: MINING TECH AFRICA WHERE: SANDTON CONVENTION CENTRE JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA WHEN: 19TH – 20TH NOVEMBER, 2020

MINING TECHNOLOGY AFRICA EXHIBITION & CONFERENCE 2020 T

he leading mining technology platform in Africa. Meet the most prominent technological firms and discover the latest mining innovations at MiningTech Africa. Expect to meet more than 200 global attendees from more than 10 countries at this premier mining technology conference and exhibition in Johannesburg, South Africa. Be a part of this invaluable platform to seek new partnerships and fresh business opportunities.

technology developments.

LEADING SOLUTION PROVIDERS

The exhibition demonstrates the very latest in technology and solution innovations to mining industry buyers.

NETWORKING

From speed networking, lunches, 1-2-1 meetings to drinks reception across 2 days you’re assured to make the right connections.

TOP SPEAKERS

Our industry leaders provide new perspectives, share cutting edge content and insights to harness the fast-changing global

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

www.miningtechafrica.com

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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INCLUSION IN RECRUITMENT

MORE AND MORE COMPANIES ARE REALISING THE BENEFITS OF A DIVERSE WORKFORCE, BUT IF YOUR OWN BUSINESS ISN’T PARTICULARLY REPRESENTATIVE, HOW CAN YOU GO ABOUT FIXING THAT?

BUILDING DIVERSITY In the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis many businesses are reassessing themselves and how they do things, and looking for areas to improve. Some of these improvements are obvious companies are cutting their travel budgets and carbon emissions, and flexitime and home working are undergoing a large-scale reassessment.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

F

ollowing the widespread Black Lives Matter protests, many companies are looking to address their own role in helping to build equality and end discrimination.

While this might seem like a recent phenomenon, however, it is an area where interest has been building for some time.

Search trend data collected

by Instant Offices showed that over the last ten years searches for “diversity and inclusion manager” have spiked by 122%.

Since 2004 searches for the term have increased by 200%.

Gender equality is also a serious issue in many companies, especially as rise in working-from-home during the lockdown has seen many

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 13

INCLUSION IN RECRUITMENT

women’s careers suffer.

Perhaps it is not surprising that the wind energy industry has already been making important steps forward on that front.

WINDS OF CHANGE

While governments have been looking at “green recovery” strategies from the COVID-19 crisis, hoping to fuel job creation in the wind and renewable energy sectors, leaders in the industry have been saying that gender diversity must be prioritised if that recovery is going to be just.

The Women in Wind Global Leadership Program, a joint initiative for the Global Wind Energy Council and the Global Women’s Network for the Energy Transition, has released a guide on Best Practices for Gender Diversity in Talent Recruitment to support this effort.

The purpose of the guide is to serve as a resource for advancing gender equality in the wind energy industry while attracting top talent and skills to build a workforce that is as inclusive as it is dynamic, driving the global

14 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

energy transition. It explains how employers in the wind sector can integrate inclusion and diversity principles into their hiring practices while fighting inequalities in talent recruitment, representation, pay and advancement.

The guide does this not by setting down hard rules, but by outlining the kind of broad recommendation that businesses can adapt to their own job requirements and local market contexts. By following these recommendations and adapting them to their own situation, businesses can create more diverse and inclusive workplaces.

The three areas the guide’s recommendations focus on are “inclusive recruitment”, “inclusive application and selection processes” and “diverse workplaces”. Some of the measures that the guide recommends include re-considering workforce representation at recruitment forums, employing targeted outreach and encouraging employee referrals, standardising and diversifying the shortlist selection processes and supporting diversity during the interview process.

“THE WIND INDUSTRY’S TALENT RECRUITMENT AND HIRING PRACTICES SHOULD REFLECT WIND ENERGY’S ROLE IN DRIVING SUSTAINABLE AND INCLUSIVE GROWTH AROUND THE WORLD.” The guide also emphasises that building diversity is not just about recruitment, it is about implementing wider diversity policies, such as collecting gender-disaggregated data, meritbased promotion and equal pay.

Joyce Lee, operations director for GWEC policy said at the launch of the guide, “The wind industry’s talent recruitment and hiring practices should reflect wind energy’s role in driving sustainable and inclusive growth around the world.

According to IRENA, every $1m invested in renewables for a green recovery could generate at least 25 jobs – as governments make smart investments in clean energy, the sector must make its own smart investments. That means tapping into the widest pool of human talent which can hone

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

INCLUSION IN RECRUITMENT

our industry’s competitiveness and place wind energy at the forefront of innovation.”

POWERED BY BELIEF

These attitudes are not limited to the renewable energy sector, however. The interest in building a more diverse business world is widespread, especially following a summer that has thrown into focus the kinds of inequality that exist around the world.

While these are typically seen as the interests millennials, reports by Instant Offices has revealed older generations are also concerned about the importance of diversity and inclusion, with 79% of customers saying they must be able to trust a brand to do the right thing, compare to 81% of 18-34 and 35-54 year-olds.

This is a symptom of what has become known as “belief-driven buying”, where customers make their choices based on how businesses reflect their values, whether that is in terms of diversity, sustainability or corporate social responsibility.

Instant Offices has reported that last year 64% of consumers across eight highly influential global markets were what could

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

be described as “belief-driven buyers”.

69% of consumers want brands that express their values, according to an Edelman report on brands and trust. It is not enough to be on the fence either, as that 69% are more likely to trust brands that are more committed to being involved in societal issues.

Further insights Instant Offices have provided include that 53% of buyers believe every brand has a responsibility to get involved in at least one social issue, while 49% say brands can do more to address and solve social issues than the government.

However, this needs to be a serious commitment for the business. 56% of customers are sceptical of companies using societal issues to sell more of their product, rather than backing up their message with tangible action.

STARTING FROM THE GROUND UP

It is all very well knowing that diversity is important to your customers, but actually building that diversity into your business is another matter entirely.

However, there are a number of important steps you can take to create a business that is not only helping to fight issues of inequality by having a more representative workforce but is also benefiting from the diverse range of perspectives and ideas that can bring to a company.

First, when you are interviewing for positions within your organisation you should ensure you have a diverse pool of candidates. Secondly, it is not enough to simply want to increase diversity, you need to address the elephant in the room and talk about diversity, encourage conversations around the topic and look for ways to address a lack of diversity in your company.

During these conversations, make sure you listen to the groups you want to give a more prominent role in the company. If you do not have enough of these people in your company, bring in consultation from outside the company. Partnering with other companies known for diverse leadership is a good way to do this. This is the only way you can begin working towards creating a workplace culture where people from all backgrounds feel comfortable and safe.

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 15

FERREXPO

STEELING WE LEARN HOW FERREXPO HAS RESPONDED TO COVID & IS ALREADY LOOKING BEYOND IT.

AGAINST THE PANDEMIC PROJECT MANAGED BY: TREVOR GRETSINGER

16 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

FERREXPO

Ferrexpo is the world’s third-largest iron ore pellet Exporter, supplying high-quality pellets to the global steel industry.

“All commodity businesses are cyclical. We’ve focused particularly hard in the last five years to develop a customer portfolio which can support our business throughout the cycle,” explains Jim North, Acting CEO of Ferrexpo. “We have created long term relationships with crisis resistant customers who are looking for reliable suppliers with consistent quality to support their steel production. Our sales book is as good as you will find at any of the world’s major iron ore miners.”

T

he company’s mining operations are solely Ukraine-based; however, we have marketing offices all over the world located close to our key customers.

“We produce high-quality blast furnace pellets, with low levels of alumina and phosphorous, which makes our product highly sought after,” North points out.

“We’ve been dipping our toe in the water in the DRI [Direct Reduced Iron] market and have delivered several trial cargoes to key customers in this market segment, and we will continue to expand our DR pellet sales into markets such as the US, Middle East and South-East Asia.”

Ferrexpo’s strategy is to grow and expand its footprint by positioning itself for growth and optimising its operations to ensure disciplined governance.

The company’s strategy is built on the goal of producing and exporting high-quality pellets to premium steel mills around the world, targeting businesses that produce sophisticated steel products.

Ferrexpo intends to be a lowcost, efficient producer with a

reliable logistics infrastructure.

By positioning themselves as a low-cost producer with a continually improving output quality, Ferrexpo plans to develop a strong customer portfolio and maintain a social licence to operate.

The company is setting out to optimise its operations by developing its resource base and logistics capabilities while acting as an efficient producer and continually training and developing its employees.

This strategy is built on a foundation of operating discipline that requires Ferrexpo to maintain high standards of corporate governance, evaluate relevant investment opportunities and maintain appropriate credit metrics and sufficient financial liquidity.

The business is also committed to developing the Group’s significant resource base, improving the quality of the Group’s pellets, maintaining a competitive cost of production, and expanding the Group’s logistics capabilities while opening and developing new markets and customers.

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 17

Who we are: Our company’s name is VIG Industriemaschinen GmbH.

VIG is the initial abbreviation of three words: Vorsatz (Target), Ingeneering (Engineering), Geschwindigkeit (Speed).

These three words define all of our activities.

The fast movement to targets based on the best engineering achievements.

The basis of our activity is cooperation with major customers of the mechanical engineering, metallurgy, mining, cement and chemical industries. The quality status is “Made in Germany”.

The main target of our activity is to identify problematic nodes and mechanisms in various production processes, followed by engineering research, the correct selection and replacement of obsolete equipment, improving their energy efficiency and performance.

After studying the problematic unit or assembly, we take measurements of seats, accurate load calculations and the principle of operation of the equipment according to

the drawings of the customer or at the installation site.

Afterwards, we create project documentation and offer a replacement based on three main principles: reliability, energy efficiency, ease of maintenance.

Our customers: Ferrexpo, Metinvest, Metalloinvest, DTEK, NLMK, EVRAZ, KZRK, NKMZ, Tagmet, Severstal, AMT, NRG, Arcelor, Maxam group, Ilim group and many others.

30 years of the development on the market, more than 50

satisfied customers, successful projects.

500+

History: The company was founded in the early 1990s, and from the very beginning got involved in the design and supply of the high-technology non-destructive testing equipment for pipe plants and steel plants. The software, sensors, industrial computers – the non-destructive testing solution was supplied as a completely autonomous and independent system. But the company faced the necessity

to connect the software and quality control of the production with the actuating mechanisms of the plant, to make an instant impact in the production process.

The landmark project in 1995 was a blast furnace automation system for one of EVRAZ steel plants. The development strategy of the company was to expand the range of activities and to increase the scope of design.

In order to widen the scope and scale of the engineering solutions, the end of 1990s, the company developed relationships with VEM, Siemens, Emotron, Schneider, Emerson, Beckhoff, Danfoss and other electric and electronic brands to achieve the symbiosis between automation and drive.

But something important was missing. Just electrical soft- and hardware could not make up the complete solution.

Mechanics was missing. So, the beginning of the millennium was marked by the start of the huge collaboration between VIG company and Brevini Power Transmission SpA (now part of Dana Inc). We received the best mechanical product to make the complete drive solution.

The last step was to involve the manufacturers of metal structures and parts for our end products, with the endgoal of having the turnkey machine supply, developed by our designers.

To date, a complete production cycle of components and assembly of our drives and machines has been organized in several key logistics centres near our main customers. For the production of the most sophisticated and complicated components, we work with a wide range of European and US manufacturers.

These developments allowed us to become a high-quality OEM with a

wide portfolio of products.

Nowadays, our portfolio includes successfully implemented solutions and detailed projects for the modernization of kilns, main conveyors, powerful pumps (slurry, feed, network), compressors, mining equipment, mine shaft machines, skip hoists, car dumpers, cone crushers, screens centrifuges, mixers, pelletizers and many other machines.

It is possible to carry out a turnkey project with installation, commissioning, connection and start-up, as well as obtaining all the necessary permissions from the supervising bodies.

VIG Industriemaschinen GmbH Potsdamer Straße 92, 10785 Berlin, Deutschland Tel. +49 30 516 510 68 Fax. +49 30 278 916 99 Email: info@vig-handels.deinfo@vig-im.de

www.vig-im.de

FERREXPO

Jim North Acting CEO, Ferrexpo

BUILDING THE BRAND

“When I have had discussions about our business, people have often said ‘you are those Ukrainian miners” says North.

It’s true that we have a strong Ukrainian heritage but we are now a truly global organisation, with a highly skilled team operating in various locations across the world that shares our vision to be the world’s leading supplier of pellets to the global steel industry.”

“One of the other challenges we’ve faced when introducing our company to new suppliers is to assure them that Ukraine does have world-class businesses. We’ve transformed our business into a modern, efficient world-class operation since listing on the London

20 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

stock exchange in 2007. We buy from major equipment suppliers all over the world, and we are quick to deploy any new technology or innovation into our operations.”

North makes clear that Ferrexpo is far from being the exception, but is emblematic of the transformation and development taking place within Ukraine.

“Ukraine is transforming and going through significant change.

The government is in the process of a major reform of legislation, the way they work and developing standards comparable with anywhere else in the world,” North says. “We’re regularly talking with the government about modernising legislation

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

FERREXPO

“WE’RE REGULARLY TALKING WITH THE GOVERNMENT ABOUT MODERNISING LEGISLATION TO SUPPORT OUR VISION TO DEPLOY WORLD-CLASS TECHNOLOGY.”

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

to support our vision to deploy world-class technology.”

PROTECTING THE WORKFORCE

While 2019 had posed a number of challenges for Ferrexpo, the company was able to report a strong set of financial results for the year alongside progress on corporate governance matters. Ferrexpo’s operations continued to perform strongly throughout the year while increasing the production of high quality 65% Fe pellets from

its own ore by 3% to 10.1 million tonnes while sales volumes increased to 10.3 million tonnes.

Despite lower demand from some steel mills compared to 2018, the Group signed new long-term contracts for supply into Germany and Taiwan as well as renewing a longterm contract for supply into Japan. Last year was a period of geographic diversification for Ferrexpo’s sales portfolio, allowing the Group to maintain consistent supply to the market

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 21

ZEPPELIN UKRAINE Since 1996, Zeppelin supplies legendary Caterpillar equipment to Ukraine. A wide range of products offered by the company helps customers to solve tasks of any complexity - from excavation to power of the constructed object and marine equipment. Together with Cat® equipment, used in construction, mining, oil, and gas industries, Zeppelin offers a wide range of marine, industrial diesel, and natural gas engines, Cat, MAK™, and EMD systems.

Zeppelin Ukraine provides professional service at a high level in the shortest possible time and is improving quality in a continuous process.

Genuine spare parts top service fill throughout the warehouse’s network in the country allows providing an uninterrupted supply.

Zeppelin Ukraine installed the component rebuild capabilities (CRC) to support our customer equipment high uptime, lower operational costs, and reduce greenhouse emissions through the supply chain network.

The company’s commitment is to continually develop repair capabilities and introduce technologies to meet future market needs.

Sustainability is one of the core values of Zeppelin and Caterpillar. We strive to balance environmental management, social responsibility, and economic growth - and help our business partners do the same.

Caterpillar is focused on energy and emissions reduction in our own business, and helping customers decrease their carbon footprints through machinery and power solutions that contribute to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Supported by our Enterprise Technology Strategy, research and development focus areas include high-efficiency energy conversion and electrification, working to increase power density, expand the use of alternative fuels, maximize efficiency of power systems and introduce more electrification into our product lines.

And Zeppelin Ukraine supports forward-looking technologies to meet our business partners’ needs.

Caterpillar has developed a range of offerings to reduce emissions.

This includes industry-leading engine offerings to comply with emission regulations such as Tier 4 / EU stage V, hybrid solutions, and full electric systems that help customers around the world meet their business goals for power utilization and owning and operating costs.

EMISSIONS & FUEL REDUCTION Caterpillar continues to improve fuel economy across the product line.

Cat engines with aftertreatment have nearly 170 million hours of proven field performance.

One of the latest benefits has come from Caterpillar’s mining truck line where optimized fuel maps have improved fuel economy by 6% and lower power settings on many models offer the ability to optimize fuel consumption to production requirements.

Fuel reduction efficiency also comes from higher utilization. For example, autonomous technology solutions substantially improve efficiency, productivity and safety.

One of the main factors affecting the extraction of minerals and carbon dioxide emissions is the fleet.

With Cat® MineStar ™ Command, Caterpillar has transported 2 billion tons with more than 275 autonomous trucks in operation. Cat MineStar Command reduces the number of the fleet needed to complete production tasks, and thus the amount of emissions is further reduced.

ALTERNATIVE FUELS Alternative fuel solutions such as Cat Dynamic Gas BlendingTM (DGBTM) replaces diesel with LNG whenever possible to lower energy costs.

Engine conversions can be done through the Zeppelin Ukraine installed repair base on certain engines and models.

DIESEL ELECTRIC Machines like wheel loaders and dozers that are constantly operating in and out of direct mechanical drive can benefit from improved efficiencies with diesel electric drive systems. Caterpillar currently offers diesel-electric machines like 988XE and the D7E.

DIESEL ELECTRIC TRUCKS Mechanical drive delivers the highest power utilization and weight efficiency in direct-drive applications like haulage for mining trucks.

Caterpillar also offers state-of-the-art diesel-electric drive trucks suited for certain applications and customer preference. For example, the proven 794 AC (290 metric ton) mining truck leverages over 5.5 million hours of Caterpillar’s fully integrated AC drive system.

TROLLEY ASSIST Caterpillar diesel electric mining trucks utilizing high voltage trolley systems uses electricity to reduce fuel consumption, carbon dioxide emissions, and increase engine life. This solution, compatible with Cat 794 AC, 795F AC, 796 AC, and 798 AC trucks, also increases speed on grade by 100% on a specific stretch of haul road.

NON-COMBUSTION SOLUTIONS For mobile equipment, Cat electric rope shovels are extremely energy-efficient tools with zero direct carbon emissions. In fact, they regenerate power. Our electric powered Cat hydraulic mining shovel offerings are also a great option for reducing carbon footprint.

HYBRID SYSTEMS Caterpillar also offers the Cat hybrid microgrid system, which contains both photovoltaic solar modules and energy storage, integrating renewable power with smart energy storage and conventional diesel or gas fueled power generation.

BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLES Caterpillar has unveiled the development of its first battery-powered vehicle, the R1700 XE underground loader. Benefits can include reducing ventilation infrastructure requirements and costs; generating less heat and dust that must be removed with additional air conditioning; and lowering the overall operating costs of the mine.

BUILDING A BETTER WORLD These are just a few of the many ways that Caterpillar’s vast range of products and solutions helps our customers build a better world.

ABOUT CATERPILLAR Since 1925, Caterpillar Inc. has been helping our customers build a better world – making sustainable progress possible and driving positive change on every continent.

With 2019 sales and revenues of $53.8 billion, Caterpillar is the world’s leading manufacturer of construction and mining equipment, diesel and natural gas engines, industrial gas turbines and dieselelectric locomotives. Services offered throughout the product life cycle, cutting-edge technology and decades of product expertise set Caterpillar apart, providing exceptional value to help our customers succeed. The company principally operates through three primary segments – Construction Industries, Resource Industries and Energy & Transportation – and provides financing and related services through its Financial Products segment. © 2020 Caterpillar. All Rights Reserved. CAT, CATERPILLAR, LET’S DO THE WORK, their respective logos, “Caterpillar Yellow,” the “Power Edge” trade dress as well as corporate and product identity used herein, are trademarks of Caterpillar and may not be used without permission.

www.zeppelin.ua

FERREXPO

despite some periods of weaker demand from specific regions during the year. However, while Ferrexpo’s footprint was reaching around the world, so was something else.

From Ukraine to the US, everyone all over the globe has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For Ferrexpo, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began with disruption to Chinese supply chains impacting the distribution networks of steel producers and their customers, which Ferrexpo cautioned could result in short-term volatility for the iron ore market as high levels of steel inventory built up and were released into the supply chain once normal operations resumed. The company also anticipated that the spread of the virus into Europe could result in further economic uncertainty.

Before the advent of COVID-19, Ferrexpo had been forecasting that steel profitability in Europe would show a mild recovery in key markets from the second half of the year onwards.

However, even with the impact of COVID-19, Ferrexpo believes it remains well-placed to manage its way through the current uncertainties due to the company’s low-cost position relative to its peers, as well as a well-invested asset base, premium customer portfolio and strong balance sheet.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented in the modern era. We haven’t faced anything of this nature in the last 100 years and it places

a lot of challenges on most organisations and countries,” North admits.

Ferrexpo lost no time in responding to the crisis and the focus has been protecting its people.

“We sent approximately half our workforce to home isolation and have requested them to stay there as a precautionary measure. We particularly focused on those with pre-existing conditions and employees in the higher age bracket,” he says. “We have taken all the necessary precautions for ensuring that the virus is kept away from our operations and doesn’t spread within the community.”

Ferrexpo also went on to cancel all business trips in accordance with respective government advice and enforce a working from home policy in locations where the COVID-19 had a more severe impact.

The company is continuing to follow advice from health authorities in Ukraine, as well as other jurisdictions where its employees are based.

At the same time, Ferrexpo has worked to support the community beyond their business, as North explains, “We provide support to local hospitals in terms of protective equipment, ventilators and X-ray machines. We’ve contributed to local medical facilities to ensure the local and regional hospital are well equipped to handle any necessary COVID response.”

Out of Ferrexpo’s 9,000 employees, to date, only three have returned a positive COVID

diagnosis. North is thankful for the good fortune but insists that it isn’t just down to luck, in his opinion, it is more to do with the organisation’s response and preparedness, as well as effective communication with the workforce and the local community.

“People have told me specifically that we’ve been very lucky, and there may be some element of luck.

However, I respond that the success to date has been due to our team, and the excellent management of the situation.

We acted early and we focused on communicating the need

“OVER-COMMUNICATE! I TELL THE TEAM ‘WHEN PEOPLE SAY THEY’RE TIRED OF HEARING THE MESSAGE, YOU KNOW THEY’RE HEARING THE MESSAGE.’” 24 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

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for precautionary measures to be effectively implemented,” he says. “Over-communicate!

I tell the team ‘When people say they’re tired of hearing the message, you know they’re hearing the message.”

Despite the pandemic, Ferrexpo has managed to adapt to the situation in such a way that, to date, the company has seen a minimal impact on its operations.

“Our production lines have not stopped and our marketing team have done an amazing job. Some of our European customers reduced their demand for pellets as a

“OUR MARKETING TEAM MOVED QUICKLY TO REDIRECT THE DISPLACED VOLUMES TO OTHER DESTINATIONS AND THEY’VE BEEN SUCCESSFUL. EVERYTHING DISPLACED FROM THE EUROPEAN MARKET WE’VE PLACED IN OTHER MARKETS AND IN ADDITION, WE HAVE DRAWN DOWN OUR PRODUCT STOCKPILES.”

Ferrexpo employees in beneficiation plant.

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PROBLEM? SOLVED. OPTIMISING SITES WORLDWIDE

Throughput issues, reduced capacity, dreaded downtime.

Whatever your problem, Weir Minerals is here to help you solve it. Our integrated solutions team combines unique technical expertise, local access and global knowledge to optimise your entire process. We don’t just sell products, we solve problems.

Learn more about our integrated solutions at www.problemsolved.weir

Copyright© 2018, Weir Minerals Australia. WEIR is a trademark and/or registered trademark of Weir Engineering Services Ltd.

+38 056 373 66 27 www.global.weir

WEIR MINERALS UKRAINE The Weir Group PLC is one of the world’s leading engineering businesses serving mining, infrastructure and oil and gas customers in more than 50 countries. We work in partnership with our customers to solve their toughest operating challenges safely, efficiently and sustainably, helping to provide the essential resources needed by a growing world. We have research centres and manufacturing facilities around the world designing and producing a range of highly engineered solutions used in high wear applications. These are supported by an unrivalled global service network that ensures Weir engineers can provide our customers with the solutions they need where and when they need them.

Weir Minerals are specialists in designing, manufacturing, delivering and supporting critical process equipment solutions including pumps, hydrocyclones, valves, comminution equipment, rubber and wear resistant linings for the global mining, mineral processing, sand, aggregates and industrial sectors. We are proud of our extensive global service and manufacturing presence in more than 70 countries that develops, supports and sustains market leading technologies to deliver enhanced performance in your process critical applications.

At Weir Minerals we have over 20 design centres technology groups across the globe, which are the research and development centres for specific product categories. More than 300 engineers are responsible

for product development, customisation and providing day to day support.

We invest heavily in our material development capability and state of the art wear resistant materials with properties that allow longer life cycles. Backed by a global network of research and design support, our metallurgy, polymer science and hydraulic experts develop and implement the wear resistant products of the future. Our sophisticated laboratories are designed to conduct advanced material analysis on all our technological developments.

Through a customer focused strategy Weir Minerals has used its unique technologies to develop an unrivalled range of comminution, mine dewatering, process water and specialist slurry processing equipment for some of your most critical processes. This means that today’s Weir Minerals is much more than a pump company.

We have been partnering our customers in Ukraine for more than 20 years to maximise productivity of their operations and minimise equipment total cost of ownership.

Weir Minerals Ukraine T: +38 056 373 66 27 www.global.weir

Professionals of scientific research, design, survey and installation supervision.

Our main customers are mining and metallurgy enterprises, as well as urban infrastructure and civil engineering facilities. The geography of our activities includes Ukraine, the CIS countries, Europe, the Middle and Far East.

Phone: +380 67 633 57 51 Email: info@npo-rakurs.com

Haver & Boecker Niagara is a leading provider in screening, pelletizing and plant systems. The current Mineral Processing Technology’s product range extends from customized solutions consisting of single machines, includes system configuration, and extends through the turnkey handover of complex plants. Our mission is to deliver the best praxis products to customers in the, mining, industrial minerals, fertilizer and salts and the Aggregates industries. With deep roots and years of experience in these industries, Haver & Boecker Niagara uses its innovative and shared technologies to effectively meet the needs of customers around the world.

Together with our partners ‘SPA‘ RAKURS ’LLC, we successfully implemented a joint work at Poltava Mining (Ferrexpo AG) and Central GOK (Metinvest Holding).

HAVER NIAGARA Robert Bosch Str. 6, 48153 Muenster, Germany Phone: +49 (0) 251 9793 0 Email: info@haverniagara.com

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www.haverniagara.com

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FERREXPO

result of lockdown measures implemented throughout Europe,” North recalls. “Our marketing team moved quickly to redirect the displaced volumes to other destinations and they’ve been successful.

Everything displaced from the European market we’ve placed in other markets and in addition, we have drawn down our product stockpiles.”

Indeed, in Ferrexpo’s Second Quarter results the company reported that its facilities have continued to operate with minimal impact on operations to date, even as it continues to closely monitor its workforce.

Ferrexpo has also continued to engage with local communities surrounding its operations and confirmed that the infection rate in those communities remains low. Ferrexpo has maintained its good safety performance indicators into 2020 and has suffered no fatalities in 1H 2020 while keeping the Group’s lost time injury frequency rate below 1.0x.

This excellent safety record hasn’t been at the cost of production either, with secondquarter pellet production for 2020 up 5% to 2.9 million tons, compared to 2.7 million tons for the first quarter. 1H 2020 pellet production is up 5% to 5.6 million tons, compared to 1H 2019’s figure of 5.4 million tons, while 1H 2020 sales volumes increased by approximately 21% to 6.1 million tons, compared to 5 million tons for 1H 2019.

Ferrexpo processing plant.

BRINGING HOME THE INNOVATION

Like many businesses, the COVID crisis has given Ferrexpo cause to reconsider how we operate.

“What we’ve had to work through for the last few months has made us reconsider how we operate,” North says.

“For instance, while working remotely is less than ideal, a

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lot of things can be done that we wouldn’t have previously considered.

We’ve learned through this process and its made us rethink how we need to manage the organisation going forward.”

“In terms of technology and innovation, one thing we benefit from substantially in Ukraine is it’s a low-cost environment to operate,” North says. “However that hasn’t stopped us increasing focus on automation and using data to drive our decisions.”

Automation might seem like a counter-intuitive avenue to pursue in a country known to have a lower cost of labour, but as North points out, the technology journey isn’t about the cost of labour, it’s about reducing the exposure of the workforce to hazardous working conditions and increasing the utilisation of capital deployed.

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ENJOY COOPERATION As official representative of Metso International Group, we always put the customer’s interests at the center of what we do. MCES offering covers full range of services to supply equipment, spare parts, wear-resistant materials and services of OEM machinery within Mining, Aggregates, Recycling and Processing industries.

MCES service team of certified professionals implement proactive service culture in complex equipment maintenance. We understand our Customers’ real issues and offer experienced support to address numerous challenges in everyday activity.

Sweden: MCES AB // + 46 76 076 75 70 Ukraine: SV TEK LLC // +38 056 462 82 82 Kazakhstan & Kyrgyzstan: MCES KZ LLC // +7 777 782 52 68 Tajikistan & Uzbekistan: MCES UZ LLC // +99 894 678 54 44

Email: info@mcesab.com Visit us at:

www.mcesab.com

Energosteel Company is one of the leading grinding media manufacturers in Europe. We produce steel grinding balls from 20 mm to 125 mm with high volumetric hardness.

22 years on the market, over 70 thousand tons of steel grinding balls produced per year. Deliveries all around the world: from Europe to the USA. Energosteel Company 44, Antonovycha str., Kyiv, Ukraine +380 (44) 580-24-14 office@energosteel.com energosteel .com

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MCES AB Equipment service solutions are significant part of the global Metso Outotec sales structure. Sustainable service support is a complex process aimed to improve productivity, performance and profitability. MCES AB business model focuses on commitment to national markets: we are presented in Ukraine («SV TEK» LLC and «MCES Ukraine» LLC), Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan («MCES KZ» LLC), Tajikistan and Uzbekistan («MCES UZ» LLC). Our mission is to provide service solutions based on unique knowledge of the equipment, the latest engineered upgrades, advanced process controls for Mining, Aggregates, Recycling and Processing industries.

Maintenance is not just replacement of one part with another, it is a full range of activities to safeguard machinery and maximize its lifetime: inspections and diagnostics, refurbishment and repair procedures, adjustments and installation of components.

Ferrexpo Poltava Mining is our Key Account in Ukraine and «SV TEK» LLC service team is fully dedicated to help meet its maintenance, repair and refurbishment needs by implementation of customized advanced control systems and sensing software solutions with proper training and performance verification.

Best global practices, experience and skills are available to our customers.

Combining our service network, deep industry knowledge and field service expertise we provide sustainable solutions to deliver increased productivity, maximize the use of machinery, eliminate waste and reduce risk, ensuring safety for all.

www.mcesab.com

FERREXPO

“WHAT WE’VE HAD TO WORK THROUGH FOR THE LAST FEW MONTHS HAS MADE US RECONSIDER HOW WE CAN OPERATE. FOR INSTANCE, WHILE WORKING REMOTELY IS LESS THAN IDEAL, A LOT OF THINGS CAN BE DONE THAT WE WOULDN’T HAVE PREVIOUSLY CONSIDERED.

TES UKRAINE The official representative in Ukraine of the companies TES Vsetin, HIOKI, WIKOV Gears, T-T Electric.

We are an electrical company. Our main products are high-quality electrical motors and generators from TES Vsetin factory, adapted for use in any industrial solution.

We develop projects for electromechanical solutions for industry, energy-saving technologies, motion control technologies, and alternative energy. We offer a wide range of equipment made in Europe and Japan for our solutions.

TES Ukraine B. Khmelnitskogo 17/52, BC Leonardo, 4th Floor 03010, Kyiv, Ukraine Tel: +38 050 585 9840 // +38 098 962 4958 Email: tes@tesukraine.com.ua www.tesukraine.com.ua

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FERREXPO

“When people ask why we are investing in automation and technology when our labour costs are comparatively low, I reply that we must plan for the future, and we expect labour costs to increase over time in line with the development of the country,” North says. “More importantly, if we look at the younger generation it is increasingly difficult to attract young people to what they consider to be low-level occupations, such as truck driving, and there is the perception that mining is a dirty job. More broadly there is a lot of concern regarding climate change and a perception that the mining industry is a major contributor. We need to appeal to the next generation of miners so that they understand that mining is high tech and that Ferrexpo specifically is very focused on the issue of climate change and reducing our carbon footprint.”

Perhaps the most recent representation of our intentions regarding technology deployment is our autonomous haul truck project.

We commissioned the first fullyautonomous CAT793 late last year, in partnership with ASI Mining and Epiroc.

“Because of COVID 19, we suspended the project, however, we intend to restart the project in July and our aim is to have our first fleet of autonomous trucks running by early in 2021,” North says.

This project is a real first, not just for Ferrexpo, but for Ukraine and Europe as a whole. It’s something North takes no small amount of pride in.

“This is a big step for us.

When you think about mining companies embarking on fleet automation, it’s usually the major miners who come to mind, not companies of our size,” he says.

“So to be the first in Europe to do this, we’re pretty excited.”

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“WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT MINING COMPANIES EMBARKING ON FLEET AUTOMATION, IT’S USUALLY THE MAJOR MINERS WHO COME TO MIND, NOT COMPANIES OF OUR SIZE. SO TO BE THE FIRST IN EUROPE TO DO THIS, WE’RE PRETTY EXCITED.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

FERREXPO

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GREENSEA SYSTEMS

WITH TRAVEL SIGNIFICANTLY RESTRICTED AS A RESULT OF THE CURRENT PANDEMIC, THE BENEFITS OF WORKING WITH OCEAN ROBOTICS MORE EFFICIENTLY HAVE BEEN FURTHER HIGHLIGHTED, OPENING UP NEW OPPORTUNITIES.

OCEAN ROBOTICS FOR SMOOTH OPERATIONS PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

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GREENSEA SYSTEMS

Greensea is a robotics company specialising in open architecture solutions for ocean systems, helping to improve the working relationship between operators and machines through three primary technologies: navigation and localization, control and autonomy, and human-machine interfaces.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

G

reensea develops open architecture solutions for ocean robotics based on OPENSEA, a commercially managed open architecture software platform for developing advanced systems robustly, safely and competitively. “Adopting an open architecture solution for technology development, product line, or solution is the single most important decision any system integrator or operator can make. It provides a scalable, flexible, and severable solution that can evolve and constantly improve as requirements and technology change. Greensea provides the most comprehensive commercially managed open

architecture solution for ocean robotics in the world,” said Ben Kinnaman, the company founder and CEO. OPENSEA can integrate with almost any system in the industry, open or closed, commercial or free. It is used throughout the industry and encapsulates low levels of product management and advanced technologies like navigation, control, automation, and human-machine interface in a platform that can be extended into proprietary and secure implementations by other developers.

“Greensea is extremely operator-focused.

We are technologists but we go to work every day for the operators that

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iCsys AS strives to deliver the best custom intelligent control system on the market. From our facilities in Klepp on the west coast of Norway we produce both electronic hardware and software solutions for use in all elements such as drones, subsea equipment, and robotics. We offer a wide range of services for minor to major clients, software and hardware, development and production, installation and testing, be it diving, driving or flying.

ICSYS AS Postvegen 610 N-4351 Kleppe, Norway

Email: post@icsys.no Tel: +47 51 42 22 22

www.icsys.no

Electronic Sales of New England is the oldest Manufacturers’ Representative company in the Northeast US serving the oceanographic market. ESNE was founded in 1967 by Bob Warren who was a Navy veteran and held an EE degree from Brown University. Mark Warren joined his Dad in Feb. of 1977 two years after graduating from Connecticut College. The company covers the 6 states of New England, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania servicing the oceanographic, law enforcement, university and defense industries with underwater equipment ranging from connectors, cable assemblies, sensors, side scan sonar systems, thrusters, Li-Ion battery solutions, ROV’s, ADCP’s, cameras, sonar and other products that can be found on our website, www.esalesne.com In addition, ESNE has been a dealer for Hardigg cases for over 30 years since 1989 and has been a stocking distributor for Pelican cases after Pelican bought Hardigg in Dec. of 2008 with warehouse space in Old Saybrook, CT where the cases are stocked and two Sprinter Vans for making deliveries.

ESNE - 33 Main Street, Unit E, Old Saybrook, CT 06475 USA Tel. +1 860-388-1196 Mobile: +1 860-884-8870 Fax: +1 860-388-1232 Email: sales@esalesne.com

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www.esalesne.com BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

GREENSEA SYSTEMS

ICSYS AS Since 2014 iCsys AS has been producing electronic hardware and creating software solutions from our facilities in Klepp, Norway. Our competitive strength lies in our ability to provide a unique combination of personnel, experience, and suitable assets to offer a complete solution to our client’s challenges.

Our focus is to simplify a customer task by implementing our remotecontrol system. The remote technology used enables the operator to control any equipment at any global location. We do this by using our wide range of electronic components and adding the versatility of robotics and automation in the control system. The technology is applicable for a wide range of products and services such as energy exploration, aquaculture, drone aviation, robots, autonomous vehicles and production facilities.

All produced hardware has an open protocol following industrial standards. This makes for easy implementation into customer produced software solutions or iCsys Suite. Our in-house made graphical user interface, iCsys Suite, makes operating the system easy and accessible for the user.

By helping our customers with intelligent control systems and remote operations we have experienced a reduction of customer commissioning time towards end-client. Remote controlled operation allows specialized personnel to access the system without intermediaries, decreasing the risk factor of operation as well as greatly decreasing the commissioning time.

www.icsys.no

use our technology,” affirmed Mr Kinnaman, who started out in the industry as a diver and ROV technician, and founded the company because he felt there was a better way to advance ocean robotics. “To this day, our focus remains on the operator.”

“GREENSEA IS EXTREMELY OPERATOR-FOCUSED. WE ARE TECHNOLOGISTS BUT WE GO TO WORK EVERY DAY FOR THE OPERATORS THAT USE OUR TECHNOLOGY.” THREE PILLARS

Ben Kinnaman Founder & CEO Greensea Systems

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Greensea has three primary business segments. The first is OPENSEA as a Platform, its core open architecture software framework, which the company provides to major manufacturers, technology developers, and systems integrators around the world as a platform upon which they can develop their own proprietary solutions.

The second segment is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) Solutions.

Within this segment, Greensea helps manufacturers transition emerging products and technologies into mature and robust products based on OPENSEA. The company then supports the OEMs through the lifecycle of their products to help them stay competitive and industry-leading with an open architecture system.

In these two segments, Greensea serves manufacturers and developers by providing

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GREENSEA SYSTEMS

Greensea employees assist in launching an ROV used during power grid cable that crossed Lake Champlain between Vermont and New York.

its open architecture platform and engineering support. In the third segment, Program Development, the company directly serves end-users in three very focused markets: maritime Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD), Special Operations Forces combat diving and ship hull robotics.

“Within these markets, we provide comprehensive solutions directly to operators so that they can be successful,” said Mr Kinnaman.

He pointed out that across all markets, a common thread is clearly visible - everyone needs to work with robotics on the ocean more efficiently and more productively, with new technologies and fewer resources. In this context, open architecture solutions provide

38 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

Greensea Hull Crawler shown on a ship hull during testing.

operators a robust and almost community-supported means of adopting new technologies.

“The current market developments also present an opportunity to provide a way for operators to be more productive with less. Greensea solves this problem with autonomy.

Not the autonomy of Isaac Asimov, but the autonomy that works under the supervision of operators to help them achieve their goals more efficiently and

productively.”

“By working closely with autonomous systems, operators can reduce crewing requirements offshore, look to the employment of unmanned surface vessels to launch subsea robotics, consider resident seafloor systems, and put extremely advanced robotic solutions in the hands of military operators effectively without the expectation that operators become engineers.”

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GREENSEA SYSTEMS

NEW DEVELOPMENTS

Greensea has invested significantly over the past couple of years to bring a ship hull crawling robot to market.

With development supported in part by the US Navy, Greensea has developed a novel navigation and positioning technology for miniature robots crawling upside down on a ship hull. This solution provides a very accurate ability to position and navigate robots on the hull, enabling many applications.

“We are continuing this investment as we bring this product to market for the hull grooming and hull inspection applications,” said Mr Kinnaman.

He admitted that while the age of COVID has limited some aspects of business, it has also opened new opportunities. With travel significantly restricted, the traditional way of working with robotics offshore has been challenged of late. Crews are unable to travel to meet ships and ships are unable to work safely, limiting the industry’s ability to deploy robots for some tasks. Greensea has developed an open architecture solution for controlling and monitoring Greensea engineers, Heath Hescock and Alden Fredericks, are testing the remote control of a surface boat.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

robots under the ocean from very long distances. This could open the doors for operators and subject matter experts being able to conduct subsea robotic operations without leaving their own home.

Finally, this year Greensea is also investing heavily in simulation technologies. “COVID risks and restrictions are limiting how our defence forces train with robotics in EOD and Special Operations Forces applications.

Traditionally, military operators have trained by going to sea with robotics and technologies and working through training scenarios. With travel and gatherings limited to only the most essential activities, this type of training has been curtailed. Greensea has recently launched two simulator systems to help our operators train on our software products in the EOD and combat diving markets,” said Mr Kinnaman.

CLEAR FOCUS

Greensea places significant emphasis on really understanding how operators use its technology, what they think of its products, and what

suggestions they have for improving their work through technical solutions. To support that, the company trains its engineering and production staff to work in the field, often giving them the opportunity to work alongside customers in different applications.

Mr Kinnaman reflected that the company is now in its 14th year of operation and its future development is being carefully considered.

“I founded Greensea in 2006 based on a 10-year technology development roadmap followed by a commercialization strategy.

We are now in our fourth year of aggressive commercial growth.

In some ways, Greensea is a dichotomy. We are a mature technology company with more than 1000 deployments behind us, yet we are a relative start-up in our commercialization phase.”

“Greensea has been growing at a rate near 50% each year for the past few years but I manage the company in a very focused manner. We adhere strictly to our business strategy and try not to get distracted. I am very careful to make sure we always provide the best technical solutions to our customers and that we are here to support them as they grow and evolve.

If we get spread too thin, we cannot provide our customers with the support they need.”

“My objective as CEO is to continue the growth rate while also continuing to provide highquality technology and service to the customers we value. To fuel that sustainable growth, we will focus on our OPENSEA as a Platform business segment and empower partners to develop new products and technologies.

We will also continue to invest in our defence products so that our militaries have the tools they need to be safe and maintain an advantage over adversaries.”

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FINNAIR

WE FIND OUT HOW FINLAND’S LARGEST AIRLINE HAS SHIFTED TOWARDS A GREAT FOCUS ON CARGO TO HELP AID THE COVID-19 CRISIS.

CARRYING THE FLAG

PROJECT MANAGED BY: MARK REYNOLDS

Finnair is Finland’s flag carrier, specialising in traffic between Europe and Asia, headquartered in Vantaa on the grounds of its hub, Helsinki Airport. This airline and its subsidiaries have established themselves as a major European player in terms of air travel and cargo service provider.

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W

e’re one of the oldest airlines in operation,” says Mikko Tainio, Managing Director of Finnair’s cargo division. “We’re building on our Nordic heritage by staying innovative and listening to our customers. We’re a premium airline for passengers and cargo.”

One of the reasons Finnair occupies such an enviable place in the market is that the airline has established connections across the globe, making travel easier for passengers and cargo alike.

Mikko Tainio, Managing Director of Finnair’s cargo division.

“What’s really unique is the network we have, especially between Europe and Asia,” Tainio says. “We offer the shortest connection time between the two continents, really giving the shortest route between many European capitals and big cities, and the connections are smooth.

That’s unique.”

This network has enabled Finnair to undergo a period of tremendous growth in recent

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Logistics service provider specialized in handling and transporting air cargo.

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PACTL is the only IATA CEIV Pharma Certified ground handler in mainland China. PACTL Cross-border E-commerce Cargo Handling Center started operation in 2020 and can handle 200,000 orders of cargo per day.

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www.tt-terminal.se

“WE OFFER THE SHORTEST CONNECTION TIME BETWEEN THE TWO CONTINENTS, REALLY GIVING THE SHORTEST ROUTE BETWEEN MANY EUROPEAN CAPITALS AND BIG CITIES, AND THE CONNECTIONS ARE SMOOTH. THAT’S UNIQUE.” times, as Tainio points out, “What’s special about us is the growth we’ve seen in the last couple of years. We have focused on making ourselves one of the biggest European

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FINNAIR

carriers to Asian countries, for Japan and China, and that is where our focus will be.

Connecting traffic especially is something we’re very much focusing on with a lot of growth coming from those passengers and cargo.”

CONVERTING FOR CARGO

Of course, this year saw the advent of a global crisis that would have an impact on airlines in particular, and with a strong presence in Asia, Finnair was among the first to see the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We first started seeing the impact in early February because we’re flying a lot to China and we saw cancellations there from customers,” Tainio says. “Then after the spread of

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COVID-19 in March, we started ramping down our network, serving only the primary routes via Finland. What’s happened in the cargo area is normal passenger airlines were wound down in favour of cargo flights.”

Cargo has always been an integral part of Finnair’s business model, but the COVID-19 pandemic would see it become even more significant as the world’s logistics and supply chain networks came under strain.

“We started discussing if it would make sense in flying cargo-only flights to destinations we’re normally serving and very quickly the situation started emerging where we were seeing requests for customers coming in with a demand for these kinds of

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FINNAIR

operations,” Tainio tells us.

“As 90% of passenger planes vanished from the logistics market the global distribution chain was broken for a while.”

Finnair’s work here proved to be essential to improving the global supply chain situation, especially as demand for PPE manufactured in Asia skyrocketed.

“We helped clear the backlogs of the global supply chain,” Tainio says. “There was especially a need for protective equipment supplied

by China, so we ensured an adequate response to the crisis by delivering this protective equipment as quickly as possible from China and other

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Asian production centres to Europe.”

To meet this rising demand Finnair embarked on a huge conversion project regarding two of their A330 passenger planes.

“Very early on we sought more capacity because there was already some congestion due to the huge cargo demand.

We started seeking out ways to extend the capacity of our aircraft, and we had close discussions with the authorities and it became possible for us to do a modification on these aircraft,” Tainio says.

Converting a passenger plane into a cargo plane is not simply a question of ripping

seats out, however. It is a huge and complex project, but also one that needed to be achieved quickly so that Finnair could meet the demand for cargo flights.

“Normally it’s a long process to make such extensive

“NORMALLY IT’S A LONG PROCESS TO MAKE SUCH EXTENSIVE MODIFICATIONS TO AN AIRCRAFT BUT THE TECHNICAL SIDE OF THE DESIGN TOOK ONLY A COUPLE OF DAYS.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

FINNAIR

modifications to an aircraft but the technical side of the design took only a couple of days. That is as well as the time to do the technical rework on the aircraft, as well as a lot of work to ensure the safety of the aircraft.

It is not just about removing the seats. It is making sure the plane is loaded properly with cabins normally designed for passengers. There’s a lot of restrictions and monitoring that needs to be put into these flights,” Tainio says. “We now have three of these operating so far more than 80 flights and the capacity of the aircraft has been more than doubled for cargo.”

“WE’RE TRUSTING THAT IN THE FUTURE THE PROJECTS AND DEVELOPMENT WE SAW AS VERY IMPORTANT BEFORE THE CRISIS WILL STAY IMPORTANT AFTER THE CRISIS AND WE WILL BE FOCUSING ON THOSE AREAS.”

projects and development we saw as very important before the crisis will stay important after the crisis and we will be focusing on those areas. The things we will be developing, especially on the cargo side it’ been a fairly oldfashioned industry so far with the digitalisation of deliveries just taking off. We’re going to be focusing on that with our customers the sustainability aspects of the airline industry are also ones we take seriously.”

PROTECTING THEIR PEOPLE

Thorough the COVID-19 crisis, Finnair has taken steps to ensure the health and care of their staff.

“First of all, this is a big crisis for the whole airline industry, with more than 6,000 employees furloughed,” Tainio says. “For three months our staff was practically not flying aside from cargo-only and some special flights. Especially in the most difficult times, we have concentrated on keeping our staff informed, keeping close communication loops for all our staff, keeping everyone on track with what is happening and what is being done. We’re trying to make sure all our staff are still feeling well and able to return to work as quickly as possible.”

As lockdown eases in various parts of the world, Finnair is looking beyond the pandemic at the work they can be doing to update their industry sector and help the environment.

“We’re now starting to ramp up back to normal, although obviously there’s a question mark over how long that will take,” Tainio admits. “We’re trusting that in the future the

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DGWORLD

DGWORLD IS A COMPANY THAT’S BIG ON FIRSTS, THE COMPANY IS LEAVING ITS FOOTPRINT IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD

TOMORROW’S

WORLD PROJECT MANAGED BY: MALVERN KANDEMWA

Since 2013 DGWorld has been working primarily in the sectors of robotics and autonomic technology. The company boasts a strong set of competencies that they have put to use building an innovation hub in the Middle East. The AI and digitization vision of the leaders in the Emirates and neighbouring countries made Dubai the perfect base for DGWorld.

O

ver the years we’ve specialised to become a partner of the first industrial robotics company in the region,” says Matthias Krause, the company’s General Manager.

“Our future-oriented solutions intelligently and securely connect all manufacturing machines to the cloud. With our team of experts, we aim to digitize the production line and make the manufacturing process simpler and smarter, in order to increase efficiency, quality and flexibility in a sustainable manner.“ DGWorld is cutting a fresh path for itself, focusing on industrial autonomy and providing the capability to retrofit existing facilities while combining AI, automation and digitalisation to support

Matthias Krause General Manager, DGWorld

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 47

What do robotics and Rajant’s network have in common?

Intelligence. Autonomy.

Freedom

DGWorld is building tomorrow’s technologies, today, enabling innovative industrial enterprises to advance in their markets.

Rajant is the backbone powering these robotics platforms, as the only network able to unlock their full transformative value.

Mission-critical connectivity for the most mobile autonomous vehicles, drones, and robotics platforms Autonomously self-optimizing network intelligently reacts to change in real-time Works peer-to-peer to maintain hundreds of connections simultaneously for ‘never break’ mobility The only private wireless solution enabling machine-to-machine communications

m to Move.

IF IT’S MOVING, IT’S RAJANT.

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Learn more at rajant.com/autonomy

DGWORLD

We are proud to announce that DGWorld has chosen Inter Control’s high performance safety controller digsy fusion S-P for its new autonomous ITVs. The TUEV certified safety controller digsy fusion S-P is dedicated to the control of safe autonomous and assisted driving operations. It features: • Safety PLd CAT 3 acc. to EN ISO 13849 • 400 MHz & 200 MHz processing performance • Safe floating point calculation of trigonometric functions for steering and sensor viewing angle • Safe field bus communication from sensors/actuators to safety controllers • Standard communication protocols based on CAN, Ethernet & OPC UA

Interested in more details? Please contact us: INTER CONTROL Hermann Köhler Elektrik GmbH & Co. KG t: +49 911 9522-851 e: sales.electronic@intercontrol.de www.intercontrol.de

50 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

airports, ports and other industrial sectors.

Krause believes this is a critical time for development and innovation in those sectors.

“The key point is that we’re seeing a lot of autonomy on the roads and the development of autonomous driving for cars,” Krause explains. “Early on we understood concepts like automated quay port container trucks, moving in a contained traffic light environment, could help to speed up or support today’s digitalisation aims.”

A NEW KIND OF TECH HUB

However, to play the role Krause wants DGWorld to play in this development, they need the right autonomous regulations put in place to make the implementation possible and more importantly 100% safe.

“We have received great support from the government and institutions in the region.

Over the past few years, the drive we see for innovation is incredible, especially in Dubai.

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DGWORLD

However, businesses need to invest more to adapt in the digitization era,” Krause says.

“Technology is developing fast; we need to have clear regulations by the government so that businesses invest and work together for a more profitable economy and a better social life.”

For Krause, the key to building the kind of tech culture DGWorld needs is collaboration.

“We engaged with strong partners and customers that believe in these kinds of technologies. Our efforts have made it possible to develop autonomous vehicles and technologies and have them implemented all over the world,” Krause says. “This is just the beginning; I see more room to grow and truly transform the

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way business is done to become more profitable and efficient.”

The most important collaboration DGWorld has been engaged in has been the collaboration between the company’s own people.

“I think the main driving factor for our company is the knowledge and dedication of our employees and engineers. For us it’s essential to acquire talent at an early stage and understand their needs and requirements to support them in their growth,” Krause says. “We train them inhouse over the years, ensuring they’re knowledgeable about technologies that aren’t necessarily that common. You can’t find people with long experience in autonomous vehicles, so you need to bring a lot of different interests

“WE ARE LOOKING INTO THE NEW REALITY AND WHAT WE ARE UNDERSTANDING IS THERE NEEDS TO BE A MASSIVE PUSH TOWARDS DIGITALISATION, AUTOMATION AND AI.” together and have people grow in their positions. Then you can benefit from the ideas they want to bring and ask how they’re seeing themselves in the next year. We’re trying to support our teams to give

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DGWORLD

them freedom of choice and in the long run, build new teams.”

A NEW REALITY

Working in the tech sector has always been, essentially, about envisaging the reality of tomorrow and developing the tools that reality will need. Of course, this year “reality” took something of a left turn, thanks to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are looking into the new reality and what we are understanding is there needs to be a massive push towards digitalisation, automation and AI,” Krause says. “The customers are rethinking their processes.

The way we are treating it at the moment is asking ‘How we can transform existing business processes by supporting it with our technologies?’ and ‘How can we actually adapt what we have learned out of the pandemic to enable digitalisation and come closer to requirements?’ I think we’ve seen more customers really looking into the risks and

“WE DEFINITELY FORESEE GROWTH. WE WANT TO EXPAND AND GROW THE COMPANY. WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF CORE TECHNOLOGIES AND OUR PRODUCTS TODAY EXPAND INTO INTERNATIONAL MARKETS. WE WANT TO KEEP INVESTING IN OUR PEOPLE, IN THE KNOWLEDGE TO DRIVE OUR PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS.” 52 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

pushing this more actively than they were before.”

Indeed, some of DGWorld’s solutions to the “new normal” everyone is constantly talking about might seem left field, but when you think about them, they make a great deal of sense. The company recently completed a project that enabled one of its clients to launch the RoboCafe in Dubai, which is fully developed by DGWorld and will prepare and serve juices, hot drinks and food without any human interaction. As Dubai reopens for tourism the benefits of such a restaurant concept with regard to social distancing and COVID-19 are obvious.

Looking beyond COVID, Krause has big plans for DGWorld. The company recently entered into a contractual agreement with DP World and

UAE Region to equip Jebel Ali Port with a fleet of Autonomous Internal Terminal Vehicles (AITVs), including all related integrations into the ports existing operational processes and infrastructures. DGWorld’s goal is to help make Jebel Ali one of the most advanced and smartest ports in the world and is investing heavily in the best minds, practices and resources to develop applications and technologies to match the port’s operational requirements.

“We definitely foresee growth,” Krause says. “We want to expand and grow the company. We’ve seen a lot of core technologies and our products today expand into international markets. We want to keep investing in our people, in the knowledge to drive our products and solutions. I think

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DGWORLD

we’re aiming to become the market leader for all kinds of autonomy applications in quay ports and airports and even the agricultural sector. We’re looking to new segments and new solutions.”

“WE’RE AIMING TO BECOME THE MARKET LEADER FOR ALL KINDS OF AUTONOMY APPLICATIONS IN QUAY PORTS AND AIRPORTS AND EVEN THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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FUTURECARD

WE LEARN HOW FUTURECARD IS A FORWARD-LOOKING PAYMENT CARD MANUFACTURER.

HOUSE OF

CARDS PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

FutureCard was established in 2002, initially established as a scratch card printing company serving telecom operators.

However, as would become a repeating theme for FutureCard, the industry was about to change and FutureCard would have to adapt with it.

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S

oon after the company introduced plastic cards and we got certified

by Visa and Mastercard for the production of payment cards,” recalls Hassan Mokdad, FutureCard’s CEO. “Around 2006 we produced chips for the plastic cards to cater for sim cards, banking cards etc.”

Since then the company has had a storied history. The business started with two

founders, one from the United Arab Emirates and one who is a Syrian Canadian. FutureCard was part of ENPI group that, was partially acquired by an equity fund in 2009. Later the whole group was sold, with the exception of FutureCard, which remained under the ownership of the equity fund and the original two founders. From there, the company ready to expand.

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FUTURECARD

“When the business was at a mature stage, serving customers in the Middle East and Africa, we started to explore the European markets,” Mokdad recalls. “I took over my responsibilities at FutureCard in 2015, however, the company was very well equipped with a strong multi-disciplinary team from all over the world. The factory required refurbishing and we embarked on a growth strategy that involves internal upgrades and an external strategy of aggressive marketing. The company back then had offices in the Middle East, and Paris, Johannesburg, and commercially we were distributed all over the world.

So, our focus was mainly on the telecom and transport business.

In no time we succeeded in converting the revenues to the banking and payment businesses and opened up a new factory in 2017.”

End of 2019 was marked by the acquisition of FutureCard by the world-renowned Japanese Group Toppan, as part of their expansion strategy, making the company its first arm in the Middle East; this is the most important milestone in the history of the Company, from now on named Toppan FutureCard.

“FUTURECARD IS A COMPANY OF 230 EMPLOYEES, COMING FROM 25 DIFFERENT NATIONALITIES.” EXTENDING THEIR REACH

Today Toppan FutureCard is an end-to-end provider of smart cards and smart card solutions and services. That includes manufacturing smart cards, developing embedded systems and applications, and

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

developing card servicing solutions, mainly to banks and servicing banks with personalised cards as well as personalisation solutions to be deployed at banks and payment providers.

“The reach of Toppan FutureCard is beyond its size,” Mokdad says proudly. “Today we have customers in Latin America, in New Zealand and practically everywhere in between. The strength of FutureCard is its flexibility. We can adapt to any customer need because we operate in a make-to-order, just-in-time production. Practically none of our products are off the shelf products. We consider every request from every customer independently.

We design, customise, manufacture and personalise to the customer and

the end-user’s needs. If we have a bank in a payment program, we can give full service and delivery in four-to-five weeks, something quite aggressive compared to other companies.”

At the same time, FutureCard will not compromise on quality, something that is essential in the demanding and competitive markets where they operate.

It is strength ultimately comes from its people.

“FutureCard is a company of 230 employees, coming from 25 different nationalities,” Mokdad says. “This means there is a rich mix of cultures within the team of FutureCard which is a multidisciplinary team of industrial engineers and smart card developer as well as craftsmen with extensive experience in printing and plastic packaging industries.

World Leader in Dual Interface Solutions SPS, is a subsidiary of IN Groupe and specializes in contactless and dual interface technology for smart cards, and high-quality inlays for e-Passports.

The company is positioned as leader for dual interface bank cards technology. SPS provides electronic components to card manufacturers allowing them to issue top of the wallet dual interface payment cards, from standard to high-end design like transparent or metal cards.

Website: www.s-p-s.com Email: contactsps@s-p-s.com Phone: +33(0)4.42.53.84.40 Address: 85 Avenue de La Plaine, Rousset 13790 FRANCE

www.s-p-s.com

.

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FUTURECARD

“NOW WITH THE ACQUISITION BY TOPPAN, WE HAVE ACCESS TO MORE TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED BY THEM AND THIS IS A VERY RICH EXPERIENCE.” 58 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

The consolidated experience of this team brings years of knowledge to our clients.”

MEETING TODAY’S CHALLENGES

And the business needs every bit of that experience to keep ahead.

“Every project has its challenges but globally speaking the market is very demanding.

The smart card market, especially

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

FUTURECARD

the payment and transport markets, are very demanding in terms of performance, quality, and security,” Mokdad acknowledges. “So, while we’re working in a 24/7 production environment we have to keep up with the latest technology and security. There are also the challenges that we are facing after the last year when FutureCard has reached a critical size where it needs to be

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

developed to be able to cope with such demand in the market.”

To meet these challenges FutureCard is guided by the standards and regulations of the markets they operate in, as well as the innovation and creativity of their own staff and their parent company, global Japanese printing company, Toppan.

“In the smartcard field, in general, there are directives and standards that govern this industry and when we go to each of the different markets like payments and telecom and transport the products technically speaking are more or less regulated and there are a set of rules and standards which we expect and security protocols to observe.

So, for the basic product, it is easy,” Mokdad says. “We have our in-house research and development team who specialise in developing new applications and innovating in some areas to tackle markets that are usually out of our reach. Now with the acquisition

by Toppan, we have access to more technologies developed by them and this is a very rich experience. Now we are lucky to have access to technologies and to offer products based on these technologies.”

Another advantage Toppan granted FutureCard is that they placed the company ahead of the curve when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“At the initial stage of the COVID-19 I was visiting Japan and Singapore, and the reaction I saw over there was coming from the experience of the previous pandemic that happened a few years ago,” Mokdad remembers.

“They were taking things very seriously, so I guess we were lucky to introduce preventative measures at the very early stage of the pandemic development.

We introduced our measures,

and it was a few weeks before the local authorities introduced their own measures, and we put in place procedures to continue working while at the same maintaining protection.”

This quick response has allowed FutureCard to protect its people and react to shifts in the market, without slowing development.

“People who could be were working from home, activities were grounded. We continued to address our customers and some factories in Europe closed. We were approached by customers to serve with our products, mainly in the payment industry. So, the demand for our payment cards and debit cards during COVID-19 has been steady,” Mokdad says. “We’ve had delays but not extensive delays. We stopped producing, for example, transport cards and demand for them practically stopped.

Retail businesses closed as well so gift cards and retail cards were no longer needed. The demand in payment cards increased and we were able to support. We succeeded in ensuring business continuity.”

Naturally, FutureCard is now focusing its thoughts toward the future.

“During COVID we did not stop our internal development.

During those three months we worked on a program of ecofriendly cards, a program driven not only by care for nature but also by the fact that today cards are plastic so we felt like we had to do something about this,” Mokdad says. “We went through a research and development programme to enable new kinds of eco-friendly cards and we just announced last week the completion of the certifying cards made of eco-friendly materials. We’re also at the start of a digital transformation program.”

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ILKE HOMES

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ILKE HOMES

WE CATCH UP WITH ILKE HOMES AND FIND OUT HOW THEY ARE CONTINUING TO ACHIEVE THEIR GOALS EVEN IN THE FACE OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

BUILDING THE FUTURE PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVE GARNER

ilke Homes are a manufacturer of modular homes for the British market, working with local authorities, housebuilders and developers to increase the quality and speed at which new homes can be delivered to development sites. Since the company was founded in 2017 it has dedicated itself to the task of creating aspirational and accessible homes for a range of customers, tenures and price points.

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ILKE HOMES

Dave Sheridan Executive Chairman, ilke Homes

A

lthough the company itself is relatively young, it stands on the foundation of the longstanding house building heritage of its offsite manufacturer, Elliot and the UK’s leading partnership homebuilder, Keepmoat Homes.

When we spoke with them last year, the company was enjoying a strong pipeline of work, boasted a clear investment strategy and had access to one of the world’s largest manufacturing networks.

Indeed, they had set themselves the goal of becoming a top ten housebuilder within the next ten years. When we spoke to Dave Sheridan, Executive Chairman of ilke Homes, last year, he had clear plans for the company’s future, telling us, “We have a fairly structured plan,” Sheridan

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says. “We want to get to 3,000 units in three to five years based on the current pipeline, then 5,000, then 10,000. We know the market’s there and with the right investment, we will reach that target. During that process we are looking at launching the next factory in 18 months, replicating what we have already achieved on a similar scale. We will invest in prototyping and assembly units to become more akin to car manufacturing. We have massive ambitions in terms of volume.”

WHERE CONSTRUCTION AND MANUFACTURING MEET

Since we had that conversation ilke Homes has made a lot of progress. “It’s been going fine.

We have got new technology installed and we have got

projects coming to fruition.

COVID interrupted a lot of what we’re doing, but we’re keeping on track,” Sheridan says. When ilke Homes first set up shop, the company faced a great deal of scepticism, having introduced what was in many

“CLIENTS AND CUSTOMERS NOW BELIEVE IN THE PRODUCT, THAT IS OUR BIGGEST ACHIEVEMENT. WE’VE GONE FROM A GREAT CONCEPT WITH LOTS OF PLAUDITS TO A WIDELY ACCEPTED PRODUCT.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

MODULAR MOVEMENTS LTD PROVIDING SPECIALIST MODULAR MOVEMENTS LTD PROVIDING SPECIALIST LOGISTICS AND SUPPORTING ILKE HOMES LOGISTICS AND SUPPORTING ILKE HOMES We are a specialist logistics company providing transportation to the modular We are a specialist logistics company providing transportation to the modular construction industry.

Our management team draw on 45 years experience in the construction industry. Our management team draw on 45 years experience in the transportation of abnormal loads. transportation of abnormal loads.

Operating one of the largest specialist fleets in the industry, with almost 300 bespoke vehicles Operating one of the largest specialist fleets in the industry, with almost 300 bespoke vehicles including trailers, flats, single and extending low loaders, wafer decks and Hiabs. including trailers, flats, single and extending low loaders, wafer decks and Hiabs.

Modular Movements own and operate the equipment you require, directly employing a well trained, Modular Movements own and operate the equipment you require, directly employing a well trained, professional and experienced team. professional and experienced team.

Additional services include project management, site and route surveys, applications for road closures Additional services include project management, site and route surveys, applications for road closures and removal of street furniture, storage, pilot vehicles and appointed persons for lifting operations. and removal of street furniture, storage, pilot vehicles and appointed persons for lifting operations.

Contact: 01482 635440 Contact: 01482 635440 enquires@modularmovements.com enquires@modularmovements.com

www.modularmovements.com www.modularmovements.com Modular Movements Ltd, Brickyard Lane, Melton, Hull HU14 3HD Modular Movements Ltd, Brickyard Lane, Melton, Hull HU14 3HD

Euramax manufactures uPVC windows and doors and composite doors for the modular, new build, holiday home and home improvement markets. Celebrating its 70th year in 2020, Euramax has grown from a small, local supplier, to a trusted, national manufacturer of innovative products that meet customer needs.

Our end-to-end offering means we can supply what you want, when you want it, and by servicing both the commercial and residential sectors, we understand the unique needs of our customers.

Learn how Euramax can help supply your next project, whether it’s for a modular build or home renovation, but visiting euramaxuk.com Euramax Solutions Ashroyd Business Park, Ashroyds Way, Platts Common, Barnsley, S74 9SB, United Kingdom Tel: 0330 1340290 Fax: 01226 740844 Email Address: info@euramaxuk.com

www.euramaxuk.com

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twitter.com/EuramaxDirect

linkedin.com/company/Euramax

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EURAMAX Whether you love or loath IKEA, there’s no denying the thrill of picking out furniture and seeing it in your home on the same day. House builders are taking a leaf out of IKEA’s book and constructing houses using modular build practices. While the method won’t cause homes to spring up in a matter of hours, it will considerably reduce the wait. That’s just one benefit of a pre-fabricated approach, as Nick Cowley, managing director of uPVC windows and doors expert, Euramax, explains more.

The overall cost of the build can be reduced by up to 30 per cent by using modular practices. Shorter build times save money on reduced labour costs and on-site equipment hire costs.

The cost of construction materials will also be reduced as the pre-fabricator can buy materials in larger quantities for multiple projects, rather than on an ad-hoc basis.

Modular construction also means that any installed elements, like windows and doors, or practical elements such as kitchens, can be delivered and installed at once. Expert suppliers like Euramax can deliver equipment either to the pre-fabrication facility, or directly on site.

Traditional building designs are often restricted by how much work can be done to the local area and land. However, modular builds can be designed to adapt to any restrictions. As each modular build is tailored to the individual user’s needs, and can be designed to exact space, budget and design requirements.

While IKEA’s cookie-cutter style furniture can be cost effective, modular builds open up a much wider range of opportunity to reduce costs, speed up projects and create a unique look.

www.euramaxuk.com

The leading designer and manufacturer of modular truss solutions in the UK We are the approved designers and manufacturers of the patented Moduroof/ Moduloft System for ILKE HOMES, supplying them with truss kit packages for their factory and providing them with a full design backup for all their roof requirements.

We are pleased to support Dave Sheridan and the Team at ILKE HOMES

0113 265 2655 sales@protechtimber.co.uk | protechtimber.co.uk

WETHERBY Wetherby Building Systems Ltd are the UK’s market leader in the design and supply of a wide range of solid wall insulation (SWI) systems, decorative render and brick slip finishes for the modular and offsite construction market.

Wetherby’s innovative systems are compatible with a wide range of modern methods of construction, offering attractive, yet environmentally sympathetic façade solutions that have been successfully installed on many new build schemes, including domestic homes, commercial buildings and educational establishments for over 20 years.

Their technically approved and certified Modular EWI systems have been specially designed to be applied in factory-controlled environments, using materials that aid the speed of production whilst maintaining a highly energy efficient and aesthetically pleasing solution.

One of the recent projects featured includes Royal Drive in Egremont, Cumbria, which involved Wetherby supplying the external wall system of 26 brand new modular houses for Ilke Homes. The project seen the replacement of flats with two- and three-bedroom homes which will be available as affordable rental properties.

The Modular EWI systems include a high impact unique clay Brick Slip finish, available in a range of finishes and thicknesses enabling a traditional brick appearance. The range also includes a flexible thin coat finish which allows properties to be seamlessly rendered with perfect colour consistency.

Visit www.wbs-ltd.co.uk for more information.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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ILKE HOMES

ways an entirely new approach to housing construction.

When we speak to Sheridan today, however, it is clear ilke’s reputation has had a great deal of consolidation “The biggest achievement has got to be what our workforce has achieved over the last two years,” Sheridan says. “Clients and customers now believe in the product, that is our biggest achievement.

We’ve gone from a great concept with lots of plaudits to a widely accepted product.”

That said, Sheridan readily acknowledges the work is ongoing. “Getting the warranty for the product has been our biggest challenge. We’re doing something that revolutionises how you build houses, so the challenge has always been bringing people along the journey,” he admits.

“Getting the supply chain to accept that the way we build houses requires new specifications in terms of bulk deliveries, logistics, and

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education. We’ve been learning as we’ve been going, building that cultural fit between the construction and manufacturing sectors, trying to get people to span both sectors.”

Finding and developing people with that skill set was a big task, but one ilke Homes was more than up to. “We employ people experienced in the field with a wider vision and skill set to match us,” Sheridan says. “If someone is from the manufacturing or construction side, we get them to understand and appreciate each other’s disciplines and how one impacts the other. We’re getting them to work together.”

BUILDING THROUGH COVID

Of course, one thing ilke Homes’ plans never accounted for was a once-in-a-century global pandemic, but when the COVID crisis hit, the company responded swiftly.

“There had been messages from the government about

shutdowns and lockdowns so we took the decision before the announcement on the 23rd of March to temporarily stop operations, but keep doing onsite work,” Sheridan explains.

“The supply chain shut down so we couldn’t’ make anything, and the workforce was isolating, kids were off school and a whole host of other challenges.

So, at the start of the COVID crisis, the impact on the UK was about not understanding the challenge and people just being frightened. But we worked through it. We restarted in April using the time to polish up designs, work through operating procedures, keeping

“WHEN YOU DO HAVE TIME TO HIT THE PAUSE BUTTON YOU CAN FIND MORE EFFICIENT WAYS TO DO THINGS.”

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ILKE HOMES

staff busy and learning the art of working from home with Teams and Zoom.”

Despite delays, ilke Homes soon adapted to the new status quo. “We lost four months of our program and stuff slipped back further as people are headed back to work now,” Sheridan says. “We now have over 300 people back in the factory, but it

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has slowed us down instigating safe working distances, all the health and safety challenges of getting 400 workers to toprate health and safety with appropriate PPE.” Indeed, Sheridan believes that in a lot of ways ilke Homes has come out of the other side of this crisis stronger than before.

“We’ve found with our design team we can be more efficient with people working three days at home and two at work. We can be more adaptable with working plans. When you do have time to hit the pause button you can find more efficient ways to do things. We’ve learned how to process with the same output and refresh and rethink how we go about our business,” Sheridan says.

“The days of travelling for hours for a meeting need to

be reviewed because we’ve learned efficient ways of working remotely and will rethink how often we meet in person. It’s made us think, ‘Do we need to spend that much time travelling going forward?’”

If anything, COVID has been an opportunity for the company to reaffirm its goals and values, with their unique combination of fabrication and construction proving to be a strength. “We’ve reviewed our processing standards. We’ve not been as badly impacted as those with live construction sites because we can build our homes in a controlled factory environment and can control the individual workforce,” Sheridan says. “It’s convinced us we’re on the right track and has let us engage with our supply chain in a lot more detail.”

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WE LEARN HOW A RUSSIAN COMPANY IS FINDING SUCCESS IN SELLING ITALIAN QUALITY CERAMICS.

RIGHT ON THE TILES PROJECT MANAGED BY: JAMIE WAITE KERAMA MARAZZI is the leading ceramic brand in Russia, with a unique business model built over 30 years of history and exciting growth plans for the future.

“W

e’re a company with a strong heritage.

We’ve been in the market since the early 90s and just celebrated 30 years in business,” says Marco Santandrea, President of Kerama Marazzi. “We’re the leading brand in Russia with a unique way of working and a strong team of dedicated employees.”

It all started thanks to the intuition of an Italian entrepreneur, Corrado Cicorella.

He set-up a production company in post-Soviet Russia when import was the traditional business model in the country.

This intuition was nurtured by the founders, Marco Santandrea himself, an Italian manager, and a Russian manager, Larissa Novikova, who are still leading the business today. From one

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small product line and a vision to create a unique company, Kerama Marazzi has grown to become the biggest player in Russia, with a strongly differentiated business model compared to most European players and part of the largest flooring company in the world.

“Now we have 20 ceramic lines in two state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities with a production capacity of 40 million square metres a year,” Santandrea points out. “Our product is at the centre of what we do, with the widest range in the market and a focus on quality from day one.”

Kerama Marazzi has achieved this thanks to its team of Italian and Russian specialists working together to create products that can compete with the best Italy has to offer, leveraging on

SJ 9000 Digital Ink Low Emission

SMALTICERAM SMALTICERAM, 50 YEARS OF INTERNATIONAL SUCCESSES ALONGSIDE BIG CUSTOMERS “This year we celebrate our 50th Anniversary, we came a long way but we still want to keep on”, these are the opening words of Mr. Carlo Alberto Ovi of Smalticeram, today taking on the dual role of advocate and of third generation, together with his collaborators and the entire corporate team, of the success of one of the leaders in the Italian ceramic sector.

Smalticeram, an Italian company set up in 1970 in Roteglia, in the province of Reggio Emilia, in the core of the Sassuolo´s ceramic district, is about to celebrate 50 years of business in the creation of products for the industrial ceramic decoration, improving its peculiar characteristics thus becoming unique on the Italian and international scene, starting from the perfect union of family tradition and innovation.

Its strong focus on technological innovation from the very beginning allowed Smalticeram to stand out in the market for highly innovative products. This is how SJ 9000 was born, a new generation of materials especially conceived for high-performance digital printing with extremely low emissions: SJ 9000 is available in a wide range of colours, special effects and adhesives, having a low environmental impact, aimed at maximizing modern digital printing through technical and quality standards at the highest levels.

Everything in full respect for the environment and working conditions. www.smalticeram.it A ceramic table by Kerama Marazzi

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BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

Marco Santandrea President of Kerama Marazzi strong economies of scale and in-house philosophy.

“We manage our own quarry, produce our own glazing and insource many operations that most would typically outsource.

This approach makes it possible to provide great quality at an affordable price,” Santandrea says. “If we look more widely, vertical integration played an important role, investing from early on in local distribution companies in Russia and abroad and developing a capillary mono-brand retail network”.

PROUDLY RUSSIAN

While their designs and products draw on Italian influences, Kerama Marazzi is a proudly Russian company, and that forms an important

part of the business’s identity, particularly their ability to adapt to challenges. It’s a quality reflected in Kerama Marazzi’s staff.

“In Russia, the fall of the Soviet Union had an impact for many years. We also experienced several rouble devaluations.

More recently, there were imported crises that significantly affected the economy. Still, as a company, we’ve always been able to adapt, exiting crises in stronger shape than before,” Santandrea says. “For instance, the ‘08-09 crisis saw Kerama Marazzi emerging as a strong player also in the high-end price segment. And our people, of course, play a key role in the company’s resilience, as it is not just about identifying the

“WE BELIEVE IN EMPOWERING PEOPLE, ENCOURAGING ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT AND PERSONAL INITIATIVE.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

right response in a crisis, but in implementing it at all levels of the business and fast.”

To illustrate the Russian spirit, he goes on to quote Marinetti, an Italian poet and founder of the Futurist movement, who described Russia in WWI with the words power, solidity, impregnability and quantity.

“We are lucky to have highlyskilled, experienced people devoted to the company and its values,” Santandrea says.

Indeed, Santandrea views Kerama Marazzi’s people as its most important resource, and one the company invests heavily in.

“We are a company that nurtures talent and promotes from within. Several senior members of our organisation started from the bottom and a significant number of employees across the business have been with us for more than 15 years,” Santandrea says.

“Setting ourselves motivating goals, ambitious growth targets every year and constantly exploring

BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE | 71

new opportunities enabled our people to become more and more agile and sophisticated in their way of working.”

Santandrea marks out Kerama Marazzi’s culture as a key part of their success, telling us, “we believe in empowering people, encouraging entrepreneurial spirit and personal initiative.

Each of us is responsible for placing our trust and passion in the company. It’s a key value in the relationships of people within the company and this is always necessary for a more dynamic company.”

As well as its staff, Kerama Marazzi values the strong client relationships the business has built over the last 30 years.

“Many of our clients are mono-brand clients, who have been part of our journey since very early on. We have partners in Kazakhstan who began

working with us 20 years ago, starting from nothing, and now have developed an important business with Kerama Marazzi,” Santandrea says. “There are clients who have been working with us for many years and we are proud to see that the second generation is now picking up the baton in several of our partners’ businesses.”

NEVER STANDING STILL

That Russian resilience was put to the test recently as, like all businesses, Kerama Marazzi had to deal with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Of course COVI19 has had an impact on our business, but our country has managed this situation before,” Santandrea says philosophically. “We’ve taken measures to protect our people and minimise risk. Our diversified sales strategy, with distribution,

retail, projects, export and efficient organization allowed us to manage the emergency well. We’ve never stopped production in the past and we made the most of the downtime by anticipating new projects.”

Indeed, Santandrea marks Russia’s reaction as a key advantage for Kerama Marazzi in responding to the crisis.

“You know Russia reacted to COVID-19 quite fast. The quantity of tests is enormous,” Santandrea tells us. “At the start of March, we were taking the temperature of people entering in the production centres or the offices, we rearranged our canteens, employee logistics, modified our communication and work inside the offices and the plants. We also started testing employees on a regular

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basis. We’re doing everything we can to reduce risk.”

Having worked hard to weather the COVID crisis, Santandrea is already looking to the future of the company, particularly to make the business more environmentally friendly.

“Of course the future of the company is a commitment to become greener. This is something we’ve been working on more and more every year, with certifications, significant investments in the plants and much more.” Santandrea says.

“We will continue to diversify our product range: this year we opened a sanitary ware manufacturing facility and developed strong collaborations with furniture producers to offer a more complete bathroom solution. We will of course further strengthen our export position and continue to open new stunning stores every year.

We have all it takes: a beautiful product, strong manufacturing power behind it and a team of professionals.”

One thing remains certain, Kerama Marazzi will always be a company that is working to grow and change.

“We are a company that does not stand still. We constantly invest in innovation, new technologies and thinking outside the market. Today, for instance, we not only represent one of the most significant ceramic realities in Europe, but we are also the largest industrialised producers of decorative elements and special pieces. What we are doing has become something of a lost art in Italy, and we continue to work with dedication on this direction, creating very beautiful products recognised by the end consumer,” Santandrea says smiling. “We could go on with the list.”

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GRIDCARS

GRIDCARS TELL US WHY SOUTH AFRICA IS READY FOR AN EXPLOSION IN ELECTRIC VEHICLE USAGE.

ONTO THE

GRID PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

GridCars was established in 2000 with the goal of establishing a three-pronged approach to the industry.

They would build electric vehicles, charge stations and management systems for both EVs and charge stations.

B

y 2007 the company was developing its own vehicles, with quite a few prototype electric vehicles, particularly in the mining space.

However, developing, testing, patenting and launching electric vehicles from scratch proved to be an extremely cash-hungry business, and so from 2012 GridCars changed direction.

“From 2012 we started focusing on software charging systems, management and backing systems, financial systems, clearing and roaming systems,” says Winstone Jordan, CEO of GridCars. “We built all of those as well as our own charging hardware and in 2017 we acquired threequarters of the company resulting in investment in driving infrastructure on the roads.”

Today GridCars controls the largest fast charger network in South Africa by far, with 50 fast chargers.

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“It’s a dominant position in that we have that infrastructure and we’ve developed all of our software in-house,” Jordan explains. “We know our software incredibly well and can make changes and customisations for our clients. So if, for example, a fuel company needed changes we could respond very quickly.”

PREPARING FOR AN ELECTRIC FUTURE

While the need for a growing electrical vehicles sector is obvious, the growing market is facing considerable challenges, particularly in South Africa.

“We’re the only country in the world with a penalty on electric vehicles,” Jordan points out.

“There’s a 25% tax on electric vehicles versus an 18% tax for other vehicles, which is slowing the uptake in the market. That means slow growth and a lot of big OEMs are saying it’s not worth coming to South Africa yet

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GRIDCARS

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GRIDCARS

“WE KNOW OUR SOFTWARE INCREDIBLY WELL AND CAN MAKE CHANGES AND CUSTOMISATIONS FOR OUR CLIENTS.” because they can make more in other markets. Once we’re rolling out infrastructure there’s a lot of issues you wouldn’t encounter in Europe, that limit supply. We have a local system where you share electricity with your neighbour, for instance, which can be disruptive for charging infrastructure.”

GridCars has rolled out a broad enough infrastructure that it is able to overcome most of these problems, and while the promotion of electric vehicles themselves is something GridCars is happy to leave to vehicle manufacturers, the company will

work with those manufacturers to align messaging and spread the word that, taxes aside, electric vehicles are simply cheaper to run.

“Our biggest drive is to educate the government,” Jordan says. “But also we’re finding ways to work within those constraints because there are exemptions for vehicles under 800kg, and from an efficiency and convenience point of view electric vehicles really are better.”

This is an urgent priority, as Jordan argues, “We can’t afford to wait. We need that

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saving, so we need to adopt electric vehicles faster. If you have petrol in your vehicle in Zimbabwe you probably stand in line for a day to refuel. Most people with petrol cars would send someone like their driver when they hear the station is getting fuel, but with electric vehicles that goes away. That convenience and cost-saving are really important in African countries and we’ll be seeing a big adoption.”

LOCKDOWN OPPORTUNITIES

Meanwhile, GridCars is serving the whole of South Africa with a broad infrastructure network and a small, dedicated team.

“We’ve not got a huge team.

We have nine people and from a broader portion of our network we have subcontractors because South Africa is really large,” Jordan says. “We can’t service the whole country from our offices, so we look to work with partners and give them the right level of training. That support is a lot more technical than you would have for another electrical appliance. We spend a lot of time making sure our installers are up to scratch and at a standard we can be comfortable with and get that consistent across the board.”

GridCars, like all businesses, saw an impact from the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, although it was well-positioned to deal with many of the challenges the crisis brought.

“I think as a company it hasn’t affected us directly. The call centre was easy to move to remote working. The work we’re doing is with computers,” Jordan tells us. “We had a month off where we weren’t able to work at the normal warehouse but soon that got back on track.”

While work hasn’t necessarily been disrupted, the market has been.

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GRIDCARS

“We’ve seen a reluctance to spend money. We operated right through the COVID period and everyone was as productive if not more so, but from a sales and network perspective, we dropped immensely. We had literally zero use for three weeks,” Jordan says.

“That’s where we’ve seen the difference. We’re now back up to 18% of pre-COVID levels, but sales are still slow, people are still reconsidering. We’ve seen a couple of biggish deals where they’ve gone on hold rather than been cancelled, so that’s the biggest impact to us.”

However, GridCars took this quiet period as an opportunity to work on projects the company otherwise wouldn’t have had the capacity to pursue.

“We took it as an opportunity to do the things we don’t often get to do. We tightened our admin processes, made sure call centre processes are

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

documented. It’s helped us to be more efficient and grow more without having to grow the staff compliment necessarily,” Jordan recalls. “We’re taking a strong active role in social media making sure people know the network is open, so from that perspective we’ve made the business more efficient to serve more customers with the same resources. We are part of a listed entity that supports the company strongly, especially during the rollout of charging infrastructure.

What we’re looking at now is working with Solareff on joint projects to push both sides, generating and spending energy to open up new market and opportunities.”

UNDERSUBSCRIBED

This investment is worthwhile, as Jordan believes that South Africa is currently in a position for electric vehicles to take off in a big way.

“I think we’re at an interesting point now where, as a country we are really undersubscribed on charging infrastructure.

We’ve got 1,000 electric vehicles and 250 charging stations, that means four vehicles to a station, in other parts of the world it’s more like 20 vehicles to a charging station,” he says.

“So we can wait for usage to pick up or get more aggressive pushing electric vehicles. That’s our strategy, to drive the sales a lot harder. The more visible the infrastructure is to people the more they will see it will work and that this is the future. We’re not sitting back and waiting for vehicle numbers to catch up.

We’ll find creative ways to deploy infrastructure through strategic partnerships and over the next year moving aggressively into other African countries. The idea is to start spreading the technology and the message further into central Africa.”

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

EVEN IN THE FACE OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES’ OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE BUSINESS IS OPTIMISTIC ABOUT THEIR PROSPECTS.

A SUNNY OUTLOOK PROJECT MANAGED BY: ANDREW BOURKE

“I

juwi Renewable Energies is a German-owned company which entered the South African market in 2010, and one of its core business models is the operation and maintenance of solar PV facilities. From those early days, that side of the business has grown until today it operates 20% of the built solar farms in South Africa, delivered via its subsidiary company juwi Solar ZA O&M. Greg Austin, Managing Director juwi Renewable Energies & juwi Solar ZA O&M

n many ways, the story of this company’s growth goes parallel to the growth of the solar industry in South Africa.

“Ten years is long enough for a market to mature quite substantially. What we’ve seen in the local market is a whole lot of new competitors, but what they don’t have is our track record,” says Greg Austin, Managing Director of juwi Renewable Energies and juwi Solar ZA O&M. “That track record is built on very competent and capable site management teams as well as our so-called back office team.

The management team, the technical team, that support of all the ongoing site operations is absolutely tier-one. And able to rely on the juwi Group’s technical competence distributed across its global operations.”

LEADING BLACK ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT

As well as having an impressive track record & team behind them, juwi is also in a leading position concerning the South African Government’s policies supporting transformation objectives relating to Black Economic Empowerment.

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Suntech Solar Power South Africa (Pty) Ltd (Suntech South Africa) is an incorporated joint venture between Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd (Wuxi Suntech) and Subrosolve (Pty) Ltd, a South African investment holding company.

Founded in 2001, Wuxi Suntech has supplied photovoltaic panels to more than a thousand customers in more than 80 countries.

As a leading photovoltaic manufacturing company, Wuxi Suntech specializes in the research, development and production of crystalline silicon solar cells and modules. The company is a Bloomberg’s rated Tier 1 major global player and leader in the solar industry and has always dedicated itself to the improvement of its technologies to ensure the most reliable and highest quality products for its customers.

Suntech South Africa was formed in 2014 with a view to supply high quality, solar panels to both the Utility scale and C&I solar markets in Southern Africa.

To date, Suntech South Africa has supplied approximately 350MW utility scale capacity in South Africa with 50 MW still to be installed. The most recent projects supplied are Droogfontein 2 (86.5MW situated in Kimberley), Bokamoso (78.5MW situated in North West Province) and Waterloo (86.5MW situated in North West Province) which have all been constructed over the last 12 months.

Suntech South Africa is committed to a customer centric business model which combines cutting edge technology with excellent customer service to achieve an outstanding offering to the market.

Suntech Solar Power South Africa (Pty) Ltd 2nd Floor Noland House, River Park River Lane, Mowbray, 7700 Tel: +27 21 685 1870 Email: muneeb@suntechsa.com

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www.suntech-power.com BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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Servest’s Security division, founded 22 years ago, is one of the major private security companies in South Africa. Our 7,000 highly experienced, highly trained security officers are backed by regional and national command centres and serve our clients nationally.

Our vision is to be the strategic partner of choice in efficient integrated security solutions, ensuring our clients’ business continuity and triple bottom line.

Our mission is to provide Integrated Security Solutions that are tailored to clients’ specific needs, ensuring the safety and protection of personnel, assets and workplace, through highly skilled, passionate and dedicated professional colleagues.

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Armed escorting of Valuable cargo We have vast experience and successes in the Mining, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Hospitality, Education, Residential & Commercial Estates, in both Private & Government Sectors.

Get in touch: info@servest.co.za www.servest.co.za +27 (0)860 22 55 84

JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“juwi Solar ZA O&M undertook a strategic change in ownership during the course of last year leading to a major acquisition in the company by the Reatile Group, a fully black-owned company active in the energy and chemicals space in South Africa,” Austin says. “They have made strategic investments this year into building and operating renewable energy assets, as well as into some of juwi’s construction project companies. For juwi Solar ZA O&M this transaction brings about a 51% black ownership which is a major differentiator for a solar O&M operator in the country at this point in time.”

Austin believes this is important not only in the context of South Africa’s history but also to accelerate the transformation of its economy.

“We’re fully supportive of the country’s transformation agenda, and by entering into this strategic relationship with Reatile we are able to achieve these multiple objectives simultaneously,” Austin points out.

“WE’RE FULLY SUPPORTIVE OF THE COUNTRY’S TRANSFORMATION AGENDA, AND

BY ENTERING INTO THIS STRATEGIC RELATIONSHIP WITH REATILE WE ARE ABLE TO ACHIEVE THESE MULTIPLE OBJECTIVES SIMULTANEOUSLY.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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PLANNING AHEAD

While it’s clear the benefits for project owners that come with contracting with juwi as an Operations and Maintenance service provider, the renewable energy sector that is juwi’s core business is one that is typically based on long procurement cycles that can make it difficult for businesses to plan ahead.

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“I would say that the bulk of the contracts that we have are in the public procurement programme of government, the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer procurement programme, or REIPP,” Austin says. “The first procurement round was in 2011; over the years we’ve only had four REIPP procurement rounds and that

talks to the substantial delays the renewables market has faced. It’s difficult to build a business in the context of an uncertain market direction.”

But these challenges exist for everyone in the South Africa renewables market, and Austin reflects on the fact that juwi has continued to navigate these obstacles, with backing from

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“WE HAVE A DEPTH AND BREADTH OF TECHNICAL EXPERTISE SECOND-TO-NONE IN THE WORLD RELATING TO SOLAR PV.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

its parent company. And at the same time, the development of renewables as a primary provider of reliable, clean and costeffective energy is on the march, with the global uptake and longterm outlook beyond doubt.

“We are supported not only by juwi as a group headquartered in Germany but also via ten international

subsidiaries of which we are one. We have a depth and breadth of technical expertise second-to-none in the world relating to solar photovoltaics (PV),” Austin says. “We have this deep global expertise, reflected in the over 400 MW of solar PV we will be operating by year end in South Africa alone, while globally we’re operating and

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Energy Procurement Services (EPS) Would like to be your company of choice, for Renewable Energy business in South Africa, we have a team of people who are passionate about their work and want to provide a unique personal service. to all our partners. We have five years’ experience, working with companies like juwi Renewable Energies who are one of the major companies in the renewable energy industry in South Africa. EPS are running the Operations and Maintenance on site for the day to day operations, as well as the procurement and servicing of both equipment and labour from the local communities.

Please contact us at any time day or night for any work which you would like our company to quote on. We can and will make a difference.

Energy Procurement Services is proud to have an allwoman shareholding with 75% of the Shareholders being black.

Energy Procurement Services 36 Mountain View Drive Durbanville 7530, South Africa

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Tel: +27 63 689 2587 / +27 82 550 7510 Email: info@epsza.com / raymond.murray@epsza.com

We are B-BBEE 2

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ENERGY PROCUREMENT SERVICES Energy Procurement Services (EPS) was established in South Africa in August 2015, when a group of far thinking woman from all race groups came together to form a company in the renewable energy field. We are a proud level 2 contributor in terms of the DTi Codes of good practice on broad based black empowerment practices.

All of our shareholders are woman with a 75% black shareholding, and are well positioned in the market place with 5 years of experience, and expertise, as well as working with major companies like juwi Renewable Energies who are one of the major players in the renewable energy market in South Africa and the World.

EPS realised there was a need to source and procure products and services, as well as partnering with other companies on the Operations and Maintenance, side of the business. Our priority is to get involved with the local community in the rural areas where these sites are being built, so everyone can benefit from the huge growth in this exciting industry.

We are offering a full Turnkey operation with training, waste management services, security services, labour, electrical installations, health and safety, building and construction, container hire, solar panel cleaning, and ongoing professional services. EPS are already working on a number Solar sites, in the Northern cape at Prieska, Konkoonsies, and Aries as well as number of new sites in the Northwest, Bokamoso, and Waterloo. With future projects on the horizon we are looking to expand through-out South Africa

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MATTLA Engineering Solutions Pty (Ltd) was established with the sole purpose of providing engineering solutions on renewable integration to the grids in South Africa energy industry and beyond the borders.

MATTLA comprises of a highly qualified team of Registered Professional Engineers, with vast experience in the development of the South African Grid Codes, and their governance processes, Compliance environment, and commissioning.

Our solutions on renewable energy integration: • Plant Model Development and studies • Protection Settings Calculations • Commissioning Test Results Analysis • Development of RETEC Test Procedure • RETEC site testing (data analysis and reporting) • Model Aggregation and Validations (RMS and EMT) • Power Quality Measurements Analysis and reporting • Co-ordination of Governance with Grid code Advisory Committee (GCAC) for any exemptions needed • Project Management P.O Box 1134, O.R Tambo Airport www.mattlaengineering.co.za 1627 Johannesburg Gauteng SA nhlanhlenil.ngidi@mattlaengineering.co.za Tel: +27 83 499 1999 info@mattlaengineering.co.za

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES

maintaining over 2500 MW of solar PV farms.”

ADJUSTING TO NEW CIRCUMSTANCES

Of course, another industrywide issue has been the encroachment of the COVID-19 pandemic, and even during a pandemic people and the country’s economy require reliable power supplies.

“As a result we’ve been fortunate that in South Africa, when we went into lockdown on the 27th of March this year, there were already a few ringfenced activities that were deemed critical for our economy that had to continue,” Austin says. “One of those was Operations and Maintenance of energy generating facilities of which obviously our solar PV farms form a part. So those contracts had to be serviced.”

Of course, while the contracts still needed to be serviced, they would have to be serviced under an entirely new set of circumstances.

“There was an adjustment period when we needed to install new site health and safety procedures for ourselves and our suppliers and service providers,” recalls Austin. “I’d say that outside of that the major impact we’ve experienced is that we’ve had to restrict the movement of people between sites, and head office in Cape Town and the sites, to cars only. Being a company with widespread projects across the country we were adding time in travelling between project sites. Where we might fly for two hours we now drive for ten.”

Looking beyond COVID, juwi has big plans for the future, including a shift in strategy when it comes to tenders.

“We’ve recently built up a business development team as of last year to target and really

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

articulate to the market our strategic response to delays in procurement rounds,” Austin says. “Their goal is to target the first rounds of tenders for solar farms procured between 2011 and 2013, that are coming up for Operations and Maintenance service contract renewal. Thus we’ve gone after third-party Operations and Maintenance contracts, which is a different strategy from our normal business model. Where typically we provide O&M services for at least the first five years on the back of being awarded solar EPC (design and build) contracts, we’re now actively engaging with project owners looking to secure our expert O&M services into projects in which we were not involved during the construction phase.”

It’s a strategy that is already paying off.

“We’ve had our first successes in this area. We entered our first contract of this kind in April this year, and we’ve built a substantial pathway to targeting hundreds of additional megawatts with very good prospects,” Austin tells us. “What the immediate future holds is developing that part of our business. The second and related aspect of our strategy is to add value to our business development activities focussed on hybrid power projects, where we develop, engineer, construct and operate power projects focusing on the mining sector; these hybrid power projects integrate renewables (solar and wind) with thermal power plants and battery energy storage systems across sub-Saharan Africa. We follow that business model with the Operations and Maintenance service operating for solar, wind and battery systems onto mines and we’re seeing positive uptake in this area of our business.”

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JUWI RENEWABLE ENERGIES: OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE

“WHERE TYPICALLY WE PROVIDE O&M SERVICES FOR AT LEAST THE FIRST FIVE YEARS ON THE BACK OF BEING AWARDED SOLAR EPC (DESIGN AND BUILD) CONTRACTS, WE’RE NOW ACTIVELY ENGAGING WITH PROJECT OWNERS LOOKING TO SECURE OUR EXPERT O&M SERVICES INTO PROJECTS IN WHICH WE WERE NOT INVOLVED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION PHASE.”

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ST1

WE LEARN HOW ST1 IS WORKING TOWARDS WORLD-CHANGING ENERGY SOLUTIONS.

CHALLENGING THE CONVENTIONAL PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

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ST1

“W

St1 is a Nordic energy company with operations in three Nordic countries.

It’s a Finnish-based company that has expanded its operations to Sweden and later on to Norway through acquisitions.

BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

e’re an energy player in all of these three countries and the most visible part of our operations is related to the fuels retail business in Finland, Norway and Sweden under the St 1 and Shell brands,” explains Matti Pentti, St1’s Geothermal business unit director. “We’re a family-owned business. Our main owner is Chairman of the Board, Mr Mika Anttonen.”

Anttonen’s leadership has been key in defining St1’s vision, perhaps unusually for a company chiefly involved in hydrocarbons, that vision is a push towards the end of fossil fuels.

“He’s a very active owner, very keen on pushing the company and the people forward in converting fossil energy towards sustainable energy production, means of transportation and of electricity, heating and cooling,” Pentti says. “He’s very involved in the daily activities on the renewable energy side of the business.”

That strong leadership, and the fact that the company is family-owned, are integral in allowing St1 to pursue the goals that it has.

“We’re a privately owned company with one main owner which makes us very flexible because we’re not in the stock

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Welding, machining and installation services for special metals with professional skills.

We have more than 20 years of experience in machining and welding special metals such as Titanium, Zirconium and Hastelloy.

Pre One Oy Business ID: 2977214-3 Lumijoentie 8, 90400 Oulu, FI Tel: +358 44 542 1199 Email: info@preone.fi

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Jyrki Korhonen President & CEO linkedin.com/company/preoneoy Tel: +358 44 542 1199 Email: jyrki.korhonen@preone.fi

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PREONE

ELOMATIC

CEO Jyrki Korhonen have over 22 years experience of special metals. For example: Titans, Zirconiums and Hastelloy machinery and welding.

We are specialized in materials: Titanium (Gr 1, 2, 5, 7), Zirconium, Hastelloy, 904L, SMO, Nickel 200/201, Super Duplex and Stainless steel

Elomatic has been working in cooperation with St1 on their deep heat project since 2016. We have been working with renewables within the energy sector for decades, and we are thrilled to be part of new technology projects. We see that this project will have a significant impact on the near future of carbon free energy production in Finland and further abroad.

We supply special steel to our customers needs: Plates, pipes and fittings. We supply pressure equipment directive (PED) heaters, process pipelines, pressure vessels, structures, and other industry product saccording to your needs. We will design and make every job from start to finish. In challenging projects we use our professionality to find right metods.

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Hygienie, Gas, and Factory Piping Special Metal Pipelines We make Orbital, Tig and MMA Weldings Heaters Pressure Vessels and Reaktors (Mediacal and Chemical Industry) Zirconium and Titanium Liners Factory Repairs

Years of experience and our motivated workers guarantee first class quality of work. We are new kind of metal company. The basics of our company is invest quality of our work, wellbeing and long-term customer relationships.

We are at our best in challenging welding. The customer is confronted with different materials and strengths of which there is no information, we try to help and weld method tests for those joints. For the ST1 deep heat project, we provided hard pressure pipelines with 32mm wall thickness. www.linkedin.com/company/preoneoy

Our more than 1100 engineering professionals provide services to machines and equipment, energy, marine, pharmaceutical, and process industry projects. Our customers include both multinational and small companies and our goal is to provide them with the most comprehensive technical services varying from once-off technical assistance up to complete deliveries of entire investments.

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Elomatic provides services throughout the life cycle of investments. Our experience covers both renewable and combustional energy production. In the energy sector, Elomatic provides design, consulting and expert services such as project management, feasibility studies, procurement, energy audits and management consulting.

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ST1

Matti Pentti Director of Geothermal, St1

market. We have a visibly active owner so our decision-making and ability to react in different market situations is very fast,” explains Pentti. “We’re a very low hierarchy company and we aim to communicate with everyone in the company. We put the roles and responsibilities to a level where you can actually execute things making us quick to adapt to different market environments.”

CONCRETE SOLUTIONS

St1 isn’t simply another greenwashing energy company, talking to Pentti its clear the company takes its goal and responsibility to renewable energy seriously.

“We do visible concrete things to convert the fossil

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ST1

“THE MOST INTERESTING CHALLENGE IS HOW TO SELECT FROM THE WHOLE VARIETY OF INTERESTING RENEWABLE INITIATIVES WE LOOK AT.”

hydrocarbon business to renewable sustainable energy, with pilot schemes and concrete offerings to our customers,” Pentti says. “In Nordic countries, we have to blend up to 20% renewable fuels into traffic fuels and we do that through our own sustainable ethanol production.

We are the biggest commercial wind power producer in Finland.

Whatever we gain from the fossil business we invest in the renewable business. The ultimate target for us is to convert the fossil side of the business to renewable energy, and that’s where we invest most of our efforts.”

Of course, with the bedrock of St1’s business coming from the traffic fuel industry, the company takes a hit if people and goods stop moving around- as they have done recently thanks to

the COVID-19 lockdown.

“There have been a lot of slowdowns in the private automotive fuel industry because people haven’t been moving so much. The volumes have been on the low side, although not so much as we anticipated,” Pentti says. “The dive in percentages was maybe half of what we anticipated but still a lot less than is typical.”

The biggest challenge St1 faces, however, is a somewhat more pleasant one to have. The company is constantly on the lookout for innovative solutions that will aid the St1 in its mission to shift the energy economy towards renewables.

“The most interesting challenge is how to select from the whole variety of interesting renewable initiatives we look at,” Pentti explains. “We’re

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asking how we can select the ones that really make a difference? We are known in the market as an innovative company that’s willing to invest in renewable Research and Development. We’re particularly interested in scalable solutions.

We are approached almost on a daily basis by different entrepreneurs and inventors about new technologies and ways to produce electricity or renewable fuels or sustainable heat. We have to evaluate these opportunities and select the ones that will be not just superb ideas for new technology but also sustainable and solving the issue on a scale. We don’t just want one vehicle or one city or one country but a game change on a global scale.”

Choosing strategies that St1 can build on is a good problem to have, but still a large task.

Fortunately, the company has developed a strategy for sorting the wheat from the chaff.

“First of all in our strategy, we have defined three clear segments which we want to evaluate.

Renewable and sustainable fuels for road transport is one, and that’s about the extent we can utilise our existing network,” Pentti says. “We know gas stations are all over the world and to convert the current retail network into something else is a huge investment. So we try to find solutions to utilise the existing network and existing investments. What kind of liquid fuels could be produced using the existing infrastructure in the future? Power-to-X is currently the most interesting area we’re looking into. We’re researching how to capture carbon from the atmosphere and produce gas and liquid fuels from that carbon. The most lucrative area we’re looking into is biofuels, which we know we will need to

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use in the short term.”

Beyond transport fuels, St1 is also looking at more farreaching energy solutions in the sustainable electricity sector.

“We’re the biggest wind power producer in Finland with our wind farm capacity, with new areas like northern Norway opening up. It’s very lucrative looking at wind conditions and looking at new areas of Finland and Sweden to expand our wind farm capacity,” Pentti tells us.

“The third area we’re looking at is sustainable heat. We have stated that in our production we don’t want to burn anything, and that means oil, gas and biomass are ruled out. Anything you burn will end up in CO2 in the atmosphere whether you take it from circulation or a native fossil fuel, you don’t reduce the carbon in the atmosphere which is the ultimate goal we should all look to. So we’re looking into

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geothermal energy and we are a medium-sized player already in the ground source heat pump in Finland. We have a unique pilot project which is the geothermal plant which has two of the world’s deepest geothermal wells. Under these conditions and guidelines, we can look for different technology and optimisation opportunities.”

A CLEAR VISION

While St1 doesn’t know exactly what the future of green energy will look like, they’re ready to be at the centre of it and convinced it will be a positive one.

“It all comes to the fact that we have a clear vision of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We want to be the leading CO2 aware company in the world. We need to aim our best resources, be it human resources, technology funding, going into this conversion from

hydrocarbons to renewables,” Pentti insists. “In that sense, our people are very aware that they play an extremely important role in the whole value chain of this company, taking very good care of our existing customers with the base cash flow for our company and that enables us to invest in research and development and pilot projects on the renewable side of the business. We have a clear path where we’re going and that gives meaning to people’s day-to-day work.”

“IT ALL COMES TO THE FACT THAT WE HAVE A CLEAR VISION OF WHAT WE’RE DOING AND WHY WE’RE DOING IT. WE WANT TO BE THE LEADING CO2 AWARE COMPANY IN THE WORLD.”

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FLAMINGO HORTICULTURE LTD

FLAMINGO HORTICULTURE HAS COME THROUGH A MAJOR ACQUISITION, SOME TROUBLING WEATHER, & OH YES, A PANDEMIC. WE FIND OUT HOW THEY MANAGED.

A HARDY PERENNIAL PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

It’s just over a year since we took a look at Flamingo Horticulture, which, coincidentally, was right before Giles Turrell took over as Group Chief Executive of Flamingo International, having previously been Chief Executive of the Weetabix food company.

“T

here’s a lot of similarities,” Turrell points out. “With food brands, you rely on raw materials and in our case if you make Weetabix it relies on wheat, so there are parallels.

But with giant rose farms you’re dealing with a living organism that’s growing and subject to vagaries of weather and soil, so learning the basics around that was more important. We’re dealing with a different supply chain when you’re dealing with food business factories in the UK, while here they are in Africa, Kenya and Ethiopia, adding value to their products and distributing them to our customers.”

Part of Turrell’s appointment was to oversee the integration of the AfriFlora business into Flamingo.

AfriFlora is headquartered in the Netherlands and owns the largest rose growing farm in the world, with an impressive 1.2 billion stems.

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“My role has been to integrate the two businesses, and they are integrated, sharing best practices, leveraging our combined scale,” Turrell explains. “The other big thing is we’ve won a number of significant tenders, including the Tesco flower tender. We’re well-positioned for growth and

to look after our most important customers.”

This integration has been a process of bringing the best out of both companies.

“We made it clear as an exec team we wanted to preserve and protect the things that made the specific businesses great,” Turrell says. “But at the

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FLAMINGO HORTICULTURE LTD

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Elgon Kenya Ltd East Gate Road, Off Mombasa Road P.O BOX 46826 - 00100 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 736 399 911 +254 790 504 844 Email: info@elgonkenya.com

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SIGNATURE RIBBON We are a family run company with a strong commitment to our customers and we pride ourselves in the quality of service we give, the importance attached to each customer and the products produced for them.

With over 40 years’ experience, Signature Ribbon have a wealth of knowledge in the ribbon, printing and package decoration field.

We have been working closely with Flamingo Flowers for over a decade, and using our experience has enabled us to find solutions for creating luxurious and eye-catching products that can also be applied efficiently and cost effectively.

Even during these extremely difficult times, it has been very much business as usual. We have maintained the supply chain, especially during the high demand for ribbons, cords and elastics from online businesses, particularly the flower industry and significantly Flamingo Flowers. We are proud to have been able to continue to supply our customers during this time. Furthermore, through our manufacturing contacts, we are pleased to have been able to assist charities, schools and hospices by purchasing and subsequently donating cartons of hand sanitiser and elastics for face mask manufacture in the UK. We congratulate Flamingo Flowers with their action, response and handling of their business during this pandemic and we look forward to a continued partnership for many years to come!

Further information on our products and services is available at www.signatureribbon.co.uk

FLAMINGO HORTICULTURE LTD

same time bring them together to leverage our scale, share best practice, support each other as we move forward.”

It’s been an eventful year for Flamingo beyond that, however, a year full of unexpected crises and bold new plans.

“We’ve dealt with a number of weather events in Kenya. When I joined, they were coming out of a drought,” Turrell recalls.

“Then there was the Indian Ocean Dipole, a depression that sat over Kenya for several weeks causing flooding and the accompanying impact on the crops. It shows the resilience of the business that we’ve come through it.”

Turrell also points out that over the 12 months Flamingo has kicked off a new three-year strategic plan focused on how they grow their core businesses.

“WE’VE MADE PROGRESS ON OUR CSR AGENDA WITH THE GOAL OF BEING CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2022”

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“We’ve made progress on our CSR agenda with the goal of being carbon neutral by 2022,” Turrell says. “I’ve learned about a new industry and a new business.”

CUSTOMER FOCUSING

One of the biggest projects Flamingo has been engaged in over the last year has been a real dive into the makeup and motivations of their endcustomers- not just the retailers purchasing their products, but the people picking them up in shops.

“I think one of the things I’m really pleased about is the business was always customer-centric, but we’ve taken from different categories

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FLAMINGO HORTICULTURE LTD

“THERE’S NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT THAN WHETHER THE PEOPLE IN OUR OFFICES AND FACTORIES IN THE UK OR OUR FARMS ARE SAFE.” how we learn and think about the shopper,” Turrell says. “I think we really understood our customers, retailers such as Tesco, but we needed to understand the shopper.”

This included how they shopped the category and when they were buying.

“Is it as a one-off treat, as part of a weekly shop, were they gifts for birthdays or parties?” Turrell asks. “We were really trying to understand the demographics of those shoppers, understanding when and how they shopped. By understanding the category and the customer and the shopper we can better serve our customers with the right range, quality and innovation. And that’s been at the forefront of our agenda. That was extremely important to us.”

ENDURING THE PANDEMIC

However, the behaviour of end customers, and indeed, all of us, has changed drastically over the last few months, and whether businesses thrive and fail has frequently depended on how quickly they have been able to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We had a very clear plan.

Whether it was luck or judgement

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we saw this coming and we got ahead of the game,” Turrell says. “First, protect our people.

There’s nothing more important than whether the people in our offices and factories in the UK or our farms are safe. So two weeks before lockdown everyone who could work from home was working from home.

We put in place food hygiene standards in all our plants, hand washing, all those types of things were very important, well ahead of official requirements.

We put social distancing in place in farms, washing hands, and enforced 50% capacity on our buses so people weren’t sat too close together.”

Once the people were safe the next priority was to look after the farms. As Turrell explains, “The next issue was protecting our farms and making sure whatever happens we looked after our farms even if demand went away. We would farm as if the produce was still required.

We want to protect the farm so that on the other side the farm was protected and healthy.

Our retailers really saw the importance of ensuring workers were able to continue to work.”

The next, and final challenge was the make sure the books remained balanced throughout the crisis.

“We cut any discretionary expenditure, any capital expenditure, so we could understand how it would play out,” Turrell says. “Because nobody knew, and in many ways, we still don’t know. We’ve always made sure protecting our people was the number one

priority, followed by protecting our crop and our balance sheets. We wanted to make sure we had a strong business that would come out the side to keep employing our people.”

When the crisis hit, the immediate impact on Flamingo’s bottom line was alarming, but things are already starting to recover.

“We saw an immediate drop in demand across the whole supply chain, there was panic buying of bread and toilet paper and pasta, and flowers weren’t at the top of the agenda so that consumer behaviour changed in the first four to six weeks,” Turrell remembers. “Bit by bit we’ve seen businesses get back to normal for several reasons.

Either direct to the consumer or online purchase of flowers has increased exponentially.

People were sending flowers if they couldn’t see mum or dad or granny for her birthday. Retail stores are returning to normal and people are spending more time at home and flowers are a wonderful way to brighten up your home, so things are approaching pre-crisis levels.”

As well as flowers, Flamingo’s food production has also continued unabated.

“Throughout all this production has continued as normal, so the products we grow like a mangetout, sugar snap peas, and tender stem broccoli we’ve been able to keep feeding the nation,” Turrell says proudly. “The future is bright for this business, it’s a great business with a strong team and we have clear priorities.”

“THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT FOR THIS BUSINESS, IT’S A GREAT BUSINESS WITH A STRONG TEAM AND WE HAVE CLEAR PRIORITIES.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

WE SEE HOW HEINEKEN HAS ENTERED THE ETHIOPIAN MARKET WITH A LONG-TERM STRATEGY AND THE FLEXIBILITY NECESSARY TO MEET UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES.

LOOKING TO THE

LONG TERM PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

Heineken entered the Ethiopian market in 2012 by acquiring two previously state-owned breweries.

Only two years later the beverage company built a new state-of-theart facility that was triple the size of its previous breweries. From the beginning, Heineken has been extremely serious about building its market in Ethiopia as a long-running concern.

T

he Heineken brand itself is one of the first and best-known international brands. Next to that, we have a portfolio of brands because we had the brands of the existing breweries we bought,” says Alexander Brinkerink, the Supply Chain Director for the firm. “We’re the only company here with an international brand and a portfolio of products to cater to all tastes.”

While Ethiopia is, without doubt, an appealing market for Heineken, moving into that market has not been a completely smooth ride.

“Ethiopia presents some difficult challenges as a landlocked developing country.

So, it is not always easy to bring raw materials and construction materials into the country. The road network is not as good as some other countries,” Brinkerink admits. “However, in comparison to other developing countries, Ethiopia is actually doing quite well with steady economic growth, a welleducated population, and the high-speed modern train line all the way to the city of Addis Ababa. All in all, we believe this is a great place to be as a brewer.”

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labels quality at its best!

Company Vision “To Become the World Class Local Commercial Labels and Packaging materials Supplying Partner” Company Mission Statement “To Be the Most trusted and Reliable Supply partner with outstanding customer service, on time delivery at the most competitive price”

QuaLabels Manufacturers PLC is a leading Company in the Packaging and Printing Industry in Ethiopia. A businessto-business (B2B) venture that started in 2016 and has evolved by supporting its customers’ growth, every time!

Our success mainly lays on our core strength of humbly understanding our customers’ short terms and long terms goals and maintaining continuous dialogues to address them accordingly.

QuaLabels is an indigenous company that has heavily invested in state-of-the art machineries from world renowned manufacturers that provide the most reliable packaging capability and production efficiency.

QuaLabels has continued growing its customer base by expanding and diversifying its portfolio through a continuous investment strategy that provides a competitive edge.

From paper packaging for pharmaceuticals, personal care and beer labels production, that has evolved in an extended portfolio comprising plastic film labels for soft drinks, water and juices’ production incorporating plastic film packaging for snacks, coffee export, powder detergents, confectionaries, spices and more.

Our most important asset are our amazing diverse people with outstanding work ethics: gender-balanced, great combination of young and seasoned employees, mostly local with few expatriate mentors ensuring the continuous transfer of skills through a strong succession planning strategy.

Quality comes as a top priority in everything we do which is the reason why our company is predominantly called Qua for Quality and Labels for labels. We cannot compromise on Quality and we will always meet and exceed customers’ expectations.

At QuaLabels, we believe in supporting our local communities by creating job opportunities while developing youth’s capacity and building a sustainable infrastructure that ensures environmental benefits.

QuaLabels is proud to be “The World Class Local Commercia Labels & Packaging materials Supplying Partner” to Heineken Ethiopia.

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

Brinkerink joined Heineken Ethiopia in 2018, and from the start, he was impressed by the well-trained, highly-motivated people he found there. He credits that to the holistic approach to training Heineken puts its people through.

“That is partially because of the effort we put into training by bringing people from other Heineken breweries in Africa but also training people by sending them abroad to our other breweries in Africa to learn for themselves how to operate a brewery,” Brinkerink explains.

“Part of the investment at the new facility has been a training school with a number of classrooms covering all aspects of our work - packaging, beer, maintenance.

Students can practice live with the correct tools, and without Covid-19 right now we would have completed a small microbrewery, all manual. We train our guys to be ready for highly automated equipment but also give recruits that hands-on experience.”

“WE’RE THE ONLY COMPANY HERE WITH AN INTERNATIONAL BRAND AND A PORTFOLIO OF PRODUCTS TO CATER TO ALL TASTES.”

Heineken Ethiopia, like many businesses, recently encountered new challenges in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These are weird times,” as Brinkerink points out. Ethiopia was fortunate in that its position meant the pandemic was delayed in reaching the country- they did not have their first case until mid-March, and even by May, they had only one or two hundred

cases. However, from the very beginning, Heineken Ethiopia was laying the groundwork for their response to the virus.

“It’s only in the last three to four weeks we’ve seen more exponential growth. We’re at the beginning of the curve while other countries are in recovery,” Brinkerink says. “We knew Covid-19 existed, so as of January we have been preparing ourselves and our staff, and when we had our first case in Ethiopia, we had action plans ready. We have been setting things up to allow people to work from home, which is not always easy because phone and internet connections can be flawed here.

We put handwashing stations throughout our breweries.

We also distributed soap to the communities around the breweries knowing our people are living there. We have distributed face masks for our staff, as well as indirect staff, the guards, people serving food in the cafeteria. It makes no difference where you come from if you work in our breweries you get our support.”

It is clear how proud Brinkerink is of the way his company, and community, have adapted to the challenges of the pandemic.

“We’re really on top of things, sharing information on what Covid-19 is, where it comes from, how to keep your distance and wash your hands.

We’re staggering shifts so that not everyone comes into the

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READY FOR COVID-19

HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

“PART OF THE INVESTMENT AT THE NEW FACILITY HAS BEEN A TRAINING SCHOOL WITH A NUMBER OF CLASSROOMS COVERING ALL ASPECTS OF OUR WORK - PACKAGING, BEER, MAINTENANCE. STUDENTS CAN PRACTICE LIVE WITH THE CORRECT TOOLS, AND WITHOUT COVID-19 RIGHT NOW WE WOULD HAVE COMPLETED A SMALL MICROBREWERY, ALL MANUAL. WE TRAIN OUR GUYS TO BE READY FOR HIGHLY AUTOMATED EQUIPMENT BUT ALSO GIVE RECRUITS THAT HANDS-ON EXPERIENCE.”

canteen at once. I’m really proud of our team because everyone responded so efficiently,” he says. “For instance, in Ethiopian culture eating is something that absolutely happens together.

It’s very common for a few colleagues to have one big plate of food to share. To tell people they’re not allowed to do that and have their own plate and sit at a distance, to keep themselves and their colleagues safe, it’s hard, but people listen and people do what’s necessary. The future is difficult to predict, though. COVID is new for the whole world and time will tell whether we have done all the right things.”

ETHIOPIAN BARLEY

Going forward, Brinkerink expects to be able to build on

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PERFECT SOLUTIONS DO NOT STOP US FROM CONTINUING TO WORK ON OUR IDEAS.

As a leading innovator, we have one prime characteristic: We are never satisfied.

At KHS, we are thus always proud of what we have achieved – but we also immediately start to question it and think ahead.

With the aim of constantly advancing and always improving – and of providing our customers with new, intelligent systems time and again. Which we then, of course, develop further. khs.com/products

National Oil Ethiopia Plc. (NOC) Tel. +251-11-663-9494/91/93 Fax 251-11-663-9495 Cape Verde St., P.O. Box 951, Code 1250, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

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Company Overview CGF CROWN CORK MANUFACTURING PLC, a leading manufacturer of crown corks in Ethiopia with more than 8 years’ experience, equipped with the state of the art production facilities guided with a modern management system.

Vision statement To be a leading brand and largest packaging solution producer for beverage industries in East Africa by 2025.

Mission statement To provide innovative, competitive, and quality products and services to its esteemed customers with excellence, profitably, and socially responsible manner.

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

the foundation of the fantastic people Ethiopia offers to achieve great things in the sector.

“Ethiopia is a fantastic country with strong underlying economic growth, in the short term slowed down by Covid-19, but in the long term a market where the GDP will continue to grow and money will be available to enjoy a beer,” he says.

That growth, for Brinkerink, is not simply a matter of sales or market share, however.

Heineken is looking to build a lasting enterprise in the country.

“When we invest here, we invest not only in breweries but in a programme of local sourcing of barley,” Brinkerink explains. “Investing in a huge

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HEINEKEN ETHIOPIA

state of the art brewery and in agriculture is a long-term commitment, and we have made a long-term commitment to grow with Ethiopia.”

This is an important step, especially considering the odd position of Ethiopia’s barleygrowing sector.

“The interesting thing is for a long time it’s been more expensive to buy barley locally than import it, but we’re here for the long-term,” Brinkerink points out.

It is an issue Heineken is fully engaged with.

“What we’ve done is train our own staff as well as farmers in a joint effort between EUCORD, IFC, and the Dutch Ministry

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“WE’RE IN ETHIOPIA FOR THE LONG TERM; EVEN THOUGH IMPORT OF BARLEY IS AT TIMES CHEAPER, WE WANT TO WORK WITH THESE FARMERS TO IMPROVE THE LOCAL BARLEY SUPPLY CHAIN FOR THE LONG RUN.”

of Foreign Affairs, and rolling forward a local malting plant will be part of that. We’re providing seed, training, support to over 40,000 farmers on a yearly basis,” Brinkerink points out.

“I’ve visited some of those farmers myself, it’s beautiful to see our people taking this new way of working onboard. They’re getting to buy new sheds to store barley, new tractors some of them. If we’d only looked at short-term costs we’d have never done this, but long-term this will work. It’s not directly linked to the brewery but I’m very proud we’re building this long-term sustainable future.

It’s good to know you’re making a difference.”

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LION BREWERY

WE LEARN HOW A SRI LANKAN BREWERY WITH A HISTORIC LEGACY IS LOOKING TO SPREAD AROUND THE WORLD.

DOING A ROARING TRADE PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

The history of Lion Brewery goes back to 1849, over 170 years ago.

During colonial times when Sri Lanka was ruled by the British, the brewery was started by Samuel Baker, a famous explorer, in the central hills of the country. Over the years the company has grown, become acquired by a larger conglomerate, and become the number one beer company in Sri Lanka with a clearly dominant market share.

The brewery boasts one of the most state-of-the-art packaging facilities in South Asia and favourite Sri Lankan brands including their flagship brands, Lion Lager, Lion Strong and Lion Stout. Lion also maintains a partnership with Carlsberg and brews Carlsberg pilsner in Sri Lanka, under license. Today Lion Brewery is one of the most awarded breweries in Sri Lanka and maybe even Asia, with 38 international awards for beer and brewing to its name. The Company is ISO 22000-2003 certified.

“F

or us, it’s definitely the internationally awarded quality of our brewing and also our heritage,” says Shiyan Jayaweera, Head of Marketing for Lion Brewery. “When you’ve been brewing for over 170 years you tend to know something about it. As a company and as a brand it’s woven into the fabric of Sri Lankan culture.”

BRINGING LION BEERS TO NEW SHORES

While Lion Brewery has made the Sri Lankan market its own,

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the company has big ambitions further afield.

“We’ve been exporting since 1999 and we seriously started expanding overseas in the early 2000s. It started out as a very small business that’s grown over the years,” says Sharlene Adams, Head of Exports for the company. “We’re currently in 33 markets across the world from the US to Australia. Our strongest markets are in Africa and the Middle East and also the Maldives, where we are a market leader.”

Bringing these beloved Sri Lankan brands to the rest of the world isn’t simply a question of selling them to shops in other countries, however. Each new market Lion enters has to be approached carefully and strategically.

“We look at markets where we think our portfolio would have traction,” Adams elaborates.

“We sell to craft beer drinkers in the US for instance, rather than Budweiser drinkers. Lion Stout is our lead brand in the USA; it’s been highly rated, featured in books by beer writers like

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LION BREWERY

Roger Protz and the late Michael Jackson ‘The Beer Hunter’, so that has given us credibility with consumers. Then if you look at Africa, we take a different approach, focusing on our Strong beer portfolio. We use our portfolio to leverage a point of difference, based on market potential.

Of course, one route to market that has proved valuable for Lion has been the growing communities of Sri Lankan expats everywhere from Australia to the UK. “They take their food habits into those countries. There is an emerging trend and interest in Sri Lankan food in some countries such as the UK and we have been able to leverage this trend to expand Lion sales,” Adams says. “Authenticity stemming from our 170-year-old heritage and a fantastic range of beers gives us credibility and exotic appeal without the big budgets of larger brands. We aim to build a niche for ourselves.”

Simply identifying a target market isn’t enough, however.

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Head of Marketing, Shiyan Jayaweera (Left), Head of Exports, Sharlene Adams (Right), Lion Brewery You need a support structure and partners you can trust.

“The biggest challenge is building a route to market because when you’re a brand from a different country and you’re starting out in a new market your distributor partner is critical,” Adams says. “You may not always find top tier distributors. So, you start small and work on building market relevance in order to be

approached by a high-profile distributor. You also need to find long term strategic partners with an outlook like your own.

We want to build a brand, so we seek to list the brand and build a loyal consumer base, and it can be a challenge to find distribution partners on the same page as us on that. There are so many brands in some of these markets that finding your feet and competing and standing out is quite challenging.”

CHANGING MARKETS

Many of the markets that Lion has been working to expand in were hit hard during the COVID-19 crisis, and while Sri Lanka hasn’t been hit as badly as some parts of the world, the pandemic has been a disruption for the business.

“From mid-March to midMay we had a full lockdown.

Our businesses were closed, the movement was restricted, especially for our country,” Jayaweera tells us. “Our outlet base was closed so we couldn’t distribute our beer in the Sri Lankan market until the middle of May. Since then restrictions have been lifted and we’ve been coming back into operation.

Restaurants have been badly hit. Our tourism sector has been hit with a lot of our businesses dependant on that because it is a big sector in our country. So that has impacted our business obviously and is expected to continue for the rest of this year. We’ll look at how to, as a business, adjust to the new normal.”

Adams points out that in a situation like the COVID crisis, having entered a diverse range of markets mitigates and spreads the risk of a business downturn.

“If you look at the international markets, the US, Europe and the UK were seriously affected. In

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LION BREWERY

“AUTHENTICITY STEMMING FROM OUR 170-YEAR-OLD HERITAGE AND A FANTASTIC RANGE OF BEERS GIVES US CREDIBILITY AND EXOTIC APPEAL WITHOUT THE BIG BUDGETS OF LARGER BRANDS.” the US, most of our business is in New York. Our focus in New York has been the on-premise sector - so the closure of bars and restaurants meant we took a hit,” she says. “However the majority of our volume comes from the Middle East and Africa and the Off-trade in that region remained open throughout the COVID-19 lockdown so

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there wasn’t a huge drop in volume. Our African markets weren’t particularly affected and continued to perform well, faring better than last year in some markets.

Moving beyond COVID, Lion is looking to consolidate its gains and sustain its key markets, while continuing to expand its business across the world “From a local context, our objective will be consolidation.

This year, that means trying to figure out when conditions will normalise but beyond that our task is market expansion,” Jayaweera says. We’re working on new products, innovation to meet the needs of the consumer of tomorrow.

“Exports average 8-10% of our local business, but we want to see it grow to 25% of the local business over the next two years,” Adams says. Lion seeks to take a slice of Sri Lanka to the world, through partnerships for distribution and contract

brewing and is actively seeking new partners in the regions of Africa, the Middle East, Europe and South America with a view to expanding our footprint across the globe. Sri Lanka received high ratings on Lonely Planet, Conde Nast Traveller and CNN Travel, among others, in the last few years; this resulted in tourists from diverse corners of the world visiting the country to enjoy its beaches, wildlife, ancient history and native traditions.

It also generated greater awareness of the culinary styles of Sri Lanka, resulting in interest and mushrooming of Sri Lankan street food outlets in cities such as London, New York and other cities. As the leading beer of the country, Lion will no doubt have an authentic pairing with Sri Lankan food and, we hope that this trend will continue to give us leverage in expanding our overseas business,” says Adams.

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NESTLÉ

WE TAKE LOOK AT NESTLÉ’S EFFORTS TO SUPPORT SUSTAINABILITY AND THE COMMUNITIES IT WORKS WITHIN.

HELPING WHERE THEY CAN PROJECT MANAGED BY: GARY SMITH Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage company with a presence in 189 countries and over 2,000 brands, some of which are household names around the world while others are regional favourites.

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estlé has always said its business is inspired by the scientific innovation of its founder, Henri Nestlé, and the business works together with various internal and external collaborators to improve quality of life and contribute to a healthier future.

This decade the corporation has defined three broad ambitions which will guide Nestlé’s strategy until 2030, in turn supporting the targets set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Those goals are to help

to 50 million children to lead a healthier life, to help improve the living conditions of 30 million people in communities directly related to Nestlé’s business activities, and to work to achieve an environmental impact zero in the business’s activities.

The company has certainly grown a long way since it was founded over 150 years ago by Henri Nestlé when he created a new baby food. Since then Nestlé has offered innovative products based on scientific principles with values that are

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www.procarne.cl

“From the nature of Southern Chile, with high quality and excellent food safety standards, we have been supplying Nestlé with red meat for more than 20 years” Procarne Avda Buzeta 3770 Estacion Central, Santiago RM, CHILE Phone: +56 (2) 2414-1300 Fax: +56 (2) 2414-1357 E-Mail: info@procarne.cl Web: www.procarne.cl

reflected in the way Nestlé works.

A COMMITMENT TO FIGHTING CLIMATE CHANGE

The most recent example of these values in action can be seen the Nestle Colombia’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gases with a target of 0% by 2050. This is the reason that Nestlé set itself the goal last year to accelerate its measures for tackling climate change to achieve zero net emissions by 2050 across its value chain. Nestlé’s

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“NESTLÉ HAS ALWAYS SAID ITS BUSINESS IS INSPIRED

BY THE SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION OF ITS FOUNDER, HENRI NESTLÉ.”

strategy to achieve this has been plotted across three sectors.

The first of these sectors is products and packaging.

Nestle intends to accelerate the transformation of their packaging and products, redesigning its Fit for Purpose Packaging to reduce the amount of virgin material introduce more recycled, alternative and environmentally friendly materials in their place.

Nestlé’s strategy is ultimately based on the circular economy strategy, where the sustainable transformation of packaging and the neutrality of plastic are intended to guarantee that 100% of containers and packaging are reusable or recyclable by 2025 around the world.

Nestlé is also working in the agricultural sector to reduce its carbon footprint. The business is committed to strengthening programs that work with farmers to restore land while limiting greenhouse gas emissions, and building resilient farming communities.

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NESTLÉ

On the energy front, Nestlé aims to use 100% renewable electricity in its factories, its warehouses, its logistics operations and even offices.

Already 143 of Nestlé’s factories, a third of the total number, use 100% renewable electricity.

PLASTIC NEUTRAL

Attaining plastic neutral status is a key part of Nestlé’s strategy, where the goal is nothing less than ensuring that none of Nestlé’s packaging ends up in landfills, oceans, lakes or rivers. To achieve this Nestlé is ensuring all of its packaging is reusable or recyclable within the next five years. The company is also developing new materials and delivery systems, as well as innovative business models in every country where Nestlé operates.

Of course, any sustainable packaging solution has to take into account the entire lifecycle of the product, and Nestlé is supporting collection, sorting and recycling schemes. This is in addition to reducing Nestlé’s use of virgin plastics by a third by 2025 alongside reducing single-use plastics through new reusable packaging.

It’s a project that’s already showing results, with Nestlé stating that in Colombia they have avoided 3,482 tons of CO2 entering the atmosphere between 2018 and March 20202, according to

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global packaging and waste management lines.

IMPORTANT PARTNERSHIPS

Nestlé isn’t about to achieve these results alone, however, and the corporation frequently works through strategic alliances and collaborations across the value chain. They have also worked with industry and civil society associations,

looking for new options to allow Nestlé to achieve their sustainability objectives while establishing best practices at the local level.

These partnerships include a strategic alliance with Cempre to accelerate the knowledge, learning and valuation of Nestlé’s recycling chains.

Nestlé has used Cempre’s strategic management to help

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in the removal of plastic from the environment by recycling associations at Nestlé’s various operating locations. Cempre has also helped Nestlé identify opportunities to improve the ecosystem.

Veolia meanwhile has been Nestlé’s global ally in reducing plastic waste. This company has been responsible for aiding in the recovery and recycling scheme Nestlé is implementing to support the achievement of plastic neutral status by

capturing, processing and taking advantage of packaging.

As Antonio Núñez, President of Nestlé Colombia has said, “As a company, we have a duty to protect biodiversity and natural resources, while encouraging others to act responsibly. We are working so that from our business we can generate a positive change in terms of recycling, energy efficiency and sustainable food options to make a significant difference in all the places where we operate.”

“AS A COMPANY, WE HAVE A DUTY TO PROTECT BIODIVERSITY AND NATURAL RESOURCES, WHILE ENCOURAGING OTHERS TO ACT RESPONSIBLY.”

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HELPING COMMUNITIES

However, not every effort Nestlé makes to support people and the environment is a huge global strategy. In Chile, the company recently collaborated with four others of the biggest names in food and beverage companies, Carozzi, CCU, PepsiCo and Watt’s, to join the “Strength for our Heroes” campaign.

This campaign was designed to thank and recognise thousands of health workers in public hospitals who are working against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The scheme has been put into place in coordination with Chile’s Ministry of Health and will see the delivery of 45,000 snacks to regional hospitals to support thousands of workers.

Undersecretary of Healthcare Networks Arturo Zúñiga has said that “throughout this pandemic, health officials have shown first-rate work. They have been developing exceptional work throughout Chile for months, being the heroes of this situation that we are experiencing as a country, working day and night for the health of all Chileans. And we still have a way to go. As the Ministry of Health, we know that we need a collaborative spirit to get ahead in times like this. These types of donations are a contribution so that our health workers feel the support of different sectors during the long shifts they are doing.”

These are the sorts of projects that show the impact a company like Nestlé can have.

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NESTLÉ MALAYSIA

WE LEARN HOW NESTLE MALAYSIA HAS CONTINUED TO PERFORM WELL EVEN IN THE FACE OF A PANDEMIC.

A STRONG PERFORMANCE PROJECT MANAGED BY: GARY SMITH

Nestlé has been active in Malaysia since 1912 offering a range of brands and products in line with Halal standards. Their stated goal is to enhance the quality of life and contribute to a healthier future for Malaysia while delivering “Good food, good life” to all.

The international good giant’s operations in Malaysia began when, as the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, they set up shop in Penang and later, thanks to growth and expansion, moved to Kuala Lumpur in 1939.

“W

hen Malaysia achieved independence in 1957 the country needed increased job opportunities and product options, a need which led to Nestle establishing its Culinary Products Division in the mid-1960s to produce culinary solutions under the popular MAGGI trademark. This resulted in the establishment of Nestle’s first manufacturing facility in Malaysia.

In today’s Malaysia, Nestle Malaysia is operating six factories and employing over 4,600 people across the country, producing a portfolio of over 500 Halal-certified products.

A number of the company’s key brands have become familiar sights in Malaysian households for generations, including MILO, MAGGI, NESCAFÉ and KITKAT. Nestle has pointed to sustainability as a big part of its operations, and the company uses a responsible sourcing programme with their Tier One suppliers.

WEATHERING TOUGH TIMES

Recent months have been hard for businesses across all sectors. However, Nestle Malaysia has reported stable figures from the first quarter

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of 2020 compared to the same period last year. During the period that marked the emergence of COVID-19 and the beginning of lockdown, Nestle Malaysia’s turnover remained at a stable RM1.43 billion amidst COVID-19 and an earlier Chinese New Year vs 2019.

While the temporary closure of Out-of-Home retail channels under Malaysia’s Movement Control Order has impacted the company, they have been able to compensate for that with exports recovery and solid sales for in-home consumption.

They have also announced new CAPEX projects worth RM280 million, the highest investment seen by the company in the last six years.

Nestlé Malaysia’s results for the quarter ending on the 31st of March 2020 have been resilient at a time when the market has been defined almost exclusively by the efforts to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their RM1.43 billion turnover nearly matched the RM1.45 billion seen last year, when the company had benefited from a more favourable Chinese New Year timing.

Juan Aranols, the CEO of Nestle Malaysia said of the figures, “Our results for the

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“OUR RESULTS FOR THE QUARTER APPEAR RESILIENT, GIVEN THE EARLIER TIMING OF CHINESE NEW YEAR AND THE WIDESPREAD EFFECTS OF COVID-19 AND THE MCO IN SOME SECTORS OF ACTIVITY.”

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quarter appear resilient, given the earlier timing of Chinese New Year and the widespread effects of COVID-19 and the MCO in some sectors of activity. The slight contraction in domestic sales during the quarter resulted from a strong performance in in-home consumption channels, offset by a sizeable temporary dip in the Out-of-Home business. More concretely, our Out-of-Home business, like the rest of the sector, has been affected first

by Malaysia’s declining eating out frequency since the start of the pandemic, followed by the general closure of restaurants, coffee shops and many other dine-in outlets, since the implementation of the MCO.” However, Aranols has pointed that while this was happening Nestle Malaysia saw a strong recovery of export sales, growing at 8.8%, combined with a solid performance in the brand’s core food and beverage business. Nestle Malaysia has continued to ensure a stable and reliable supply of essential products to the stores, with the company’s performance during this quarter supported by the strong sales execution of the Group, alongside the introduction of new products and

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strong marketing campaigns such as the Nestlé Salary For Life Contest, the biggest nationwide contest ever organised by Nestlé Malaysia, offering Malaysians the chance to win a ‘Salary for Life’ of RM3,000 every month.

The result is that the company registered a before-tax profit of RM246.3 million for the quarter or RM186.3 million posttax. Nestle Malaysia continues to enjoy solid profit margins despite higher commodity costs and an earlier Chinese New Year.

additional safety protocol adaptations across all sites.

The company has made temporary allowances for employees working in factories, distribution centres and sales during Malaysia’s MCO to recognise the additional efforts of those staff in this situation.

Nestlé has also allocated funds to provide relief efforts to medical front liners, including a partnership with the

Malaysian Red Crescent Society.

Indeed, Nestlé Malaysia has pledged to support over 200,000 Malaysians through immediate COVID-19 pandemic relief efforts, but also by developing programmes that will support the livelihoods of lower-income communities and small enterprises impacted by the crisis. This has included a commitment to

SAFETY FIRST

In the face of COVID-19 Nestle Malaysia has declared safe working conditions of its personnel as the number one priority. This has meant that COVID-19 has resulted in increased operational expenses such as the cost of employees’ PPE as well as

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NESTLÉ MALAYSIA

“WE ARE CONFIDENT IN MALAYSIA’S POTENTIAL AND CAPABILITY TO SEE ECONOMIC RECOVERY ONCE THE CURRENT COVID19 CRISIS IS BEHIND US, AND WE ARE COMMITTED TO PLAYING OUR PART IN SUPPORTING THE NATION AND EXTENDING A HELPING HAND TO THOSE MALAYSIANS IN NEED DURING THIS DIFFICULT TIME.” invest RM15 million to fund these initiatives under the company’s “Nestlé Cares” umbrella alongside specific initiatives supported by its different brands.

As Aranols has pointed out, “Since the very start of the COVID-19 pandemic back in late January, we have proactively adopted preventive actions to protect our people.

Throughout the pandemic, we have been working very closely with the authorities and our business partners to safeguard the health of all employees, while ensuring business continuity to meet our obligation towards the nation, as a manufacturer of essential foods and beverages.”

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Whatever happens, Aranols has faith in Malaysia’s ability to come through the crisis stronger.

“We are confident in Malaysia’s potential and capability to see economic recovery once the current COVID19 crisis is behind us, and we are committed to playing our part in supporting the nation and extending a helping hand to those Malaysians in need during this difficult time,” he has said. “As Malaysia has just entered a phase of reopening the economy under the CMCO, we want to encourage all Malaysians, starting from all the members of the Nestlé family and our business partners, to follow strictly the Government recommendations so that we all can continue succeeding together in the fight against the pandemic.”

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UGANDA BREWERIES LTD

WE TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT UGANDA BREWERIES AND HOW THEIR SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY MAY SPELL HOPE FOR UGANDA.

HOME IS WHERE THE HOPE IS PROJECT MANAGED BY: MALVERN KANDEMWA

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UGANDA BREWERIES LTD

Uganda Breweries Ltd continues to be Uganda’s leading branded alcohol beverages manufacturer, offering an outstanding collection of brands including beer, spirits and adult nonalcoholic drinks, setting the business up Uganda’s leading total adult beverage company. Their portfolio includes a wide range of beer, spirit, ready to drink (RTD) and non-alcoholic brands, and the company prides itself in knowing that no one else in the market has a portfolio to complete.

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he brewery is a subsidiary of East African Breweries Limited, itself a subsidiary of Diageo PLC, the world leader in manufacturing adult beverages. This gives Uganda Breweries access to a portfolio of brands that means it can satisfy every consumer’s need, from non-alcoholic carbonated beverages to an assortment

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Milly Glass Works Ltd.

Quality & Freshness Uncompromising Milly Glass Works is a prominent packaging manufacturer in the East Africa horizon. Formerly known as Bawazir Glass Limited, Milly Glass is a leading glass container and tableware manufacture in East Africa, based in Mombasa, Kenya. incorporated on 1st February, 2000 it has a long tradition in Glass Container Industry dating back to 1954. We have positioned ourselves in manufacturing of packaging for Beverage and Spirit sector in line with global environmental initiatives. We are passionate about our love for glass and an endeavour to build brands through ionic packaging.

Our facilities have the latest machines and equipment sourced from European suppliers. Fuel efficient furnace, advanced forming machines with auto inspection, single liners, palletizers and printing we provide a complete environment friendly sustainable packaging solution.

CAPACITY - 400,000 bottles a day; 3 automatic glass forming machines. Online inspection and physical and chemical laboratory for online testing.

CUSTOMERS - We are servicing the top spirit packers and distillers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. We are qualified and our facilities approved by major multinationals in Food/Beverage industry to manufacture their packaging. We produce Jars/Beverage/Spirit/ Water bottles.

SERVICE - We have our own logistic fleet which ensures secured and fastest delivery to our customers.

DESIGN - We have an in-house design team to ensure the client has a choice and can incorporate his desire in his packaging. We also have 3D printing which enables the client to visualize his product.

T: +254 41 222 4401/2/4 | +254 41 222 2449 E: gm@millyglass.com | sales2@millyglass.com

www.millyglass.com

The number one choice for your transporting needs The company offers a wide range of transport and logistics services to meet the dynamic needs of the clients. Expediters can quickly move any parcel, pallets or any truck globally. Our professional drivers and staff are a constant reminder to our commitment on providing excellent and dependable services to truckload shipment.

The company boast of its strong understanding of the fact that the customers’ needs are ever-changing and with the introduction of online stores, consumers want their cargo delivered at a specific time, to a specific place and have a 360 cargo visibility while on transit. That is why at expediters we operate on a customer centric philosophy and Kaizen principle of management.

• Road Transport • Air Freight • Sea Freight • Relocation Logistics •

EXPEDITERS INTERNATIONAL LTD. P.O. Box 58394-00200 Nairobi, Kenya Tel: +254 722 206 353 / +254 733 699 001 / +254 774 450 105 Email: info@expediters.co.ke

GRAINPULSE LTD. Grainpulse offers agronomy and extension services to small-scale farmers as well as collection, processing, storage and trading of coffee and grains to various markets. In addition, Grainpulse has set up Uganda’s first crop-specific fertilizer blending factory that produce quality fertilizer blends that is affordable.

The balanced crop nutrition to Ugandan farmers is delivering higher yields and better-quality harvest.

UNINTERRUPTED BREWING ANCHORED ON SUSTAINABLE LOCAL RAW MATERIAL SOURCING PARTNERSHIP WITH GRAINPULSE LIMITED

Grainpulse Limited is one of the leading Agro-business firms providing access to market for smallholder enterprise farmers in Uganda through our integrated business operations driven by focus on quality of agro inputs, Farming Community Presence, Extension of information & technologies for improved yields.

The value of our partnership with Uganda Breweries significantly reinforces our commitment to the farmers by providing the market and strategic support for oursourcing initiatives that boost our local production, handling of grains and agro-processing.

In doing so we drive supply of high-quality raw material to Uganda Breweries and facilitate the delivery of great brew to East Africa.

Head Office: Plot 6/8 Nyondo Cl, Bugolobi Industrial Area, Kampala, Uganda Factories: Lwanyonyi, Mukono, Uganda

Tel: +256 (0) 392 174 758 I Fax: +256 (0) 414 252 542 Email: info@grainpulse.co.ug

www.grainpulse.co.ug

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OUR PARTNERSHIP WITH UBL The partnership between UBL and Grainpulse involves consignment stocking for all the local raw materials required for brewing by UBL, as well as an Agro Inputs Inventory Management for farmer supply. Thus, Grainpulse is part of an agribusiness value chain from farm to industries or table. Local raw material is the benefits to UBL while Grainpulse and the small-scale farmers are offered a formal market for onward sustainable supply that offer an opportunity to increase food security and poverty eradication.

The key driver for our partnership is the expansion of our operation in the grain handling and trading plant. The factory offers a mitigation mechanism to reduce post-harvest loss occasioned to Ugandan farmers and leads to improved quality assurance of local produce. Our state-of-the-art facility includes 9 silos with a storage capacity of 20.000 metric tons and a processing capacity of 90 tons per hour.

We are a reliable supplier of Ugandan agro products and associated in Inventory Management to UBL and offer solutions to our customers as a value add to their business.

www.grainpulse.co.ug

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UGANDA BREWERIES LTD

of spirits and beers. It’s a portfolio that includes premium, mainstream, and value beers, and the same applies to spirits.

All in all, it is a unique offering with a strong value proposition to consumers.

These products are manufactured at Uganda Breweries’ state-of-the-art plant, which has a total brewing capacity of over a million hectolitres per year. That figure, already impressive, is set to grow by 50 per cent thanks to on-going investment in the expansion of the brewhouse.

While they offer a whole menu of drinks, the brewery’s flagship brand in their signature Bell Lager that has been on the market for over 60 years. It’s the top name on a bill that includes such key UBL brands as Uganda Waragi, Tusker Malt, Pilsner,

UBL Team at Grainpulse

“WE REMAIN CAUTIOUSLY OPTIMISTIC ABOUT OUR SECOND HALF OF THE YEAR, ALTHOUGH UNPREDICTED TAX AND REGULATORY CHANGES AND CHALLENGES IN OUR OPERATING ENVIRONMENT CONTINUE TO PRESENT POTENTIAL RISKS IN THE HORIZON.” White Cap, White Cap Light, Senator, Guinness, Allsopps and President Lager.

These brands are brought to the consumer thanks to Uganda Breweries’ rich talent pool that includes some of the besttrained people. The beverage company directly employs over 390 people, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. The firm indirectly creates employment for thousands of more thanks to the company’s vast supply and distribution chain.

RISING FORTUNES

Since we spoke to them last year Uganda Breweries has

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continued to prosper, with its parent company East Africa Breweries posting a 9% jump in pre-tax profit to Ksh. 10.6 billion for its first half to the end of December at the beginning of this year. The drinks company has attributed this impressive growth to the 10% increase in net sales to Ksh. 45.9billion.

The EABL Group Chairman, Martin Oduor Otieno, said of the figures, “We are pleased by this performance. Although excise duty escalation on alcoholic beverages in Kenya’s last budget impacted bottled beer, a more stable operating environment provided an

opportunity to continue our growth momentum.”

The growing sales figures may be due to EABL’s innovation initiatives, with Uganda Breweries joining EABL in bringing a number of new brands to market which has contributed 28% to the net sales of the Group. Among these newly launched brands are brands such as Hop House 13 Lager, Guinness Smooth, Sikera Cider, Black & White whisky and Triple Ace vodka, which have all contributed significantly to sales growth.

Uganda Breweries’ contribution to this Group effort has taken the form of an agenda to shift into the premium beverages market, which has delivered a good mix and margins to EABL’s overall performance.

“Marketing campaigns in Uganda Breweries such as Bell All-Star Tour & Tusker Lite Neon Experience helped drive bottled beer growth by 15%,” explained Andrew Cowan, EABL’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. “We remain

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cautiously optimistic about our second half of the year, although unpredicted tax and regulatory changes and challenges in our operating environment continue to present potential risks in the horizon.”

Cowan went on to add, “As EABL Group, we leveraged increased investment and operational efficiencies across markets and segments to expand, despite increases in alcoholic beverage taxes.”

HOPE IN LOCAL SOURCING

Of course, when Cowan predicted that sunny outlook, he has no idea that we were about to be hit by a global pandemic that was going to take a heavy toll on every sector. Recovering from that crisis is going to be no small task, but Uganda Breweries’ Managing Director, Alvin Mbugua, believes the key to recovery may lie in one of the breweries’ already existing strategies.

When we spoke with Uganda Breweries last year, they told us about their new strategy to shift their supply chain towards locally sourced raw materials.

“Our local raw materials sourcing agenda is to now source through one strategic

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UGANDA BREWERIES LTD

“IT SHOULD BE A NATIONAL SHAME IF NEXT YEAR AND THE YEARS AFTER, UGANDA IS STILL IMPORTING FOOD PRODUCTS.”

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partner. We don’t just leave the relationship to the outsourced partner,” said their head of procurement, Richard Atugonza.

“We have our own teams of agronomists, educating farmers in best practices.”

It’s a strategy that’s been paying off, as Mbugua said earlier this, year, “At Ugandan Breweries, more than 85 per cent of the raw materials used - the sorghum, corn starch (maize), cassava, barley and denatured spirit from sugarcane, are all sourced from Ugandan farmers under our Local Raw Materials (LRM) programme.”

Today Uganda Breweries invests a total of Shs16 billion in agricultural inputs. The beverage company trains farmers and spends Shs74 billion a year on purchasing from local suppliers. Those suppliers are a group made up of 17,000 farmers. Over the next five years, Uganda Breweries intends to increase that investment to Shs 130 billion and touch over 50,000 farming households.

Mbuga believes this strategy offers a bath not just for Uganda Breweries, but for Uganda’s economy as a whole.

“Let’s apply import substitution to the agriculture sector which accounts for 45% of exports, employs 64% of all Ugandans and 72% of all youth,” he has said. “It should be a national shame if next year and the years after, Uganda is still importing food products - animal and animal products; vegetable products, animal, beverages, fats and oil; prepared foodstuff, beverages and tobacco worth $713 million (Shs2.7 trillion) like we did in 2019.”

Uganda Breweries vision, for a Uganda with a self-sufficient food supply chain, offers hope for the company, and the country’s future.

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JUPITER HOTELS

IT’S BEEN AN EVENTFUL YEAR SINCE WE LAST SPOKE WITH JUPITER HOTELS, BUT DESPITE TURBULENT GLOBAL EVENTS THE UNIQUE HOTEL CHAIN IS PERSISTING.

TAKING HOTELS THROUGH THE PANDEMIC PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID TAVERNOR

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JUPITER HOTELS

When we last spoke with Jupiter Hotels things were looking good for the hotel company, with a diverse range of properties around the country, each with their own unique character. Indeed, for the remainder of the year, things looked good.

W

hilst trading has been competitive across the industry, we held our December revenues in line with the previous year and in terms of Christmas, we equalled the record-setting performance of 2018. This was a strong result particularly against a market that was declining” explains Andrew Pring, Chief Operating Officer of the company.

However, a crisis was looming that nobody could have seen coming.

A THREAT TO AN INDUSTRY

Andrew Pring Chief Operating Officer Jupiter Hotels

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“In the early months of the new year we saw significant growth on 2019 and by the end of February, we had recorded a sales increase of over 9%. If the first quarter had finished without disruption, we would have ended this period of trading with revenue growth in excess of six percent above the previous year,” Pring explains. “But that was waylaid quickly with the COVID 19 outbreak.

Since then, we’ve been in lockdown and most of our hotels have had to close.

Eight of our 31 hotels have remained open for keyworkers, but the others will remain closed until the 4th July, as we anticipate the government will confirm shortly that hotels can open from this date.”

It’s hard to overstate the impact COVID has had on the hospitality and leisure

industries, for all intents and purposes practically grinding an entire sector to a stop.

“It’s had a huge impact on our business. With over threequarters of our hotels closed and generating no revenue it has been tough, as it has been for all hotels across the country,” Pring tells us. “We’ve maintained a skeleton staff at the hotels that are closed to provide adequate security and we’re making use of the government furlough scheme.

But like any business, we have fixed costs, so the business rates holiday has been helpful for the industry. Our main attention has been focused on planning to get the hotels open within the environment we’re going to be trading in with a clear focus on hygiene and cleanliness. We want customers to feel safe and feel we’re taking new working protocols very seriously.”

Indeed, for a glimpse of what that might look like one need only look to the eight hotels that are still open, serving essential key workers even during the height of the crisis.

“We’re open for keyworkers under the protocols we’re assuming will ultimately be put in place when the lockdown ends.

These are our own industry protocols as the government haven’t given any guidance yet but social distancing is a key consideration.” Pring says.

“We have the two-meter rules in place, we have hand gels and disinfectant wipes, and we’re providing room service rather than restaurant facilities.

Other protocols include offering housekeeping but we’re not automatically servicing

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JUPITER HOTELS

rooms during a guest stay but completing deep cleaning of rooms when a guest checks out.”

All in all, while Jupiter Hotels was competing from a strong position at the start of the year, the company is facing the same challenges as every company in the sector.

RETURNING TO NORMALITY

“Our issues are the same challenges as the rest of the industry. A competitive market, increased competition and levelling demand with the economy plateauing in 2019.

The industry itself didn’t foresee significant top-line growth in 2020, and in the first quarter we were bucking the trend, but what’s come along has really devastated the leisure industry completely,” Pring says. “It’s now about survival, making

sure we can get through this and continue to operate. Jupiter won’t be alone in that. We have support from our shareholders and the banks and we’re doing what is needed, particularly with our cost base with a drive to get back to some form of normality as soon as possible.”

The big challenge, Pring believes, will be the Christmas period, typically a huge part of the hotel calendar year.

“Without any significant changes, I expect it will be very deflated this year, impacted of course by social distancing. An effective vaccine that could be ready in time would be a gamechanger,” he says. “That would actually allow the business to recover both for Jupiter and the whole industry.

We will look to continue to grow our business, we’re

“WHILST THE DEMAND IN THE FIRST QUARTER OF 2020 WAS STRONGER THAN WE WERE EXPECTING, OUR PRIORITY IS TO GET BACK ON AN EVEN KEEL.” looking to expand and will take the opportunities as they arise. Whatever environment it is that we find ourselves in will undoubtedly present opportunities for our businesses to grow, be that acquisitions or management contracts.”

However, despite the undoubtedly challenging times ahead, Pring is proud of what Jupiter Hotels has achieved, and is looking forward to bringing the industry back into prosperity.

“Whilst the demand in the first quarter of 2020 was stronger than we were expecting our priority is to get back on an even keel. I think that we will not see anything like the volumes we were achieving in 2019 until we get into the middle of 2021 at the earliest, and in some cases not until 2022. So that will make our operation very different from where we left it back in March.”

FUTURE PLANS The specialist fit out company for the retail, leisure & hospitality industry.

Experts in providing a turnkey solution from conception to handover. Full-service maintenance, making sure your commercial space runs efficiently and effectively.

• Full CAD design service • Fit-out & Maintenance • • Fire stopping / Firas accredited contractor • • Partitions / Ceilings / Flooring • Mechanical / Electrical • Tel: +44 (0)114 286 3088 Mob: +44 (0)7950 969719 Email: enquiries@quaycommercial.com

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While there is a great deal that is out of Jupiter Hotels’ hands, such as the efforts to create a vaccine that will give people the confidence to go out, and the less buoyant leisure market we will see in the meantime, Jupiter Hotels is still preparing and making plans.

“Looking forward our plans are centred around continued investment, we have a strategy for our key properties,” Pring tells us. “We operate most of our hotels under the Mercure flag which allows us flexibility

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JUPITER HOTELS

as the brand focuses on the immediate locality and is less about the physical building.

We own both smaller Country House Hotels in rural locations and larger City Centre business in strong commercial locations and our clientele is also a broad base. Based in many areas of the country our own eclectic businesses have their benefits as much as challenges, but each hotel has a personality of its own and when we carry out refurbishments, we do this with an eye on the local environment. Where possible we use that local personality to put identity in the hotel. We completed our most recent refurbishment at our hotel in Brighton in early summer of last year and the results were very encouraging, we were set for a very strong 2020 until the COVID 19 pandemic hit us.”

As the market returns and hotels are again popular places to stay, Jupiter Hotels will be ready.

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BLUETREE GROUP

WE LEARN HOW A SMALL PRINTING BUSINESS BECAME A LEADING PROVIDER OF PPE.

FROM PRINTING TO PPE PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

instantprint was founded in 2009,

by Adam & James, straight out of university. Their plan was simple - they had found a niche in the market, and they were going to make the most of it.

Adam Carnell Managing Director Bluetree Group

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T

he main aim was to create an easier process to buy and commission print, especially for small businesses,” explains Adam Carnell, Managing Director of the company. “We saw some great growth figures for a startup business in the early years, and there came a point where we realised, we’d need bigger resources to push that.”

Fortunately, this is when they were approached by Bluetree Group in 2012. From there, the company has grown to become the UK’s leading online printer, serving both smaller microbusinesses through instantprint while also drawing 50% of their business from their trade brand, Route 1 Print. This brand has built a name for itself through the use of cutting-edge technology, such as the first B1 Digital Embellishment Press

used by a printer in the UK, installed by Konica Minolta UK. “Through that merge, we were able to implement robust quality management processes into the business. By the back end of 2019, we were dispensing 20,000 to 25,000 jobs a week, with 100 million printed items a month,” Carnell recalls.

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE

It was at this point that the COVID-19 crisis hit, and the pandemic would have a fundamental and lasting effect on the direction of the company.

“A lot of our business was focused on producing marketing materials for other businesses, so when COVID-19 hit it had a huge impact on the number of orders we had coming in,” Carnell tells us.

“Early on in that process we had a look at ourselves and said, to

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A bespoke service tailored to reduce your costs Lumipaper is the only woodfree coated paper supplied from a dedicated UK production facility.

We offer a range of woodfree coated papers, manufactured by Stora Enso at a single mill. Sheets are available in both standard and bespoke sizes to meet your needs. By specifying the ‘correct’ size rather than an off-the-shelf product, you not only save money, but will reduce your waste too.

Work with us and you will make genuine savings on your paper. By buying sustainable paper from Stora Enso, you are making an environmentally responsible choice.

Stora Enso UK - Lumipaper Ltd Phone 01449 765553 E-mail: lumipaper@storaenso.com www.storaenso.com/lumi

STORA ENSO STORA ENSO SUPPORTING THE FAST-MOVING BUSINESS OF THE BLUETREE GROUP Stora Enso keeps pace with Bluetree’s fast-moving business by being an agile and responsive paper supplier. The extensive paper offering, customer care and unique service offering Stora Enso can provide are a great fit for Bluetree’s needs.

Stora Enso’s Lumi woodfree coated paper grade is a strategic high performing product range which includes digital printing technique The Lumi range combines excellent production values with ultimate versatility and flexibility in sheet-fed heat set offset printing.

Excellent papers need to be complemented by efficient service. The key to keeping up with Bluetree’s fast moving business is the versatile service offering that Stora Enso can provide: reels from UK stock including load optimisation within 24 hours and sheets either in standard or bespoke pallets from Lumipaper Ltd in Mendlesham. With the bespoke sheet service, Lumipaper can help the customers reduce waste and cut down costs by placing their orders in the exact size needed for the job. Delivery can be achieved within 24 hours.

Alongside the delivery service, Stora Enso customers are supported by a highly skilled local technical customer service team as well as have the option to use a recently launched remote technical service called Snap Support by Stora Enso. This is a mobile application through which customers can get easy

access to advice from over 30 technical experts from Stora Enso independent of location or time zone. Topics can cover whole customer processes from prepress to printing, converting & finishing.

Being a strategic and committed supplier to Bluetree is very important for Stora Enso and we will continue to support Bluetree in their fast-moving business. Having one of the broadest selections of responsibly sourced papers made from recycled and virgin fiber as well as the company’s valuable industry experience, know-how and customer support, Stora Enso is a major print industry supplier.

Part of the bioeconomy, Stora Enso is a leading global provider of renewable solutions in packaging, biomaterials, wooden construction and paper. Stora Enso is the second largest paper producer in Europe with an established customer base and a wide product portfolio for print media and office use.

Customers benefit from Stora Enso’s broad selection of papers made from recycled and virgin fiber We employ some 25 000 people in more than 30 countries and our shares are listed on the Helsinki (STEAV, STERV) and Stockholm (STE A, STE R) stock exchanges.

Our fiber-based materials are renewable, recyclable and fossil free. Our solutions offer low-carbon alternatives to products based on finite resources. We believe that everything that is made from fossil-based materials today can be made from a tree tomorrow.

www.storaenso.com

Adam Carnell with Mark Dempsey, discussing the install process of the first UK Landa S10p (behind).

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get through this, we’ll have to change. A number of options were available to us, including offering a more flexible service in packaging. So, although that is still in this same sphere, custom packaging was very different from what we usually do internally. Then, by fluke, one of our suppliers looked at importing this mask-making equipment from a known supplier of wares, and that’s where we got the idea of moving into surgical masks.”

However, for Bluetree Group, this wasn’t simply a stopgap measure until things “went back to normal”.

“From the start, we decided if we were going to succeed in turning this from a short-term project into a long-term part of the business, we’d have to make sure we delivered the highest quality masks out there with the consistency of supply,” Carnell explains. “Everything on that side of the business, from the supply chain, machine parts to training programmes, has

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been selected carefully.”

A LEARNING CURVE

As well as providing a way to help with the crisis and keep the business going, the move over to manufacturing face masks has been a huge confidence booster for Bluetree Group’s team.

“For a lot of people, it’s been a very anxious time, especially as we’ve been very open about the numbers we’ve been putting out, including order intake,” Carnell acknowledges.

“It means a lot of people in the business are encouraged just to know we’re coming out of this with a more diversified offering and a more resilient and robust response to this COVID challenge.”

Of course, that doesn’t mean the shift over to making masks has been an easy one.

“There’s been a huge amount of compliance to make sure

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the machine to understand and learn about them and develop our own training course. We’ve been trying to understand them and get the machines up to our level of safety requirements, so that’s been interesting. The masks we’re producing, nobody else has been producing in the UK for a while. All the skill sets, the understanding, we’ve had to pick up and learn in a very short timescale.”

we’re fully on top of it and we’ve really built our knowledge base in that area. We have several certifications and a good understanding of the processes in our existing business. It was just understanding the standard we had to build these masks to,” Carnell tells us. “Without a doubt, the biggest challenge has been making sure we had a clean and sterile environment to make the products in; from having positive air pressure in the building, all the way through to the cleaning regimes we need to have implemented.”

Moving from printing to mask manufacturing has brought challenges for the staff as well.

“It’s been a learning curve!”

Carnell admits. “The machines have come directly from China, so even basic things like getting hold of English instruction manuals has been difficult. We put our engineering teams onto

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GOULD INTERNATIONAL

WE LOVE THE PLANET AS MUCH AS WE LOVE PAPER

Specialising in the supply of print and paper management services.

A Division of

gouldpublicationpapers.co.uk mattp@gouldinternational.co.uk 07795 273517

35

YEARS

of business excellence

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GOULD INTERNATIONAL UK Gould is a partner you can trust to advise on and supply your printing paper requirements on time and at the right price.

We are the UK division of OVOL in Japan, one of the world’s largest paper distributors with 65 offices and distribution centres in 19 countries and sales annually in excess of $5 billion. Whatever your paper needs, web offset, sheetfed, laser or inkjet, we can provide a solution.

WHAT MAKES US DIFFERENT? We are a player in a global team and we can help across the entire lifecycle of the production process from the specification and selection right through to security shredding and waste collection.

We have the knowledge and know how to help you make the right choice, keeping a close eye at all times on the requirements of the job, the environmental impact and the budget to be adhered to.

Our relationships and volume with the paper mills we represent ensure the most competitive prices and we have the experience and skillset to guarantee delivery on time and in full.

We love the planet as much as we love paper and we take the responsibility to our FSC and PEFC certificates very seriously and only work with manufacturers who care for the environment as much as we do.

Please try us out. We’d love to hear from you and we’d love to help.

Matt Pike – 07795 273517, mattp@gouldinternational.co.uk www.gouldinternational.co.uk

K Packaging Ltd Your Personalised Packaging Solutions • South Yorkshire’s largest independently-owned Packaging Company • • 10 years of year-on-year growth • • Over 30,000 sq. ft. of warehousing • • Friendly, efficient and effective • • Helpful, flexible, accommodating and competitive • • Next-day-deliveries available on all stock items • Unit 4D,E,G,H,J,K&L , Cornish Way, Barbot Hall Ind. Estate Rotherham S62 6EG United Kingdom Tel: 01709 377588 Email: info@kpackagingltd.co.uk

www.kpackagingltd.co.uk

CHAPELTON Chapelton have worked with Bluetree Group for a number of years and we have been very impressed with their creativity and forward thinking, which has led to significant growth during this period.

With our large range of materials we have been able to offer Bluetree Group various options, allowing them to offer the best solution to their customers.

Chapelton have been at the forefront of sustainability for many years, whether it is carbon reduction, forestry certified materials, recycled and recyclable substrates or plastic reduction in the print and packaging industry. We offer an unparalleled level of sustainable and innovative products.

We are proud to be a supplier to SUPPLYING THE INDUSTRY’S LEADING BRANDS

With a 10 strong team Chapelton selling 50,000 tonnes per year with a turnover in the region of £10 million, we have all the required accreditations and a state of the art computer system allowing us to provide quick and accurate answers to your questions.

Now into our 35th year we have a significant amount of experience in finding and offering the right solution for the needs of our customers, whether that be in substrate requirement, storage management or logistic support we help to find the material that is most suitable and at the right cost for end use demands.

Committed to providing the best quality products Chapelton have become a one stop shop for all your paper and packaging needs.

Please contact us to discuss your print and packaging requirements. We will be delighted to show you how we provide you with the right material to save you money and help move you towards your sustainability goals.

Contact 01622 882280 sales@chapeltonboard.com www.chapeltonboard.com

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NORTH WEST MANCHESTER T: 0161 872 5666

YORKSHIRE CASTLEFORD T: 0113 887 2199

NORTH EAST & SCOTLAND GATESHEAD T: 0191 487 7130 MIDLANDS BIRMINGHAM T: 0121 333 5947

www.pyramid-display.co.uk E: sales@pyramid-display.co.uk

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KONICA MINOLTA - RETHINK EMBELISHMENT ROUTE 1 PRINT INVESTS IN KONICA MINOLTA’S MGI B1 JETVARNISH 3D EVO 75 “We were incredibly impressed with the capabilities of this machine and the opportunities it offers. With the MGI JETvarnish 3D Evo, we can introduce spot UV on a wider range of products, the option for low and high-build spot UV and foiling. It’s also highly automated, meaning we can set up multiple jobs one after the other, moving from long-run booklets to short-run business cards with ease.

We needed equipment that would speed up production times without sacrificing quality. In fact, the MGI will improve our spot UV quality due to the AIS registration and inline corona treatment. “Working with Konica Minolta has been fantastic. They have given us unrivalled support throughout the entire journey, and we would not hesitate to work with the team in the future.”

Adam Carnell, Managing Director, Route 1 Print WHY KONICA MINOLTA? • Automation was the key to the success, as thousands of orders are processed weekly.

• Various jobs of different sizes could be processed from a single stack of prints, without the need for operator interaction.

• Identification of the printed sheet is done with a unique barcode, inline scanning then matches the embellishment file to the pre-printed sheet.

• The Artificial Intelligent Scanner scans the sheet to be printed and making live print adjustments ensuring for perfect re-registration.

• From order to installation within 6 weeks, allowing for existing capacity issues to be resolved Get In Touch Industrial.Print@konicaminolta.co.uk www.konicaminolta.co.uk/print-embellishment

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BLUETREE GROUP

However, while obviously there has been necessary adaption, there have been surprising synergies at the same time.

“From our operators’ point of view, the fundamentals are similar to the print side of the business,” Carnell points out.

“On the print side, we have a lot of machines set up to run a continuous reel of paper.

The mask machines run a continuous reel of fabric so there are lots of similarities and the cutting mechanisms are virtually identical.”

“FROM OUR OPERATORS’ POINT OF VIEW, THE FUNDAMENTALS ARE SIMILAR TO THE PRINT SIDE OF THE BUSINESS. ON THE PRINT SIDE, WE HAVE A LOT OF MACHINES SET UP TO RUN A CONTINUOUS REEL OF PAPER. THE MASK MACHINES RUN A CONTINUOUS REEL OF FABRIC SO THERE ARE LOTS OF SIMILARITIES AND THE CUTTING MECHANISMS ARE VIRTUALLY IDENTICAL.” BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

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FUTURE OPPORTUNITIES

Looking forward, Carnell sees a wide number of opportunities for this new side of the business, even as the print side picks up again.

“To start with, the idea of us moving into the surgical masks space was because we felt we had huge opportunities to sell retail-ready kits throughout our customer base,” he says. “You can imagine a free-standing display unit, which we can produce inhouse, loaded with masks to go into a retail environment. We thought we’d also be supplying small retailers, a lot who already buy directly from us on the print side. Plans, however, have evolved and we are proud to say that we are now supplying the NHS with our face masks.”

Bluetree Group is already seeing impressive levels of demand.

“If I’m honest, as soon as we

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“FOR THE LONG-TERM, WE SEE THAT THE GOVERNMENT WANT DOMESTIC SUPPLIERS OF THESE PRODUCTS IN SOME CAPACITY, AND A LOT OF BUSINESSES REQUIRE THESE PRODUCTS TO OPERATE. WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE SURE THEY HAVE A REALLY ROBUST SUPPLY CHAIN, WITH A LONG-TERM VISION.” started, we’ve had to rehash and grow and expand our plans every week to meet the level of demand we’re seeing,” says Carnell. “For the long-term, we see that the government want domestic suppliers of these products in some capacity, and a lot of businesses require these products to operate. We will have to make sure they have a really robust supply chain, with a long-term vision.”

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BLUETREE GROUP

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JAMESTOWN PLASTICS

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JAMESTOWN PLASTICS

WHEN THE COVID-19 CRISIS HIT, JAMESTOWN PLASTICS ADJUSTED THEIR WHOLE BUSINESS MODEL TO RESPOND TO IT.

TRUE HEROES PROJECT MANAGED BY: TIMOTHY GARWOOD It’s 61 years since Jamestown Plastics was founded in the small town of Jamestown, New York as a company thermoforming plastic into various end products. Fast-forwarding to today Jamestown Plastics has produced products for everything from medical device packaging, blister packaging, consumer goods packaging, durable components, automotive applications, even heavy-duty durable products.

However, first and foremost it has always been a company driven by innovation.

“W

e have always taken the philosophy that we want to be the goto choice for our customers. We truly believe that with innovation the front-end differentiates us from other folks plying a similar trade,” says Jay Baker, CEO of Jamestown Plastics. “To that end, I and the company own multiple patents in the USA and around the world, with multiple inventions that have become highly commercially viable.

We take a fresh approach to problem-solving. It’s driven our growth and set us apart.”

CHANGING TIMES

Jamestown Plastics created the revolutionary design for the TrueHeroTM face shield.

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While Jamestown Plastics has a strong offering, they’re operating in a challenging and constantly changing market.

“I’d say the largest challenge we have faced over the past several decades has been the shift in the globalisation of procurement. We have had to replace four or five times our number one customer to shift and head in a new direction,”

Baker admits. “In each instance, it was nothing to do with our performance and more to do with the transference of entire industries from the United States to China and offshore procurement. For example, at one time we were the number one packaging source for Fisher-Price toys. Today I do not believe Fisher-Price makes anything in the US anymore. I could go through a list, industry after industry that departed the United States. They simply weren’t there anymore so we had to shift our focus onto what was left and how to make ourselves more unique.”

It’s an environment that has meant Jamestown Plastics has frequently had to be adaptable in its approach.

“Our success has been driven by being very, very, nimble,” Baker says. “If we were not a nimble company that can adapt quicker than everyone else, we wouldn’t be here. We can get from design to tooling packages to production at a high rate of speed.”

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Converter of high performance materials, ADDEV Walco part of ADDEV Materials group has developed a unique combination of technical expertise and know how, especially in the automotive industry. Our IATF certification, quality and service drive have made the company a key link in the value chain to become the partner of choice in strategic markets.

We are converting: • Tapes & adhesives • Foams • Protective films

Die-Cutting

• Papers

• Laminates

Lamination

Perforation

ADDEV Walco Inc. 1651 E Sutter Rd, Glenshaw, PA 15116, USA Email : walco@addevmaterials.com

Skiving

Slitting

Spooling

www.addevmaterials.us

ADDEV WALCO Converter of high-performance materials, ADDEV Materials has developed through strategic acquisitions in North America a unique combination of technical expertise and know-how in a wide range of markets. Our commitment to quality and customer service as well as the ability to react quickly to changes have made the company a key link in the value chain and a partner of choice in strategic markets.

We continuously strive to optimize our high-value-added solutions through materials-converting-service combinations.

ADDEV Walco, part of ADDEV Materials group based in Pittsburgh (USA), has a proven market experience in the automotive industry, represented by an IATF certification and an OEM approach. During these unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic, ADDEV Walco was proactive to automotive industry slowdown by pivoting towards the healthcare and hygiene sectors. We have reallocated a part of our production to create and manufacture protective solutions against the COVID-19 spread. Our successful collaboration with Jamestown Plastics for face shields solutions has proved our ability to be a multi-sector converting actor. Our well-known materials suppliers recognize our technical converting expertise and service: as a 3M™ Preferred Converter, ADDEV Materials is proud to be part of this selective group which certifies an outstanding converting know-how ensuring high-quality standards in converting, business relationship and customer service to the end-customer. Finally, our position of intermediary in the value chain makes us a privileged partner of our customers with a duty to innovate and meet technological, social and environmental challenges.

“OUR SUCCESS HAS BEEN DRIVEN

BY BEING VERY, VERY, NIMBLE. IF WE WERE NOT A NIMBLE COMPANY THAT CAN ADAPT QUICKER THAN EVERYONE ELSE, WE WOULDN’T BE HERE. WE CAN GET FROM DESIGN TO TOOLING PACKAGES TO PRODUCTION AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED.”

www.addevmaterials.us

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JAMESTOWN PLASTICS

Jay Baker CEO, Jamestown Plastics, Inc.

Ultimately, for Baker, it comes down to attitude.

“I have been telling people that are employed at Jamestown Plastics since I’ve been running the show, 30 years, I’m not looking for the ten ways we can’t figure out how to do something, I want to hear how we are going to make it happen,” explains Baker. “If you distil everything down to that core message you build a culture around getting the job done and weed out folks that don’t have that mindset. I’ve many retired military on my staff who understand ‘missioncritical’. For them there’s no such thing as failure, they get the job done and invest in those things that allow you to complete the mission. That’s why we’re investing millions in the tool room and the shop floor to accomplish our missions.”

RESPONDING TO COVID

Of course, in 2020 Jamestown Plastics has found its positive attitudes and adaptability truly put to the test, with

the dawning of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s fair to say they stepped up.

“I think the interesting thing about what we just discussed and COVID-19 is that very philosophy and belief system that my fantastic employees possess is why we’ve been able to launch a new company called True Hero LLC,” Baker explains. “We were approached in March 2020 by health professionals seeking personal protection equipment because there was a dire need. Across the world, there’s a dire need, and we never played in that field because it had become a completely commodity-driven field. That’s why when it came to things like face shields they were coming from the Pacific Rim.” This was clearly a challenge, but Baker also saw it as an opportunity. Importantly, Baker didn’t want to produce the same bog-standard shields he was seeing everywhere else.

“I said, we have the ability to do something here. Let’s not do

Clamtainer applications also include sterilization and anti-microbial packaging.

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TrueHero face shields are packaged and shipped to customers all over the world.

the same thing that’s been done for 80 years. We sat down with a clean sheet of paper- or a clean computer screen, and in a few hours, we had a revolutionary design and I said cut the tool,” Baker explains. “We did it that night and by three o’clock the next day we had the first product in hand. The response was overwhelming, with customers saying that this was the best face shield they’d ever used.

So we went into full production and accomplished that in eight days, and seven days after that we’d shipped 225,000 to the State of Florida. Shortly we’ll have five additional products in that company line, all seeking patent protection.”

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One of the key aspects of Jamestown Plastic’s face shields was that they allowed for communication.

“Unlike face masks, they allow human communication to be as close to what it was prior to COVID, post-COVID, over basically every other solution which is mainly just face masks,” Baker says. “For example, we have whole lines going out to take care of students coming back to school where they need to see their teachers’ faces. Almost 95% of human communication is non-verbal, so the psychological impact of removing that is huge.”

These are strange times, as Baker is the first to admit,

“IT’S BEEN THE BUSIEST TIME IN OUR COMPANY HISTORY.” “Some of our customers that we shipped to were shut down while others in the medical field were going as fast as they could possibly go. It’s been the busiest time in our company history.”

This wasn’t something Jamestown Plastics could achieve alone, and Baker speaks highly of the supply chain partners that made their

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JAMESTOWN PLASTICS

“I THINK THERE’S GOING TO BE FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES, POSTCOVID, IN PEOPLE’S EXPECTATIONS OF LEVELS OF PROTECTION. FOR EXAMPLE IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY, YOU SEE PEOPLE PREPARING YOUR FOOD, THE EXPECTATIONS ABOUT HOW PEOPLE SHOULD BE DRESSED.”

achievements possible. ADDEV Walco supplied the foam insert for the headband as well as the strap that holds the face shields in place.

“They’re an absolutely critical piece of the puzzle. You can’t make butter without milk.

Those supplier relationships we’ve established over the years are absolutely critical,” Baker insists. “Just as much as our dedicated staff, if you don’t have the raw materials and components, nothing’s going to happen. The way we conduct ourselves is we work with our suppliers the way we’d want our customers to deal with us. We’re honest, upright, keeping our commitments, and our supply base really came

through for us. We appreciate what they did under a crazy set of circumstances.”

When we finally get through COVID and things return to normal, that doesn’t mean things will be returning to normal for Jamestown Plastics.

“I think there’s going to be fundamental changes, postCOVID, in people’s expectations of levels of protection. For example in the food industry, you see people preparing your food, the expectations about how people should be dressed,” Baker points out. “There will be fundamental shifts and the product line we’ve developed won’t be a one-time thing.

Volume may drop, but we’re in this for the long run.”

Products are inspected in the Brownsville, Texas cleanroom of Jamestown Plastics.

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KIMAL

WE TALK TO KIMAL ABOUT INNOVATING IN THE HEALTHCARE SECTOR, AND BECOMING CEO OF A MEDICAL DEVICE MANUFACTURER IN THE MIDST OF A GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

A TRIAL BY PANDEMIC PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

Since its inception in 1964, Kimal has always been passionate about improving patient outcomes through innovation.

W

e introduced numerous innovations to the UK, predominantly from the US,” explains Matthew Press, Kimal’s CEO. “Examples include the introduction of central venous catheters (CVC) to the UK and Europe alongside products that revolutionised the field of Cardiology and Dialysis.”

In the early nineties, Kimal switched its focus from being a trusted distribution partner to that of a trusted manufacturer.

“Under my father’s stewardship and then under his successor, Mark Pettitt, we focused on developing our own innovation as well as manufacturing our own products. Our mission today remains to deliver healthcare innovation but now it’s our own innovation,” says Press.

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Kimal’s portfolio today can be separated into two product offerings. Procedural Solutions is the Company’s speciality procedure packs, which are supplied to the NHS and hospitals worldwide, and which contain everything Clinicians require to carry out their procedures in specific clinical fields.

Kimal’s Vascular Access portfolio includes its range of groundbreaking Altius® CVCs, designed in conjunction with Clinicians to improve patient outcomes and minimise risks associated with traditional technology.

“Our USP has been about working with Clinicians and Hospital Trusts to improve patient outcomes, whether that be through product innovation or service levels that help drive clinical efficiencies,” says Press.

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KIMAL

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not an easy thing to do and the processes are very different,” Press tells us.

“The COVID-19 Pandemic has really highlighted what a small business world we’re in but from a regulatory perspective, you don’t see that. Being in one market does not guarantee you international opportunities without a clear regulatory strategy and a suitably skilled team to drive those international opportunities, which now includes the challenge of Brexit.

We have invested significantly in this area and have an excellent team that underpins our strategy both domestically and internationally.”

NEW LEADERSHIP

Matt Press CEO , Kimal Bringing healthcare innovation is not quite like introducing innovation to any other sector though.

Certification and regulation for products used in medical procedures are essential, and when those rules are not standardised around the world it makes it a challenge to introduce a new product.

“If we look at the regulatory landscape within the medical devices world, it’s a regionalised structure. There is no harmonious international regulation so rolling out innovation across the world is

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“OUR USP HAS BEEN ABOUT WORKING WITH CLINICIANS AND HOSPITAL TRUSTS TO IMPROVE PATIENT OUTCOMES, WHETHER THAT BE THROUGH PRODUCT INNOVATION OR SERVICE LEVELS THAT HELP DRIVE CLINICAL EFFICIENCIES.”

These are interesting times in the healthcare sector, and so it is surprising to learn that Press has stepped into the role of CEO of Kimal during this crisis. In a lot of ways, the experience has been a trial by fire for him.

“The Company was run by my grandfather, then my father, and then Mark Pettitt,” Press tells us.

“Having been with the business for four-and-a-half years and working closely with Mark, I have seen the business both pre and post COVID-19. It’s certainly not a normal year to step into the role of CEO but COVID-19 was not on the horizon when the process was started in 2019, and I am extremely lucky that both my father as Chairman and Mark as a Non-Executive Director stay involved with the business whilst I have an extremely strong operating board of Directors to support me.”

“The Pandemic has thrown the rulebook out the window, and there will be learning we need to hardwire into our systems and procedures moving forward. In terms of stepping into the role, it’s made sure I’m fluid and flexible.”

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Going Above & Beyond to Achieve Success

Global Insurance Solutions For peace of mind, you will want to ensure that your business is correctly and comprehensively insured for any eventuality.

Risk Management

Marine Cargo

Public & Products Liability

Company Travel

Cyber

Directors & Officers Liability

Crime

Property & Business Interruption

Speak to an Insurance Adviser Today Call Us On 01923 712434 or Email info@christophertrigg.co.uk christophertrigg.co.uk © Christopher Trigg Ltd 2020 | Christopher Trigg Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority FCA reference number 121488. Christopher Trigg Limited is registered in England and Wales company registration number 1118999. Registered address 1 Norfolk Court, Norfolk Road, Rickmansworth WD3 1LA.

KIMAL

CHRISTOPHER TRIGG GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND INSURANCE COVER When it comes to getting an excellent level of service from an Insurance Broker, you need more than just a quick solution. What you need is an Insurance Broker with a commitment to getting to know you and your business, along with expertise and dedication to further their knowledge in the field.

Insurance Brokers Christopher Trigg are no exception to this rule. Their consistent client satisfaction rates have allowed them to build strong relationships with longstanding clients, some of which have been with the firm for decades.

One of these longstanding clients is international medical company, Kimal.

Kimal are a trusted manufacturer and supplier of specialised procedure packs and vascular access devices, serving a constantly growing number of hospitals across the world.

BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS THAT GROW WITH TIME Just a few years after founding their business in 1972, Christopher Trigg commenced their partnership with Kimal in 1975. Kimal were established 10 years earlier in 1965, and both businesses have grown significantly in the 45 years to follow, aided by a business relationship founded on trust and, incidentally, a mutual love for the same football team!

This enduring business relationship has strengthened further over the generations, withstanding business change and development and ventures into new locations. Kimal were originally founded in Uxbridge, and Christopher Trigg have gone on to insure their premises in Bromsgrove and Worcester, as well as providing global insurance solutions for further afield in Egypt and the Middle East.

PROVIDING GLOBAL INSURANCE SOLUTIONS Over the 45 years they’ve been in partnership, Christopher Trigg’s worldwide network of brokers have provided Kimal with a full insurance programme to suit their global presence, including solutions such as Risk Management Service, Professional Indemnity Insurance, Company Travel Insurance, Marine Cargo Insurance and Motor Fleet Insurance to name a few.

Christopher Trigg are committed to ensuring health and safety is paramount for Kimal’s properties, allowing them to grow and expand as a business. Focusing on stopping claims from happening in the first place has been a priority for the team to ensure a safe environment.

GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND Being able to provide a full solution for Kimal is a result of the Christopher Trigg team’s now extensive level of knowledge in the medical sector, boasting access to a specialist panel of insurers in overseas markets.

Christopher Trigg’s team have been dedicated to Kimal’s business success since the beginning, continually holding regular meetings and reviews, ensuring there are no gaps in cover. Not only this, but the business’s strong professional partnership has developed into a solid friendship, with both teams enjoying combined trips abroad and frequent team meet ups.

When it comes to a comprehensive insurance solution, your business needs a partner that’s committed to your success. Christopher Trigg go above and beyond simply providing a solution – not only do they offer a huge range of specialist services, but they also thrive on building meaningful and enduring business relationships that stand the test of time.

Talk to a member of the team by calling 01923 712434 or emailing info@christophertrigg.co.uk today.

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Kimal ships to over 70 countries worldwide.

SUPPORTING THE NHS

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, Kimal saw demand for its core products decrease significantly following the cancellation of routine procedures whilst the NHS worked tirelessly to tackle the pandemic. However, the Company saw a huge demand for its critical care products including its CVCs, to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients.

This, on the one hand, was a financial offset for Kimal against the impact on its core business, however, everyone within the Company could not fail to appreciate the seriousness of the situations these are used in.

Kimal was also able to leverage its experience and international supply chain to design and manufacture a purpose-built procedure pack for the NHS Nightingale facility in London.

“Whilst our packs are used in hospitals around the world,

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Kimal manufactures for a range of specialities including Cardiology, Radiology, Pacing, Laparoscopy, Orthopaedics, Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Cardiac surgery, Dialysis, and Critical Care.

Kimal invested £3 million in the Company’s new 140sq ft facility, to achieve its ambitious strategic objectives over the next 5 years.

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it felt morally right to pivot our efforts to help in the fight that’s right on our doorstep, here in the UK,” says Press. “So, at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we made the decision to commit 100% of one of our manufacturing facilities and a significant proportion of the other facility into producing products for the NHS in their fight against COVID-19. From manufacturing to logistics, our team has worked tirelessly to meet the urgent needs of the NHS,” says Press.

For Kimal though, the focus has not been solely on manufacturing the Company’s own products to help during this unprecedented time. The Kimal team was approached by Shield Aerosol Protection who required a manufacturing and logistics partner for their innovative disposable AerosolShield™ Miniature Isolation Tent. Kimal

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naturally offered its support, utilising its UK manufacturing facility to help meet the urgent requirements for this product, and providing a faster route to saving lives.

“Everything that we have been able to achieve during the COVID-19 Pandemic would not have been possible without the dedication of our employees across all departments who share a combined passion and understanding of the difference our products make,” says Press.

“The short-term plan is supporting healthcare systems in their return to normality. For the long-term we are looking at continued international growth,” Press says. “Therefore, a core focus for us is continuing to support the UK market and continued expansion within Kimal’s innovative range of Altius® central venous catheters are designed to minimise patient risk.

Kimal saw the first 1,000 purposebuilt Nightingale procedure packs manufactured, sterilised and despatched to the field hospital at the London ExCel from Bromsgrove, Worcestershire.

“WE MADE THE DECISION TO COMMIT 100% OF ONE OF OUR MANUFACTURING FACILITIES AND A SIGNIFICANT PROPORTION OF THE OTHER FACILITY INTO PRODUCING PRODUCTS FOR THE NHS IN THEIR FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19.”

Europe, as well as taking our innovative catheter range to a wider international audience; with all of this under the clear vision of delivering healthcare innovation for the improvement of patient care.”

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NICKEL MINES LTD

WE LEARN HOW NICKEL MINES’ UNCONVENTIONAL APPROACH HAS LED TO THEM BECOMING ONE OF THE MAJOR NICKEL PIG IRON PRODUCERS IN THE WORLD.

A NICKEL FOR YOUR THOUGHTS PROJECT MANAGED BY: NEIL STOWE

Nickel Mines Limited is an Australian listed public company that has emerged as a globally significant, low-cost producer of nickel pig iron, a key ingredient in the production of stainless steel. The company holds 80% interests in the Hengjaya Nickel and Ranger Nickel projects, which both operate two-line Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (‘RKEF’) plants that produce NPI within the Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (ÍMIP’) in Indonesia. The company also holds an 80% interest in the Hengjaya Mineralindo Nickel Mine, a large tonnage, high-grade laterite deposit located only 12 kilometres from IMIP.

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NICKEL MINES LTD

I

ndeed, you might be surprised to discover whilst the name Nickel Mines would lead you to believe it is a mining company, it is predominantly a Nickel processing and refining company where it captures a majority of its value.

“Nickel Mines is emerging as one of the world’s largest listed pure producer of low-cost nickel,” explains Justin Werner, the Managing Director of Nickel Mines. “We started our journey in Indonesia more than ten years ago when we identified a w orldclass Nickel asset the Hengjaya mine, we took the mine all the way from the initial application, exploration, feasibility and into production shipping ore to China and a vessel to Japan, at the time the margins were very good.

MOVING DOWNSTREAM

It was clear the company was onto a good thing, but changes in Indonesia law would soon force Nickel Mines to reassess their business model.

“In 2014 the Government implemented a full ban on the export of raw ore to encourage more downstream processing.

It was a difficult time for us as we’d only just got the mine into production, and suddenly we didn’t have a business any more” explains Werner.

Once the export ban was enacted, Nickel Mines suspended mining operations and began to explore in-country beneficiation options. While the ban had been enforced to encourage a downstream processing industry in Indonesia so the country could benefit from its wealth, the company and many other miners did not have the resources or experience to build value-adding processing.

However, serendipitously the world’s largest stainlesssteel producer Tsingshan who recognised the opportunities

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for in-country value-adding had already commenced construction of the IMIP in 2013 even before the ore ban was implemented.

“When the first furnace lines came online and required nickel ore to make stainless steel, we were able to restart our mining and became an ore supplier to the industrial park,” Werner recalls.

By September 2017 this partnership had evolved to the point where Nickel Mines executed a Collaboration and Subscription Agreement with Tsingshan. This strategic partnership would see Nickel Mines and Tsingshan work together to fund and construct two RKEF lines under the title of the ‘Hengjaya Nickel Project’, which would produce 150 kilotons per annum of nickel pig iron containing 15 kilotons of nickel-metal equivalent.

A UNIQUE PROPOSITION

Today, Nickel Mines is in a strong position.

“In August 2018 we went out to raise 120 million Australian dollars for our IPO, the story was so well received we upscaled it to $200 million making it the second-largest resources IPO in recent years. I am also happy to say that since that IPO, as of yesterday we closed an accelerated non-renounceable entitlement offer to move to 80% ownership of all RKEF assets which will see us looking at an annual production rate for Nickel Mines of 30,000+ tonnes of Nickel per year achieved in under 2 years from IPO. For Werner, Nickel Mines Ltd.’s unique advantage is that ultimately, they are not a mining company, allowing them a degree of flexibility they otherwise wouldn’t have.

“What makes us unique is we’re not a mining company. We have a unique value proposition because unlike mining companies we are a processing and refining company,” Werner points out. “We can source our

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NICKEL MINES LTD

“NICKEL MINES IS EMERGING AS THE WORLD’S LARGEST LISTED PRODUCER OF LOW-COST NICKEL.” Established in 1998 with over a hundred of projects experience, Maintek Group is a full service general contracting and construction management Company that offers a wide variety of pre-construction to construction services especially in remote area. Offers turnkey project with a wider range of professional services for Pre-fabricated buildings, Thermal Imagery and Flooring.

PT. MAINTEK CONTRACTING SERVICES Ruko Tekno Boulevard Blok I No 15, Jl. Tekno Widya, Tangerang Selatan, 15314 Banten, Indonesia Tel: +62 21 2917 9413 Mob: +62 812 876 9820 Email: heriyanto@maintekgroup.com

www.maintekgroup.com

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ore from anywhere, our mine doesn’t specifically have to be the source for that.”

Nickel Mines also benefits from a number of legislative and financial advantages.

“We have a seven-year tax holiday with the government of Indonesia,” Werner points out. “Nickel pig iron producers in China want access to highgrade ore which we have access to. Our cost base is stable, we don’t see a lot of fluctuation and our NPI is much cheaper to produce than for Chinese producers.”

Its close relationship with Tsingshan also allowed Nickel Mines to get ahead of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

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NICKEL MINES LTD

“Because the Chinese were the first to experience COVID, the experiences they drew from in China meant they were very proactive at the industrial park,” Werner says. “Way back in January they already started to implement strict access controls. We’ve yet to see a single COVID case within the park, which is quite an accomplishment as the park employs 36,000 people,” Of course, Nickel Mines unique business model brings challenges as well as opportunities.

“We’re not a mining company.

We do not have that geological complexity. We have a large pool of suppliers and they have nowhere else to sell the ore because of the ore ban,” Werner acknowledges. “The

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nickel price is a commodity risk that’s always present. There is also a geopolitical risk, but the tax concessions speak to the commitment of the Indonesian Government.

The dialogue at the top levels is important.

We’re very well placed to deal with challenges as they arise particularly with the industrial park which has been named as of strategic national importance.”

Overcoming these challenges is allowing Nickel Mines to offer a unique value proposition.

In a little under two years from IPO we have rapidly grown from zero Nickel production to anticipated annual production of 34,000 tons this financial year,” Werner points out. “We believe we have very good near-term future growth opportunities

to acquire some of the worlds cheapest and most profitable nickel units and we have a very strong relationship with our Chinese and Indonesian partners and a very strong bluechip shareholder registry.

“IN A LITTLE UNDER TWO YEARS FROM IPO WE HAVE RAPIDLY GROWN FROM ZERO NICKEL PRODUCTION TO ANTICIPATED ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF 34,000 TONS THIS FINANCIAL YEAR.”

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

THE NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY HAS TAKEN ON SOME HUGE PROJECTS, BUT THEIR GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT MIGHT BE GETTING THEIR PEOPLE, AND THEIR BUSINESS, SAFELY THROUGH THE COVID PANDEMIC.

DREDGED FOR SUCCESS PROJECT MANAGED BY: GLEN NEWTON

The National Marine Dredging Company was founded under Emiri Law No. 10, issued by the UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. It went on to become a public joint-stock company in 1986, with an approximate 45% shareholding, and the rest of its shares divided between the Government of Abu Dhabi and various local organisations. Since its inception, the NMDC has been instrumental in the economical, infrastructural, financial, communal and societal development of Abu Dhabi.

I

f we look at NMDC now, it is one of the top dredging companies on the globe,” points out Yasser Nasr Zaghloul, the CEO of NMDC. “We’re unique. We offer complete solutions on a partnership basis. We respect our clients

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absolutely and we intend to maintain and sustain our clients.

We believe partnership is an essential success factor for sustainability, keeping clients happy, keeping their trust, and keeping ourselves at the top of their lists.”

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People, Power, Passion to build on

The Belgian Aertssen Group counts over 50 years of experience in Earthworks, Heavy Lifting and Heavy Transport. A family business grew out to one of the largest and most acknowledged contractors in Europe. With an outstanding portfolio of expertise and passion, the Aertssen Group extends its territory to the MENA region. Aertssen Machinery Services, Ltd. (AMS), with HQ in Abu Dhabi, is the well-established Middle Eastern division, specialized in horizontal and vertical heavy lifting and heavy transport.

AMS owns a large and young fleet of equipment, consisting of telescopic mobile and crawler cranes, lattice boom crawler cranes, mobile tower cranes and SPMT’s (Self Propelled Modular Trailers).

Aertssen Machinery Services PEOPLE, POWER, PASSION TO BUILD ON

ICAD III - Plot. 88NR36 - PO. Box 40196 Abu Dhabi, UAE T +971 2 555 4976 | F +971 2 555 4965 E: info.ae@aertssen.be | www.aertssen.ae

Operating in the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates for nearly 42 years, Stevin Rock is one of the largest quarrying companies in the world with a total production capacity with sister company RAK Rock of over 80 million tonnes per year of high quality limestone, dolomite and gabbro for the construction, cement, steel, chemical, glass and mining industries and with total reserves of over 4.5 billion tonnes.

Stevin Rock is proud to be the partner of NMDC in the supply of core and armour rocks for ADNOC’s Ghasha Artificial Islands in Abu Dhabi.

Contact us: stevin@emirates.net.ae +971 7 258 8666

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Follow us:

www.stevinrock.ae

“IF WE LOOK AT NMDC NOW, IT IS ONE OF THE TOP DREDGING COMPANIES ON THE GLOBE.” TAKING ON THE BIG PROJECTS

Of course, NMDC did not start at the top of everyone’s lists. It is a position they have earned by taking on the big projects.

“If you look at NMDC turning points, we started our biggest one in 2009 when we decided to have a commission and participate in one of the biggest seven marine projects at that time,” Zaghloul remembers.

“It was the most difficult and complicated project we’d taken on yet, and it involved working on a live oil field. We participated there, with huge challenges. At that time, we were not a top contender yet and it was a top tier project. But our success there gave us a strong foundation, allowing us to grow.”

Getting to that point was not easy however, NMDC faced huge challenges with that project.

“Almost daily reports were going to the President of Egypt, so you can imagine how stressful that was,” Zaghloul says. “We dredged 200 million cubic metres for nine months.

During that time, we sometimes dredged over 1 million cubic metres a day, so any mistake on that project and there would have been no way to deliver it. But it was very successful, leading us to be on the top list of our industry leaders.”

In remembering how NMDC achieved this, Zaghloul has no doubt who to thank.

“Our main success factor was people, it was a great effort from the NMDC team, with proper

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

planning updated weekly and monthly for risk assessment,” he says. “As human beings, we are more or less the same, but the success of the team is in how you manage them. If you get the right staff, you give them the trust, it gets them involved.”

While management is important, Zaghloul also tells us that NMDC’s reputation has proved to be a magnet for talent.

“When you have a good name on the market you will find the best staff. If you make sure that you have the right rewards and motivation for your team you will have the best staff,” he says.

“Once we finish a project, we spread the knowledge from the project team by moving people around, putting them on other people’s projects, creating the right environment for the company. So, if you have the proper environment for that, if you reward them in the right way with permanent employment, once they see the backlog of NMDC is sustainable, you can offer them a stable personal life, you will get their loyalty.”

PROTECTING THEIR PEOPLE AND BUSINESS

This year, however, NMDC is facing new challenges in the form of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From the very beginning, NMDC took a proactive approach to combat the virus.

“On hearing about COVID-19 we had two main objectivesnot only business continuity but caring about people,” Zaghloul says. “We believe the human being is our main asset, all the business around us is to create money, but for what? For people! People are much more important for the business, so they are the end goal for me.

You can’t just ignore the people because you have a successful business.”

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Once NMDC had identified these challenges and did their risk assessment their found two things.

“The first was about the health of our team, how stressful our team’s lives are working in these environments, offshore, not sitting at home like corporate staff, so this is important to care about,” Zaghloul says. “The other thing is we heard a lot of noise from the clients, so our first response was to care about our people, health checks, development, our crisis management team.

We had 24/7 communication with our team, our people, creating communication channels that are very quick and making sure that in no time you can be in contact with people updating them about what’s happening and how they deal with COVID-19.”

Very quickly NMDC started establishing how it would respond to potential scenarios following the pandemic.

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“Regarding business continuity- it was very important to make sure our company is resilient. The problem mainly would be the cost, so we made sure we had a quick response from the business if anything happened, lockdown, no jobs, anything. How quickly can we respond? How quickly can we make sure of our cash flow and our business community?”

Zaghloul asks. “The executive committee for the company made two or three times a week updates to make sure that we have a quick response and a proper action plan in case of outside circumstances coming to the company. We aimed for a quick, yet studied response with an assessment of any risks, and to be proactive through all of that.”

Indeed, NMDC is already looking forward to a time beyond COVID. “The future of NMDC is that we will recognise challenges as opportunities,” Zaghloul

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NATIONAL MARINE DREDGING COMPANY

“THE FUTURE OF NMDC IS THAT WE WILL RECOGNISE CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES. EVERYONE IS FOCUSING NOW ON HOW TO SURVIVE, BUT WE’RE FOCUSING NOT JUST ON HOW TO SURVIVE BUT HOW TO UTILISE THESE CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES.”

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says. “Everyone is focusing now on how to survive, but we’re focusing not just on how to survive but how to utilise these challenges as opportunities. We have a focused, clear expansion plan, and during this difficult period, to future expansion and growth. I can say we are rising to those challenges now.”

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RED SEA GATEWAY TERMINAL

WE LEARN HOW THE RED SEA GATEWAY TERMINAL IS ADAPTING TO MEET THE CHALLENGES OF THE NEXT CENTURY.

A GATEWAY TO OPPORTUNITY PROJECT MANAGED BY: GLEN NEWTON

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RED SEA GATEWAY TERMINAL

Since Red Sea Gateway Terminal began operations over a decade ago, the company has grown into the largest terminal operator in Saudi Arabia, as well as one of the fastest-growing logistics service providers in the Middle East Region. But Red Sea Gateway Terminal has even bigger plans for the future.

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W

e are expanding the scale of our operations to include the adjacent Northern Container Terminal.

The proposed infrastructure investment is to be part of a comprehensive plan for upgrading and adding berth capacity, while modernizing the terminal yard and support facilities, with the latest in leading-edge technology and software,” explains Jens Floe, CEO of Red Sea Gateway Terminal. “The new concession is a key component in the

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ZAHID GROUP Headquartered in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Zahid Group has successfully evolved over the course of the last century from its origins as a modest trading concern to become a multi-national organization encompassing a diverse portfolio of companies operating across 11 sectors.

Present in more than 28 countries, Zahid Group’s strength starts from within. With over 5,000 employees; diversity, inclusion and competence are inherent in the Group’s culture. Zahid Group delivers excellence to customers by developing vibrant, diverse and talented women and men across the Kingdom and the globe.

The Group’s success is built on long-standing partnerships, associations with globally renowned brands and its adherence to the highest levels of professionalism and operating standards. Zahid Group companies represent more than 45 internationally renowned brands, with many of these partnerships being in place for more than five decades.

Zahid Group’s investment reach spans the globe. This network is underpinned by a portfolio of wholly owned and partially held investments. The Group continuously identifies new opportunities that further its objectives of achieving sustainable growth and diversification.

Zahid Group’s business philosophy and core values shape the way every Group company does business. The Group’s ethos is to provide excellence in customer solutions through a highly motivated workforce in partnership with leading global quality suppliers. The Group’s vision is to ensure continued leadership through increased diversification and growth while accelerating improvement in customer care and workforce competence levels.

Each of the Group’s 5,000+ employees conduct themselves in accordance to seven

shared values: Integrity, Professionalism, Competence, Respect & Tolerance, Trust, Pride and Excellence.

Across the 11 categories within which Zahid Group companies operate, the Group is praised for its customer-centric approach to business. Whether it is a Group company’s ability to professionally service the heavy machinery needs of a customer in the most remote areas of the Kingdom, or another Group company’s second-to-none commitment to guiding private and public sector entities across the globe in the installation, operation and maintenance of renewable energy solutions; Zahid Group companies act with professionalism and rise to each and every challenge in order to deliver ahead of schedule and beyond expectations.

As they say, ‘Home is Where the Heart is’. Zahid Group takes great pride in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious plan to become a diversified investment powerhouse linking three continents. The Group is committed to playing its role in the realization of Vision2030 through the development and nurturing of the Kingdom’s most important resource, its youth, as well as ensuring to operate its businesses in accordance with best-in-class standards promoting the Kingdom as a place where the people are committed and businesses excel.

The Zahid Learning Institute is dedicated to setting the standards in education, development and quality control. The Institute helps develop the careers of hundreds of Saudi Arabian women and men every year. The Institute works closely with many of the Kingdom’s leading universities to educate, counsel and guide the Kingdom’s youth towards tomorrow.

At Zahid Group, we start with Integrity and end with Excellence.

www.zahid.com

INTRODUCTION: Established in 1994, HAAPCOL services have steadily grown establishing itself today as a technical equipment and services provider in the field of Asbestos handling, Telecommunication, MEP engineering, Civil, Concrete and NDT Accessories.

An ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System Certified Company. HAAPCOL consists of two major operating segments: Trading and Contracting services.

ASBESTOS ABATEMENT: HAAPCOL specializes in providing a comprehensive range of asbestos services, which include survey, removal, and disposal of the hazardous substance. This involves establishment of asbestos management programs, to locate and remove the existing asbestos containing materials and to replace them with non-asbestos materials. HAAPCOL is approved by Saudi Aramco and holds PME license to carry out Asbestos Abatement Services.

Our Major Clients include, DCNS (Jeddah), THALES (Jeddah) and BAE Systems (KSA).

TELECOMMUNICATION: Drive Test, Post Processing and Optimization: HAAPCOL & its associates provide Cellular Network RF Drive Test, Analysis and Optimization services to various multinational telecom vendors, such as Alcatel Lucent, Huawei, and ZTE etc., well established in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We provide services for 2G, 3G, LTE & 5G networks of the three service providers, STC, Mobily, and Zain KSA. RF Optimization: HAAPCOL offers RF Optimization Services for existing/new GSM, WCDMA, and LTE network operators. This service is performed as a continuous RF engineering activity for preventive maintenance. It ensures optimum network performance to meet the Quality of Service (QoS) targets of the customer.

TRADING: HAAPCOL is an official distributor of Aerosols of SILICONI an Italian brand for Aerosols and Industrial Chemicals. Other Products include all kinds of PWHT (Post Weld Heat Treatment) equipment and materials. HAAPCOL aims to provide their clients the best quality products as per their demand.

Contracting • Telecommunications • Asbestos Abatement & Disposal • HVAC Services & MEP Services • Backfilling & Excavation • Mechanical Electrical and Plumbing Services • Welding, Fabrication & Machine Shop for Industrial & Commercial Manufacturing Services • FOC Testing, Splicing installation & termination

Landline: +966 13 802 1567 Fax: +966 13 898 1466 Email: sales@alhoty.com

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Trading • Siliconi Aerosol Sprays • PWHT material • Chemical Equipment & Components • Nuclear Density Gauge • Telecom Equipment with Active & Passive Components • NDT X-Ray Radiographic Films

P.O. 1028, Al Khobar 31952 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

www.alhoty.com

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RED SEA GATEWAY TERMINAL

ongoing development of Jeddah Islamic Port as the strategic gateway to Saudi Arabia, and the preferred hub for the Red Sea and East Africa, and as an increasingly important link in the global logistics chain. Our goal is to assure that RSGT’s expanded and modernized port facilities will emerge as an even more powerful catalyst for new economic development in Saudi Arabia, and the Red Sea region, and as a launching pad for our own international growth as a terminal operating company.”

The continued growth and development are the cornerstone of Red Sea Gateway Terminal’s identity, with their advanced technology and modern infrastructure allowing the terminal to accommodate the largest vessels currently in the global containership fleet.

These hardware and software capabilities are matched by a world-class professional workforce that distinguishes the Red Sea Gateway Terminal in the region.

“RSGT is an international terminal operator representing a partnership between the Red Sea Gateway Terminal of Saudi Arabia and the Malaysian Mining Company (MMC),” Floe tells us.

“The combined assets, handling capacity and experience place the terminal operations among the ten largest container terminal operators globally, with a combined annual handling capacity of 20 million TEUs, and equity-weighted throughput of over 10 million TEUs. At present, with an annual container throughput capacity of 5.2 million TEUs, RSGT is providing world-class integrated logistics solutions in one of the world’s 40 busiest container ports, serving as an engine of growth for both local and regional economies.”

Indeed, Red Sea Gateway is the only terminal in the Port

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of Jeddah with the capacity to accommodate Ultra-Large Container Ships (ULCS) of 20,000 TEU capacity. and larger.

On June 11th this year, RSGT welcomed the Maersk Hamburg, which, with a draft of 16.4 meters, was the deepest draft vessel ever to call the Port of Jeddah.

READY FOR ANYTHING

Of course, providing facilities and services of the quality and scale that RSGT offers, doesn’t come without its challenges.

“A major challenge for terminal operating companies such as RSGT being able to anticipate, and invest in, the port infrastructure which will be required ahead, as more UltraLarge Container Ships enter into the global fleet,” Floe says.

“This past April, Korean-based Hyundai Merchant Marine, one of the world’s major container ship lines, announced the introduction of the 24,000 TEU capacity HMM Algeciras, the new record-holder as the world’s largest container ship.

The Algeciras is the first of 12 of the 24,000 TEU capacity class vessels scheduled for delivery through September. Vessels of this category are generally deployed in the Far East/Europe trade lane, transiting the Red Sea, and the Suez Canal. ULCS represent a growing proportion of the global container ship fleet, and terminal operators must be ready to meet the operational challenges that vessels of this size represent.”

To stay ahead of these challenges, RSGT must be constantly looking towards the future.

“Through foresight, since inception a decade ago, and an ambitious and ongoing infrastructure investment program, RSGT is the only container terminal at the Port of Jeddah with the STS crane

Jens O. Floe CEO, RSGT size, depth alongside, and quay length to accommodate vessels of 20,000 TEU capacity and above,” Floe tells us.

“Our current expansion and investment plans will solidify this position, and enable RSGT to handle ULCS vessel direct calls as the premier gateway to Saudi Arabia, and the Red Sea region, as international trade and our role in the global logistics chain continues to expand.”

INVESTING IN PEOPLE

Of course, these efforts are only possible thanks to RSGT’s team of over 1,400 employees. The professionalism and dedication of those employees are one of Red Sea Gateway Terminal’s greatest assets, and one the company continually invests in.

“The core principles of RSGT’s Human Resources philosophy include comprehensive employee training; providing support for working mothers and their children, and employee family medical insurance programs,” explains Floe. “Other HR programs provide opportunities for employee recreational activities,

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RED SEA GATEWAY TERMINAL

“CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, BEYOND OUR DEDICATION TO OUR EMPLOYEES, IS AT THE CORE OF RSGT’S BUSINESS PHILOSOPHY.” and incentives for ongoing training and advancement, in addition to other employee benefits.

Our professional workforce is our most important asset, and we treat them as such.”

How much Red Sea Gateway Terminal values its employees was clear when the COVID-19 crisis hit, although RSGT has been fortunate not to be hit too hard by the ramifications of the pandemic.

“We have accelerated our transition from face-to-face handling of paperwork to digital transmission, enabling our customers to access services such as Real-Time Container Status, Invoice Generation, Prepickup Tickets, Return Depot Details, Custom Seal Number Details, and Vessel Schedule remotely 24/7, to save time and contribute to reducing operational cost and decrease container port stay time,” Floe

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says proudly. “We continue to play a vital role in keeping the food, medicine, and other essential supplies flowing to Saudi Arabia and region. Other safety procedures have been put into place to assure the health and safety of all of our employees, on the quay, and in the offices.”

As well as playing a vital role in logistics infrastructure, and taking good care of their own people, Red Sea Gateway also takes its other social responsibilities seriously.

“Corporate Social Responsibility, beyond our dedication to our employees, is at the core of RSGT’s business philosophy. A company-wide commitment to the principles of CSR is one of the pillars of our strategic planning process and implementation,” Floe says. “RSGT fully considers and respects the interests of all of our

partners, employees, customers and other stakeholders in the local community, and beyond, as we continue to expand our operations and our business presence regionally, and internationally. Our business model incorporates programs and activities to promote and support social, cultural and economic development in every market in which we operate.

This is a philosophy to which we are very dedicated, and of which we are very proud.”

One of the ways Red Sea Gateway Terminal is going to contribute to the region is through its support of the Saudi Arabian government’s Saudi Vision 2030 goals.

“The transportation sector is one of the key components of the Saudi Vision 2030 goals. As Saudi Arabia’s most important logistics gateway at the Kingdom’s largest port, RSGT is therefore at the forefront in the National effort to help build Saudi Arabia’s future,” Floe points out.

RSGT’s participation, however, goes beyond its role in shipping and logistics, as Floe tells us, “In collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, RSGT has invested approximately $800,000 over the past three years in developing, and planting, and monitoring over 1,500 segments of artificial coral reef on the floor of the Red Sea, north of the Port of Jeddah.”

Designed to simulate the existing coral reefs found in the Red Sea, home to the world’s longest reef eco-system.

Floe explains, “Aquatic life, including key local fish populations and their supporting eco-systems dependent upon the coral reef environment, is a key element of the Saudi Governments Vision 2030 program.”

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SOGESTER CONTAINER TERMINAL

WE LEARN HOW SOGESTER IS BEING DEVELOPED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF MODERN PORT-USERS.

FIRST PORT OF CALL PROJECT MANAGED BY: JOHN HOLLIMAN

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SOGESTER CONTAINER TERMINAL

Sogester, or Sociedade Gestora de Terminais S.A., is a joint venture between APM Terminals, who owns 51% of the share capital, and the Gestor de Fundos of Angola. Sogester is one of two container terminals operating from Port of Luanda.

I

n 2007 Gestor de Fundos and APM Terminals created this joint venture to run the terminal for a 20 years concession with an option to extend for five years more,” explains Managing Director Frans Jol. When the joint venture took over the concession, there was already a great deal of work to do.

“During those days delays in vessel operation were up to 26 days and every day at least 30 vessels were waiting,” Jol

recalls.

“Productivity was below three moves per hour on vessels cranes, there was no infrastructure, no nothing.”

Sogester stepped in to provide services at the level of loading, unloading and storage of containers. The business has become an influential part of the infrastructure connecting Angola to the global logistics chain.

“Today we offer a professionally operated container terminal with the largest mobile harbour crane in APMT worldwide and the largest in Africa,” says Jol. “New Liebherr 800 crane can handle vessels up to 23 rows

Frans Jol Managing Director Sogester

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• Project Finance • Procurement / Consulting / Projects • Civil Construction & Public Works • Condominium Maintenance & Management

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CICCI ANGOLA LDA When Sogester decided to upgrade its radio communication system in the Container Terminal in Luanda and the inland container depot (ICD) in Panguila, they chose the HYETRA Brand and Tetra technology, supplied by CICCI ANGOLA Lda. This corporation between 2 local companies continued with the installation of an HYTERA radio communication system in Sogester Terminal in Namibe.

CICCI ANGOLA has been a local partner of Sogester in other fields, providing specialised vehicles such as Fire truck, Workshop Van and Ambulance. We have also interacted with Sogester in imports and logistics solutions. When Sogester looked for supplies to its Social Responsibility Programs, CICCI ANGOLA was an obvious choice.

CICCI ANGOLA has been operating in decades in Angola in the fields of Radio Communication, Health and Agriculture, representing leading international manufacturers and operating through nominated distributors or in a direct relationship with public and private institutions. Our sister company CICCI ApS, situated in Denmark, provide crucial support in questions of procurement, logistics and finances to our operations in a local market, that at times offer serious operational challenges related to for example foreign currency. The ability as a local company to overcome challenges that might delay operations does matter to Companies like Sogester.

CICCI ANGOLA LDA has the experience and the product portfolio to assist local and international companies operating in Angola within Security, Logistics, Mining, Infrastructure etc.

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SOGESTER CONTAINER TERMINAL

outreach, or 19.000 TEUs, subject to the draft. During 13 years of operations, we have had no fatal accidents or major accidents.”

Since taking over the concession, Sogester has transformed the terminal into a completely modern facility.

“All operations are carried out under fully computerised systems, with payments and cargo release being carried out via electronic solutions including customs and banks,” Jol says.

“TODAY WE OFFER A PROFESSIONALLY OPERATED CONTAINER TERMINAL WITH THE LARGEST MOBILE HARBOUR CRANE IN APMT WORLDWIDE AND THE LARGEST IN AFRICA.” AN AMBITIOUS DEVELOPMENT

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This has been achieved through a lengthy investment process over 25-30 million Euros over the last two and a half years, and those investments are continuing today through infrastructure upgrades across Sogester Luanda and Namibe. These investments are made with the customer in mind, ensuring the ability to continue serving them efficiently. Last year Sogester Luanda introduced new equipment and infrastructure valued at $25 Million.

“During the past two and a half years we have installed the largest MHC Liebherr 800 crane and refurbishing all other seven cranes step-by-step, as well as six new reach stackers Liebherr, eight new terminal chassis Houcon, and eight new spreaders for twin lift full operation from RAM,” explains Jol. This crane is the first in

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SOGESTER CONTAINER TERMINAL

any African port, ensuring operational efficiency and benefits to all shipping lines calling at Sogester’s ports.

There was also been a major upgrade to Luanda’s Information Technology.

“We installed new network equipment, digital radio system and a complete upgrade of IT systems in Sogester,” Jol tells us. “We started maintenance works in the terminal, including buildings, gates, maintenance building, washing facilities for driving equipment and unique washing area for the large mobile harbour cranes.”

Throughout the Luanda upgrade, the cornerstone of Sogester’s operations has been safety, that is why for over 13 years there have been exactly zero fatal or large accidents.

Together with a new CCTV system in place which has a full coverage of the terminal area, Sogester continues to provide high levels of safety and security for its employees and customers.

These safety precautions are extended to Namibe, the thirdlargest port in Angola as well as the only gateway to the South of Angola, there were extensive infrastructure upgrades in 2019 centred around granite exports.

Namibe has already seen the installation of a new Solvo operations system and financial IFS-10, which will also be live on September 1st 2020.

Today Sogester terminal is 800 metres in length with a new yard and stacking areas, refurbished equipment and has undergone a complete maintenance and cleaning period during the last two and a half years.

While COVID-19 has delayed matters, this year will also see the installation and operation of a new loading machine to load 20+ ton granite blocks

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into containers. It will be fully automated and the complete operation will take less than 15 minutes per container.

These upgrades have partially been a response to the changes in vessel size in Luanda from a range of up to 4,000 TEU to 11.889 TEU vessels.

“In our neighbouring terminals, we were seeing waiting times of six to twelve hours to pick up containers from the terminal and regular vessel delays,” Jol says.

“We had to be better.”

Jol continues, “Angola has old port structure, no electricity, water or railways in the port area. This all needed to be upgraded, one by one.”

REBUILDING A COUNTRY

Of course, upgrades of this scale are not achieved easily, and Jol is the first to say there have been challenges along the way.

“In the past, it was acquiring people with the knowledge we needed,” he says. “This was solved by bringing in up to 36 ex-pats to run the port.

Currently, we only have three ex-pats. The rest of our staff are trained local managers and the workforce.”

As well as human resources, there have also been other challenges, not just for Sogester, but the Angolan economy as a whole.

“Currency and FX payments have been and remain huge problems,” Jol admits. “Angola only imports cargo in Luanda, which means everything must come from outside the country.

After the golden years when it was noticed that Luanda was the most expensive country in the world for years for ex-pats, the situation has changed and to get permission to pay outside

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SOGESTER CONTAINER TERMINAL

from the central bank is more and more complicated. There is no active real Masterplan by the government. This slows down all development. With new ministers coming in who are younger and studied outside Angola there is a hope that the President will bring a change in the current policy. Angola has oil, diamonds, gold, cobalt and granite, fish and bananas and before the war, the country was the biggest exporter for coffee. this has to be rebuilt but steps are set to do in the coming years.”

Talking to Jol it is clear he believes Sogester can play an important part in that rebuilding.

He is proud of the role Sogester has played in the country through its social responsibility schemes. Today the company has five major ongoing CSR projects. These projects include a school

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in Panguila, Luanda, where Sogester helped convert a 25 children school to a school with capacity for over 800 students, including training on hygiene and computer classes, an orphanage where Sogester provided clean water, toilets and a connected school, and hospital projects where Sogester has built rooms for families, doctors and patients, a pharmacy, kitchen. Sogester also supplied the hospital with all the equipment it needed for brain operations, making it the only hospital in Angola with that capability. Sogester has achieved these projects with sponsors such as Liebherr, Solvo, Ram, Aqua Del Sul, and ICC. Through the important work Sogester is doing, and the CSR projects that work informs, the future of Angola is looking brighter all the time.

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TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS

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TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS

WE LEARN HOW A DIVERSE PORTFOLIO AND PLENTY OF INNOVATION ARE ALLOWING TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS TO SAIL TURBULENT WATERS.

PROPELLED TOWARDS SUCCESS

PROJECT MANAGED BY: DAVID GARNER

Teignbridge Propellers is Europe’s leading manufacturer of propellers. Established over 45 years ago this firm undertakes the whole process from vessel assessment, design, engineering and through cutting, making, foundry casting, machining, finishing and inspection.

“I

Advanced High Efficiency C-Foil Teignbridge designed propeller

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t’s all done in one facility in Newton Abbot, our head office and manufacturing outlet,” says Mark Phare, Sales and Marketing Director for the company. “We also have a foundry and machine shop in India and then we have a facility in Dubai, a sales office and warehouse with a propeller machining and shaft machining shop.

That facility also specialises in propeller repairs and modifications. We also have offices in Italy and Penang with a range of agents from South America through Europe and into the Middle East and the Far East and out to Australia, New Zealand and China.”

With a truly global reach, Teignbridge is able to serve its customers, thanks to a talented team and state of the art software and techniques.

“One of our key selling points is our technically advanced

propeller design team that has a wealth of experience combined with the latest software. This includes CFD and ship simulation software which enables us to look at the whole vessel, not just the propeller in isolation,” Phare says. “It lets us look at the whole boat and, uniquely, look at the wake-field, how the water flows past the hull around the propeller and out past the propeller. Not many companies have that capability.

We offer an advanced design, then we also have 3D printing and a 5-axis CAD/CAM pattern mill to produce patterns to a high degree of accuracy.”

This impressive range of capabilities is all rooted in one building, Teignbridge Propellers’ Newton Abbot HQ. “Everything is undertaken in one building. We have the ability to manufacture everything, verify tolerances and make sure

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At Exalto Bearings UK we manufacture high quality rubber-lined and composite cutlass bearings for the pump and marine industries, in both bespoke as well as more standard sizes. All bearings are produced at our in-house workshop and we specialise in the manufacture of non-standard sizes.

Over the last 20 years we have built a reputation for both the quality and reliability of our bearings as well as our friendly and professional service and now work with businesses in over 40 countries worldwide.

Exalto Bearings Uk Ltd Unit 8C1, Sir Francis Ley Industrial Estate Shaftesbury Street, Derby DE23 8XA United Kingdom

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• Fast turnaround of quotes & delivery from stock • Quality In-house grinding & finishing • In-house metallurgist for advice

Supplier of precision-ground marine shafts We are proud to have been an integral part of the Teignbridge supply chain for over 10 years now & wish them ongoing success. We supply precision-ground, stainless steel marine shafts, the main grade used being F51 Duplex due to its good corrosion and stress resistant properties.

Our processing facilities include cutting (dia 12-750mm), grinding (up to 12m long), straightening to tight bespoke tolerances, polishing & finishing.

Other stainless steel grades supplied include: 316L; 17/4 PH; 304L; 321; 420; 431; 1.4418.

Tool steels also now available from our sister company AKM Tool & High Speed Steels.

Get a Quote Today: T: 01226 766766 E: sales@birdstst.com 192 | BUSINESS FOCUS MAGAZINE

www.birdstst.com BUSINESSFOCUSMAGAZINE.COM

EXALTO BEARINGS UK LTD Exalto Bearings Uk Ltd have maintained an excellent business relationship with Teignbridge Propellers Ltd for over 20 years.

We have continued to supply marine bearings to Teignbridge Propellers, consistently maintaining high quality, reliable delivery, and excellent lead times at competitive prices.

We supply water lubricated bearings in a variety of materials and sizes.

As an ISO 9001:2015 accredited company we adhere to strict quality procedures and continually strive to improve our products and our level of service to our customers. Through this we have achieved and maintained a reputation for quality, service, and reliability throughout the world.

While standard marine bearings are stocked in a range of sizes for rapid despatch, Exalto also manufactures special non-standard sizes upon request. A modular system and a high level of machine tooling means that Exalto can respond speedily to urgent requests for standard and non-standard bearings.

Exalto also serves the pump industry and manufactures custom-made water lubricated bearings to the very highest standard passing even the rigorous requirements of the nuclear industry.

The support and assistance we receive from our owners Graphite Metallizing Corporation allows us to continue to build on our successes and develop our range of bearings to an ever expanding list of applications.

The manufacturing facility in Derby is a well-controlled, efficient, but friendly operation where the need for customer care and satisfaction is understood from all of the workforce so allowing Exalto to provide an honest and personal service that can only be provided by a tightknit team.

TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS

it fits together perfectly before being sent overseas,” Phare tells us. “Around eighty per cent of our sales are export, so we need that confidence that it’s easy to unpack and fit onto the boat without setting or fitting at the shipyard.”

“WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO MANUFACTURE EVERYTHING, VERIFY TOLERANCES AND MAKE SURE IT FITS TOGETHER PERFECTLY BEFORE BEING SENT OVERSEAS.”

www.exalto.co.uk

BIRD STAINLESS STEEL At Bird Stainless, we have developed a worldwide reputation as a leading supplier of precision ground shafts for recreational craft, super-yachts and commercial marine vessels. Marine environments are extremely corrosive and demanding due to the concentrations of chloride in seawater. There is no industry recognized definition of a marine grade stainless-steel; however, we are stainless steel specialists and can supply the grades that are typically specified for their improved resistance to corrosive marine environments.

Typical stainless-steel grades for marine applications include: F51; 316L; 431; ASTM A564 Type 630 H1150D; 1.4418 We are both a steel stockholder and a processor: cutting, precision grinding, straightening and polishing propeller shafting for the marine industry in-house. We cater from a minimum diameter of 2mm right up to 240mm, in lengths from 2,500 to 12,000mm, all to tight, bespoke tolerances. Prior to despatch all our shafts are inspected, Netlon sleeved, wrapped and/or boxed to ensure safe arrival. All our shafts are supplied with 3.1 certificates and where required 3rd party inspections by outside agencies such as Lloyds; DNV.GL; ABS; BV; RINA etc.

We are a member of British Marine, the trade association for the UK leisure, superyacht and small commercial marine industry. By working with us as a British Marine member, you are dealing with a company that has signed up to an extensive Code of Practice that assures you confidence in the products & service provided.

We are proud to have been a part of the Teignbridge supply chain for over 10 years now, and wish them every future success!

www.birdstst.com

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Mark Phare Sales & Marketing Director Teignbridge Propellers

BUILDING KNOWLEDGE

Building a sound knowledge base, and developing people who can further that knowledge, is a key part of Teignbridge Propellers’ strategy.

“Last year we completed a two-year propeller efficiency research project funded by the Energy Technology Institute, 50% government and industry-funded. Having completed that project the result is a team including a PhD hydrodynamicist and chartered engineer who spent two years looking at propeller efficiency, new designs and innovation,” Phare tells us. “Now they’ve

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TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS

Typical Motor Yacht fitted with Teignbridge propulsion package

completed it they can take up consultancy work on behalf of customers so they can lend those tools to provide advanced propeller analysis and design optimisation through the whole range, yachts, commercial and military. It’s an extremely strong world-leading position to be in, in terms of the design and technology we can provide our customer.”

Meanwhile, Teignbridge Propellers continues to invest in the company and has recently been building a new office facility which they will be occupying later this year, as well as investing in new machinery and processes.

MANY EGGS, MANY BASKETS

The markets that Teignbridge Propellers serves are, by their very nature, unpredictable ones, and so the business has learned to spread its bets.

“Traditionally there’s a lot of movement in each of the markets we’re involved in, whether it’s the production of motor yachts, superyachts, commercial craft, or military craft. Within each section, geographically or by category,

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they have ups and downs,” Phare points out. “Six or seven years ago oil and gas was very strong and then when the price of oil collapsed that market collapsed. You have to be able to respond and focus on other markets and we’re fortunate in that we have a foot in a broad base of markets spread across the world. Today the leisure market is going through an extremely difficult period, but we can respond by focusing our efforts on other areas that are more robust like military and windfarm vessels.”

Of course, the one issue to really hit the leisure market on all fronts has been the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s affected us in a number of ways,” Phare says. “On our order book, we’re probably looking at around about a 30% reduction in order intake, mostly in the leisure market. A lot of boatbuilders are closed down here and in Europe and overseas. They closed down for six to eight, some of them for twelve weeks and also some stopped paying. We had a reduction in production but also had a lack of payment which

affects our cash flow. So we had that aspect to contend with and that seems to be working its way through now at a somewhat reduced level.”

Despite these hits to their income, thanks to the diverse portfolio Teinbridge maintains they’ve been able to stay healthily afloat.

“That accounts for about 25% of our market. So with 25% of our income potentially down 80%, it’s not going to kill us,” Phare explains. “Combined with that there have been slowdowns in commercial and military projects where shipyards haven’t been able to work. But again they seem to have found ways of working and have lifted lockdown restrictions.

One market we’re active in is ferry boats and there’s a lot of nervousness there reflected in orders cancelled or postponed for new ferries. Putting that together that’s 30% of our business. However, the 70% that remains is more than sufficient for us to operative profitably even if we’ve had to undertake some restructuring.”

The challenges COVID-19 presents don’t just come down

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TEIGNBRIDGE PROPELLERS

to a loss of sales, however. The virus also introduces practical challenges.

“The other problem was managing production and office support during the crisis.

During lockdown over half of our staff was working from home. We have a skeleton crew in the office and those that were working from home worked very successfully so we could continue to provide sales support, which we managed very well and continue to do so,” Phare says. “As far as production goes, we maintained production at the same levels throughout with a series of protocols and supplied PPE to ensure staff can work safely. We introduced distance marking on floors and thorough cleaning routines. It’s a completely new way of working but it’s working very well and we’re maintaining output at pre-lockdown levels.”

Teignbridge expects these precautions to be in place for a while, but they’re optimistic about the market’s ability to recover.

Propeller Dynamic Balancing Machine

Large shaft in lathe

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“I think some of the measures we’re taking will be with us for the next 12 months. We think in terms of safe working practices, we don’t see the post-COVID line at the moment,” Phare says.

“But we’re going to continue to work with COVID restrictions in place. Regarding the market, there are going to be some markets that will be slow to recover. But there’s also quite a strong feeling that once the economy starts to recover there might be a bounce-back in the motor yacht and superyacht sales as a safe environment for the very wealthy to have holidays with their family that can control the biosecurity of their environment much more than a hotel. So in the superyacht industry, they’re expecting a surge in sales.”

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TH

International exhibition and conference on valve and flow control technologies