INDUSTRY FOCUS: MANUFACTURING
Peter Mokaba Stadium in Limpopo Province. The totally re-furbished Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria, and the VIP seating at the Royal Bafokeng, Rustenburg and the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, were also commissioned to this family business whose beginnings go back to a 200-metre tool making workshop in the centre of Johannesburg. MAJOR SUPPLIER Managing Director Enzo Barbaglia established Pabar with a brother in 1965 after emigrating from Italy in the late ‘fifties, and today the business is a major supplier to the motor industry and other non-automotive markets. Manufacturing high quality metal pressings and roll formed components, Pabar is largely self-sufficient, with its own tool room, coil slitting and cut-tolength facilities. Post World Cup, the company has also acquired the rights to manufacture stadium seating under license to Stechert, the German worldwide leading supplier of stadium seats, and international class seating is an outstanding example of the powerful and highly successful manufacturing
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strategy pursued by Pabar – diversification. Well-established in the auto industry early on in its development - Ford, Nissan, BMW, and Toyota are among their direct and secondtier clients – Pabar responded to subsequent roller coaster market fluctuations by moving into non-auto products such as gas cylinders, kitchen sinks and wheelbarrows. “I think the success of the company over the years has been the fact that with diversification we have always had something to fall back on,” says Managing Director and second generation family executive, Mike Barbaglia. “These insights into trends and other market opportunities and our response to them have made us strong and enabled us to go from strength to strength. “No other company has this diversity; a lighting company, a tool making company or a press company – 100 presses ranging from 150 tons all the way to 1,000 tonners - nor so many diverse products under one roof.” Pabar’s most successful initiative has been lighting, in particular products manufactured for the industrial and office sectors. “We are one of the biggest
players in this area of the South African market, from a T5 all the way to LED. And in terms of new buildings going up, we are doing all the lighting.” With up to 80% of the market outside the domestic niche, the office block sector is a major client source, with Pabar typically fitting 1200 x 600 group ceiling lighting panels into which down lighters or recess fittings are installed. And with lighting efficiency becoming increasingly important and with it a movement to LED - offering a 37.5% energy savings compared to traditional bulbs – buildings are being re-fitted on a mass scale. Pabar’s response is impressive. “We have three big CNC benders pushing out some 4,000 recess fittings a day - 80% of the South African market.” Mike Barbaglia enters a cautionary note for anyone considering installing Far East fittings. “If the product is imported from China you are not going to get quality – that’s point number one. And with perhaps 250 to 300 fittings in a container, the costs of getting them in from China are high, especially with the impact of Rand devaluation. This of course opens up the local market, which is good for us.”