PIPES
Celebrating
110 years of excellence
I
NCLEDON’S STORY BEGAN in England in 1906, with Herbert Incledon foreseeing a potential market for the supply of pipes, fittings and valves to the growing mining industry of the Witwatersrand. After convincing his three older brothers to invest in his venture, Herbert bought as many consignments of pipe as he could afford, shipped them to Johannesburg and started trading as Incledon & Co. During the Great Depression, Gerald Incledon, Herbert’s son, took control of the newly established stock point in Durban. However, the Second World War put a five-year halt on Incledon’s expansion drive. In 1947, a Blakeborough-Incledon plant was established to manufacture valves, with Incledon & Lamberts established as a holding company, and listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1951. At the same time, it was decided to put the company in the hands of a South African board. By the mid-1950s, H. Incledon & Co (South Africa) was a well-established supplier to the engineering and building industries and local authorities. In 1970, Incledon was acquired by the Stewarts & Lloyds Group of Companies, a South African manufacturer and trader of pipes, fittings, flanges, pipe couplings, valves, pumps, irrigation equipment and diesel engines. In 1979, Boumat Limited, listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, acquired the company shareholding. Management acquired the company from Boumat in 1999 and it re-entered the plumbing merchant and civil markets, also retaining the markets developed since inception. In February 2003, a joint venture with DPI Plastics effectively gave newly formed
Incledon, a leading supplier of fluid conveyance solutions for general industry to mining, infrastructure and building and construction, is celebrating its 110th anniversary this year.
Incledon-DPI the status of being the largest blackempowered engineering merchant in the country at the time. In early 2006, exactly 100 years after its establishment, DAWN acquired 100% of Incledon’s shareholding. Incledon is proud to have attained its current Level 3 BBBEE rating. In 2007, Incledon acquired the assets of Waterlinx Pumps & Irrigation, formally the Technical Division of Stewarts & Lloyds Trading. In 2010, Incledon acquired the business of VTR (Valve Technologies & Repairs) to focus on control valves and valve actuation. Last year, it also fully acquired the business of IPS&D, which predominantly serviced the agricultural cooperative market with pump and irrigation solutions. Today, the company stocks over 15 000 preferred products. These include highly recognised brands of pipes, fittings, flanges, valves, pipe couplings, pipe working tools and threading machines, HDPE, mechanical compression fittings and electrofusion systems, surface, dewatering and borehole pumps, water meters, and plumbing products for the engineering, industrial, mining, agricultural, OEM, municipal, civil infrastructure, plumbing merchant and irrigation markets. “Incledon distributes products utilised in the conveyance of water, gases and liquids. We have the largest and widest consolidated quality product offering in order to service the industries we operate in, and are well positioned to take advantage of the government’s infrastructure development programmes,” Kelly Wilson, CMO, Incledon, comments.
ABOVE Incledon distributes products for the conveyance of water, gases and liquids ABOVE LEFT Kelly Wilson, CMO, Incledon
Incledon has branches in every major South African city, with a formidable national footprint, including Bloemfontein, Burgersfort, Cape Town, Durban, East London, George, Johannesburg, Kathu, Lephalale, Mbombela, Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Secunda and Welkom, in order to ensure that customer service remains a top priority. “What makes Incledon different in a highly competitive market is the fact that we represent the top brands in our industry, and that we are truly focused on providing our customers with dependable and reliable service levels to build and nurture these relationships,” Wilson highlights. Incledon also supplies industry-related products such as manhole covers and frames, in addition to ancillary pipe equipment such as pipe cutting/threading tools and wrenches. “While our core product range and competencies are pipe, fittings, jointing and valves, we have the necessary flexibility to be able to meet a range of requirements and specifications,” Wilson concludes.
IMIESA October 2016
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