Cover story
Twinstar Precast –
The Custom Concrete Puzzle Solution Custom-built precast concrete products can often be the final pieces of a construction project puzzle: the perfectly-sized plinth, the architecturally perfect, but awkwardly shaped side-walls, the perimeter kerbs of a hospital helipad…
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winstar Precast – one of the few custom precast concrete manufacturers – was founded with the objective of providing these critical pieces of the construction puzzle in the most reliable, cost-effective and client-centric manner possible. If you are wondering whether a particular puzzle piece could possibly find a concrete solution, Twinstar should be your first port of call. The effort and time required to design and build onceoff moulds for bespoke products can only be fully appreciated through hard-won experience. Simply surviving the first attempts requires methodical planning and an eye for optimisation (both budgetary and operationally). More self-styled fabricators than would admit to it have been bruised and burnt by underestimating the complexities of custom manufacturing. Proficiency in high-volume, rapid output manufacturing will soon seem rather basic, as the path to profit in custom fabrication reveals why so few have trodden it.
A well-founded operation Twinstar Precast was established in 2014 with the express aim of assisting specifying civil engineers and civil engineering contractors with complicated sites and situations where currently available precast concrete products would not work. The opportunity – the “gap in the market” – exists, as there will always be a demand for custom precast products. Success in custom manufacturing is itself custom-made. A business based on disruptive production set-ups and highly fluid operating procedures, not to mention the specialised skills and additional supervision so often required, contradicts business sense.
Walking the custom precast concrete walk “Our commitment to solving our clients’ specific needs requires our very personal involvement at all stages of the process,” explains director and founder Annemerie Coetzee. “Twinstar Precast is managed by two others and me and we’re on the factory floor most of the time.” The artisans, procurement and logistics specialists, machine operators and mould makers who make up Twinstar bring to the company their collective skills and operational co-ordination, acquired and refined by the extraordinary workflow demanded in order to deliver custombuilt precast products. “We’re very committed to every client who walks through our doors. We’ve accumulated the knowledge and developed the techniques and solutions required for even the most unusual designs and structural challenges through our own determination to solve every puzzle in front of us,” explains Coetzee. “We know how to listen to a client and make the impossible possible.”
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Concrete Trends Issue 4 2021
Sized for quality, not quantity The values lived by Coetzee percolate through Twinstar Precast’s entire operation and, given the nature of its business, evidence of her integrity and personal commitment can be seen in the company’s continuous production of a staggeringly diverse range of products. “We’ve deliberately kept our operations sized for the work we deliver,” she explains. “I know exactly what we can commit to and precisely how to achieve the best outcomes for each client. We make our own moulds and have one truck with an excellent crane that enables us to deliver large concrete products in segments, to the great advantage of our clients. By keeping weight within the regulated range, we can save them hundreds of thousands of rands in transport costs. We’ll guide the placement and fitting of the product and will be on site, if necessary.” Coetzee notes that in most circumstances, Twinstar Precast has the capability to make adjustments to the design required. All practical considerations are done to ensure the product meets a client’s particular requirements.
The Twinstar “can-do” list Twinstar Precast’s expertise has been honed through both trial and error, as well as its willingness to try new solutions. The fundamentals that underpin its reputation include:
