INDUSTRY FOCUS: MANUFACTURING

insulators, disconnectors/isolators, compression tooling, transmission and distribution line hardware, and more. This equipment allows for the reliable and, most importantly, safe transmission of electrical current from generating assets to locations around the country. As the country ramps up its plans for energy overhaul and improvement, this is an area that will produce significant opportunity in the future. McWade is just one of a small group that can provide these products locally.

Alongside its strong range comes a service portfolio including in-house design, documentation and technical back-up, local and international sourcing of specialised equipment to suit customer requirements, source and supply of full packages for substations and line projects, design and consulting services to plan and recommend the most suitable equipment, and connections and installation procedures.

A team of 230 local people deliver this comprehensive offering from dual sites in Olifantsfontein, and a third factory in Nigel. Associated companies Idube Electrical, Trugrid, and Zodiac Engineering provide related services leaving no stone unturned in the transmission and distribution space. Products are in action in South Africa, southern Africa, and various international markets.

The company’s vast facilities and local expertise have allowed for diversification, and this is where Hindle sees further growth opportunities.

“One of the spins offs of the Eskom market dropping is that we have started picking up a lot of other work in sectors that are not electrical because we have a foundry and machining shop,” he explains. “Some railway work, some food processing companies, and general engineering jobs, which will allow the foundry to not be totally reliant on electrical products. That makes the company more robust against downturns. Four years ago, that side of our business accounted for less than 2% of our turnover. Today, it accounts for close to 20%.”

McWade has hired a sales team to seek out opportunities for the foundry and forge away from the electrical industry, with the goal of flattening peaks and troughs in demand and keeping the plant busy at all times. “There are only two forging shops in the country that can forge up to 25kgs. It’s small runs, niche products, and no importing from overseas,” highlights Hindle.

This additional workflow will also bring costs down internally in the company’s core sector. Here, Hindle is looking to localise a few small components that remain unmade in Africa – at the request of clients who also believe in the vision of a truly South African value chain.

“As we become the best forging and foundry business, we get cheaper costs out of it.

There are some products that are monopolised by certain companies, and we have had clients ask us to bring something else to the market. Obviously funding is an issue, being privatelyowned without a big brother backer. There are two product ranges that we would like to bring to the market in the next two years, which would mean new plant and equipment and they are electrical products to help us increase our basket size. We also want to try and extend our footprint in products like disconnect switches which we sell throughout Africa and into the Middle East. We import a small component for those, and we believe we can make that locally to help us be more competitive. We can then take disconnect switches around the world.”

Dual expansion through these obvious strategies will help McWade Productions to achieve another goal hampered by Covid – consolidation of its bases. “The next phase in our business is to integrate all of our plants into one factory if possible, or into at most two. We are currently over three properties and too spread out. We want to increase efficiency and streamline processes,” confirms Hindle.

Industry For Growth

Well-documented challenges in South Africa’s power industry are not major hurdles for McWade, according to Hindle. After 2019, when President Ramaphosa began the splitting of

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