Bafotech

COMPANY PROFILE

2013

BAFOTECH

Overcoming all challenges...

COMPANY REPORT

Overcoming all challenges...

Editorial – Roland Douglas Production – John Cliff Bafotech is the self-proclaimed ‘one stop scraper winch shop’. The Welkom based business has been serving the mining industry for the last 32 years and co-founder, Chris Boone, tells IndustrySA that right now times are tough but Bafotech has many opportunities on the horizon.

The mining industry in South Africa is like a melting pot with many smaller industries and sub-sectors thriving within it and even existing purely to serve it. There are logistics, security, equipment, recruitment, safety and a huge list of other services that are integral for the industry to undertake its daily activities.

As strong as the industry is, it has faced many challenges over the past few years and one of the major obstacles has been the global economic slowdown, a problem which has affected all businesses differently.

Prices of mined minerals have fluctuated, sales have been up and down and mining operations around the world, not just in South Africa, have felt the pinch.

One company that has been right in the middle of the industry and seen the highs and lows over the last 32 years is Bafotech, a Welkom based company renowned

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for the manufacture and sale of high quality, locally made winches and winch components used heavily by the major South African mining houses.

Bafotech Marketing Director, Chris Boone, tells IndustrySA that although the industry is under various pressures, his company is well placed to continue its innovative work and continue to build strong relationships with clients throughout the sector.

“The whole mining industry has slowed down and everyone is asking for extra discounts, squeezing you very hard for the best prices just to keep things going” says Boone. “We are fortunate as we have two very big contracts which haven’t slowed down as such. They are still getting on with mining and are not having labour unrest as yet although they are expecting some unrest in July when the major wage negotiations take place.

“If people begin to strike, that will make things very

BAFOTECH

tough. People still need to be paid and cash flow is so important.

“The people at Impala have been very positive about the situation and we do a lot of work for them so we don’t expect too many problems.

“This is a tough time and it is important to survive.”

ESTABLISHED OPERATIONS Mining has been one of the main factors behind South Africa’s fixation as the most advanced and richest nation and as technology has changed and new methods of mining have taken over, new players have emerged. That being said, some of the biggest mining houses have been successfully established for many years and Bafotech has been supplying products to all the big names for a long time.

“We have vendor numbers on all the mines” says Boone.

“Implats, Amplats, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Goldfields, Lonmin, Petra Diamonds and all the major groups. For 80% of these, we supply direct to the mines.”

Bafotech has a manufacturing facility in Welkom which is home to nearly 10000m² of workshop facilities and a repairs facility in Rustenburg which covers almost 2500m² but things have not always been so high-profile. Boone explains that in the early days, the company was just a desk and a couple of chairs; a very low-key wholesale style operation.

“My eldest brother Frans wanted to start a business in Welkom, I was living in Johannesburg at the time so I returned to Welkom and we started up. We only had a desk that was borrowed from a friend, two chairs and a computer that Frans had won in a raffle.

“I sold my car to buy a few spare parts and Frans carried on working where he was which kept us going until we

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COMPANY REPORT picked up regular clients.

“In the beginning we were just buying and selling and as we picked up contracts our youngest brother joined us and we realised that we needed to start manufacturing ourselves as our suppliers in Johannesburg could just put up prices whenever they felt like it but we couldn’t do that with the mines so we slowly but surely started buying machines and today we have around R14 million worth of machines,” he says.

“In the beginning there were challenges. It’s like getting married, you have to scope each other out and learn how each other think. We all had our own areas of expertise and there were crossovers but Frans and I were together in business for 30 years before he passed and Pat (now MD) and I have been working together for 23 years and with our BEE partner Lesedi Rakgagon for eight years.”

While there has been expansion and growth in the product range, the core has always remained the same and Bafotech is now recognised as the industry leader when it comes to winches and winch components.

“Winches is our core business, double drum scraper winches and mono winches which are used to pull materials up so people don’t have to drag stuff behind them.

“The double drum winches are used after blasting to pull the loose rock into a box hole, then into shoots ,then to the main shaft where it is loaded onto skips and taken out of the mine through to the processing plant,” says Boone.

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THE FUTURE As with many South African companies who are experienced in the mining industry, Bafotech has plans for expansion and growth into new markets, namely the African markets. This sort of growth would obviously help the company financially and this would be helpful considering the tough economic climate. The company already has agents in Argentina and Australia and a transport division which handles all logistics requirements.

While African markets are attractive, two markets in particular are of great interest to Bafotech and those markets are Botswana and Tanzania.

“Our divisions outside of South Africa are rather small at this stage. We are trying to develop them more and more, it doesn’t help that the Rand has gone through the floor.

Unfortunately the overseas operations are not yet in a position to cover our local costs.

“We are busy with expansion at this very moment. We are looking at working in Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It looks like Zimbabwe is settling and we always look at the stability of a country before we enter.

Zimbabwe is right on the boarder so we can truck our

goods in quite easily, we will just wait for the election to see what happens,” says Boone.

“This is a tough time and it is important to survive” LOCAL QUALITY Bafotech uses a lot of steel in its manufacturing processes and the benefit of using steel from South Africa is the guarantee of quality and the assurances that come with certain grades. Recently, there has been a peak in local steel prices and this has impacted on profits.

“We probably get 75-80% of our steel locally and the prices have gone up by between 12-20%,” says Boone. “We bring in a lot of steel from China. With the Rand-Dollar rate the way it is, it impacts on our profits in a big way but we are carrying on and doing our best.”

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COMPANY REPORT

To accompany quality products, you need quality processes and Bafotech is well-known for meeting and exceeding international quality standards. The company is currently working towards its ISO certification and will very soon be recognised for its hard work.

“We are not accredited yet but we have employed someone to look after all the ISO certification; quality, health and safety and the environment. We’ve moved a long way in these areas although we do not have full accreditation yet. They have been and inspected and told us where to change certain things but we are very advanced with our ISO progress,” says Boone.

When the ISO certification is achieved it will mark another milestone in the company’s long history. While

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the economic difficulties discussed by Boone still heap challenges onto the industry, there will undoubtedly be an upturn in the not too distant future and when that time comes, Bafotech will be in a prime position, ready to make further strides in the sector and expand the business further, ensuring that the objective, to become the supplier of choice to the South African mining industry and the international market, is met sooner rather than later.

.

“We are busy with expansion at this very moment. We are working in Tanzania, Ivory Coast, Zambia and Zimbabwe”

Quality castings from China, 17 years experience to South Africa!

GOOD METALS CORPORATION Casting bodies and parts for the valves and pumps industries Castings couplings and fittings for Pipe and Fluid control industries Mill Liners for Metallurgical plants in the mining industries Bowl and Mantle, Jaw plates for Crushing and Palletizing plants in the mining industries Casted and Machined Clutch Gears for the Winch industry Furnace Ladles for Smelting furnaces Forged Shackles to ISO2415 standard High Performance Forged Steel Grinding Balls and High Chrome Grinding Balls SS316 and SS304 Stainless Steel Investment Castings Material standard to SANS936, SANS407, BS3100A2, SANS2415, BS EN 12513 (BS4844), SANS1338.

CONTACT: LARISSA POTGIETER COMMERCIAL MANAGER Email: larissa.potgieter@goodmetals.co.za

TEL: +27 11 4551085, 4551086 FAX: +27 11 4553495

www.goodmetals.co.za

+27 57 396 2848 www.bafotech.co.za

(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street.

Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4QB