COMPANY PROFILE
2013
Remkor Technologies
State-of-the-art steel solutions
company report
State-of-the-art steel solutions Editorial – Joe Forshaw Production – Hal Hutchison
Remkor Technologies is one of the country’s premier steel manufacturing businesses. Founded in 1981 by Nino La Monica, the company is now run by Nino’s son and current MD, Rafaelle. He tells IndustrySA that steel prices and exchange rates have caused problems but overall, the company is looking to expand both its footprint and product range.
After the fire disaster that caused untold disruption at the ArcelorMittal plant in Vanderbijlpark back in February, companies that work in steel manufacturing felt the effects of the downturn in production. The Vanderbijlpark works is one of the world’s largest inland steel mills and the largest supplier of flat steel products in sub-Saharan Africa. When the plant was shut down following the fire, steel had to be sourced from elsewhere and companies turned to imports, from places like Brazil and Malaysia, to fill the void left by ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer. Obviously, with supply levels down, prices shot up and this became problematic for all companies who deal with steel. One company in particular who felt the effects is Remkor Technologies, a Johannesburg
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based steel manufacturer. Managing Director, Rafaelle La Monica, tells IndustrySA that although steel prices have caused concerns, the business is looking at new product lines and new markets to continue the fantastic growth that has been realised over the last three decades. “We had a big problem in February with the price of steel. We rely on ArcelorMittal and in February there was a problem at their plant and this resulted in huge problems for us getting material to the market place. People resorted to imports to fill the void and this pushed the prices up and since January/February they have not come down,” he says.
EXPONENTIAL GROWTH Remkor started out as a small, one man concern,
Remkor Technologies
making tools for the automotive industry. Today the company is home to over 170 employees and occupies 20,000m² of land on two adjacent stands with offices and factories totalling 8500m². Since its establishment, the company has moved on from tool manufacturing and now services a range of industries as La Monica explains: “We are now much more diversified, we work in just about every industry there is, as long as there is a requirement for steel.” The Remkor factory in West Turfontein has stateof-the-art capabilities that have vastly been developed over the years. The capabilities of the factory currently include laser cutting, tool and die manufacture, punching, press brakes, welding, brushing machines, powder coating, finishing and assembly, and numerous CAD systems that link all the CNC processes together.
“My father was the owner and founder of the business,” says La Monica. “We started in 1981 so we have been going for 32 years. We began as a small tool and die making business for the automotive industry, from there it evolved into production for the whole automotive industry and we’ve carried on growing so now that tool making is very small part of the company. “The main industries we service are the telecoms, domestic appliance, public seating and metal enclosure industries. In the appliance industry we do a lot of decorative cooker hoods, domestic cooker hoods and stainless steel fittings. “My father came directly from Italy, he had a trade there as a tool maker. He worked in a few companies locally before going into a partnership and eventually becoming the sole owner.”
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company report
“We are continuously investing in the business and people understand that we are here to stay” Remkor had particularly strong dealings in the telecoms industry, manufacturing booths for public telephones, and this contributed greatly to the industry leading reputation that has been built up over the years. However, the rise of the cell phone industry has all but killed off that part of Remkor’s business and impacted on their exports as well. “We did very well in the telecoms industry, manufacturing telephone booths,” says La Monica. “At the moment, that is a dyeing business and is now basically non-existent. We do still keep items in our product range as we do still get a call for things from time to time in African markets but this is not a growth area. “In the years that we were able to manufacture, we did very well locally and we exported products to about 18 countries throughout Africa and the Middle East.
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“Cell phones have taken over what we were doing at that point in time. The payphone business is very capitally intensive. It takes a lot of money just to start the process with infrastructure. Buying the booth, the phone and implementing the backbone is very expensive and nobody wants to do that anymore. Everybody uses a cell phone these days so payphones have gone out of the mainstream.” The last big project that Remkor had with public phones was four years ago and because of the decline in activity in that market, new opportunities are now being sought with one area of focus being the clean energy market as La Monica explains: “Payphones are often stuck in rural areas and operators have to maintain them so they are not overly popular now,” he says. “The last of our big projects was with Vodafone in Ghana and that was in 2009 but only because they were required by law to
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implement a public phone system. “We are in phase right now where we pushing new products and getting into new fields. There is a very big drive towards clean energy and there are a lot of initiatives going on which may encourage us to change our focus but still staying in the sheet metal manufacturing environment. “We have experience with solar power. We have been making telephone booths with solar panels on top for the last ten years. We’ve also done street signage which incorporates solar panels. That is the sort of market where we could have an impact rather than power generation.” If Remkor can combine its experience and business acumen with the successful exploitation of these new opportunities then it is likely that the company could go on to achieve further success, the likes of which it saw in 2008.
THE PEAK OF 2008 “We had the best year ever in 2008” says La Monica “because locally we had a big drive with infrastructure surrounding the World Cup. We supplied a lot of
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components for the construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban. We also supplied components for the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth and we also did work with the Gautrain. This resulted in a great year in 2008.” It may have been Remkor’s ability to produce large, complex orders for customers with quick turnaround times that gained them these significant contracts but it was more likely the company’s meticulous focus on quality. This is something that has seen the company become the preferred supplier in its chosen sectors and regularly produce superior products and service. The focus on quality and the inward investment from the management are further indicators to external and internal stakeholders that the company has a long-term plan and the fact that Remkor operates to international quality standards, brings about further opportunities with the potential for exporting. “A lot of people see the commitment from our family and realise there is a long term vision for the business,” says La Monica. “We are not just shareholders who are here to make a buck and leave. We are continuously investing in the business and people understand that we
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company report
are here to stay so the result is people stay with us for a long time. “We are audited by a German company and we pass all our audits with very little comment and very little problem and it’s been like that since we started. The environment we present, the facilities we have and the commitment we offer make it clear that this is a business that is taken care of.” Although the company is fully equipped and experienced with regards to the exports of products, the export market itself has been a difficult environment to operate in because of the widely publicised instabilities with the currency exchange rates. However, with the slightly improving rates, the market for exports may
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be an area in which Remkor could look to for future growth. “At the moment, 95% of our business or more is local in South Africa” says La Monica. “Exports have declined because our product was not a growth product, especially overseas, and we have also had problems with the exchange rates. The currency strengthened significantly in 2009 and that made exports difficult with local costs. More recently it has weakened and started to open doors and multi-nationals have started to ask questions regarding whether it would be worth manufacturing locally again so it is possible that we could export in the not too distant future.” With 32 years of expertise behind it, Remkor has the
Remkor Technologies perfect platform to achieve long-term growth and its vision of becoming the most sought after, internationally recognised, superior supplier of engineered products in Southern Africa. Having previously completed work for clients in countries including the UK, Argentina, Chile, Qatar, Oman, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Sudan, Angola, Liberia, Uganda, Nigeria, Madagascar, Mauritius, Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia, Rwanda, Kenya and Mozambique, Remkor has vast experience of working in new markets but La Monica concludes by saying that, for now, sub-Saharan Africa is the realistic target for expansion. “The growth story for most South African companies is into the African market. That is where we see the biggest potential. Markets like Europe and North America are a bit difficult at the moment. Sub-Saharan Africa is where the potential lies.”
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“Sub-Saharan Africa is where the potential lies”
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