COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Structural Applications
Innovative industrial protection
company profile
Innovative industrial protection Editorial: Christian Jordan Production: Hal Hutchison
Structural Applications is looking to expand its business beyond the mining industry where it has made its name over the past 35 years. Experts in industrial painting, corrosion protection and a range of associated activities; the company is keen to grow in all areas. Founder and MD, Dave Howarth tells IndustrySA more…
Corrosion is one of those words which people the mining industry, or any industry for that matter, don’t like to hear too often. It usually means that some sort of spend is coming and it can potentially be disruptive to business. But if you choose the right partner to assist with your corrosion needs then you will not have to be worried when the word corrosion rears its head. One of the country’s leading corrosion protection specialists is Structural Applications; a company with 35 years’ experience in the industry, founded by Dave Howarth. Howarth says that the company is now a leader in its niche and has been developing strongly ever since its inception. “The business was started by two of us back in 1979.
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We decided we need to make some money in an industry that we’d been involved with. I’d been in contracting on the civils side and my partner at the time had been in sales of building products,” he says. In the early days, the company dealt with Denso’s Petrolatum Tapes which have been around over 80 years and provide above and below ground and underwater protection to pipelines, fittings, tank bases, steel structures and many more. As successful as this venture was, it had its limitations and was not conducive to the company’s aspirations for growth. So, in true entrepreneurial fashion, the company expanded its offering and found the mining industry to be one of great opportunity. “The protection of steel structures was a business that we were quite interested in and subsequently went into
Structural Applications
and did some fairly big projects but it wasn’t enough and not something we could expand into,” explains Howarth. “After two years we looked into painting, as I had a painting background and had worked for two painting companies in my earlier career, and we decided to start an industrial painting division. Our first contract was with Matthey Rustenburg Refinery and we worked there for some time, giving us a ‘kick-off’ into the paint industry and naturally, because it was a platinum business, we lead ourselves into the platinum industry and the Rustenburg area. “We’ve niche marketed into that industry and currently we are very mining and maintenance orientated. There is a distinct difference between new work and maintenance work; the disciplines are totally different. We leaned towards maintenance and stayed with it ever since.”
A LASTING RELATIONSHIP A good indicator of any strong business relationship is the time-period that the relationship has endured. Structural Applications is proud to say that some of its relationships go back over two decades and Howarth says that longevity is something that the company looks for when investigating new business. “We’ve been on some sites in excess of 20 years. I firmly believe that the longer you are on a site, the more you understand it. This way, we learn not only what we’re doing and what the customers corrosion needs are but we also understand their production and any work that we do will not interrupt their production. “We work very closely with the mining houses and we have some very long-term contracts and that is what we look for in new business,” he says.
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company profile Structural Applications offers an onsite presence to its clients, something which not all competitors can match, and it is through this presence that the real value of the company is witnessed. “A surface plant used for refining will have multiple structures and they don’t all corrode at the same time in the same way,” explains Howarth. “Most of the corrosion is located in the ground floor where they are continually washing down. In most situations, the customer would pay for the whole structure to be treated when only the ground area needs it. This is the benefit of having us on site; we can be moved to where we are needed, we can treat smaller areas and we understand how to do it without compromising company output and effecting cost. “The other advantage is that we can be used for other things if necessary. Our people can be trained up quickly to take care of certain jobs if there is a strike for example. We could maintain a smelter or furnace while it is just ticking over during a strike because our people are familiar with the processes as we have been on site for a long period of time. The cost of shutting down a smelter is catastrophic,” he says. Even though Structural Applications calls many of the country’s leading mining houses its clients (including Anglo American Platinum, Impala Platinum, Kumba Resources and many more), this does not guarantee more contracts but from
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time to time it can attract big names as Howarth explains. “Our industry is very price orientated so our list of previous contracts is not always the draw. De Beers approached us after seeing what we are doing on some other sites and we are now building a long-term relationship with them in the north of the country. The main draw is that we can add value to a customer’s operation.” But even though a lot of the company’s business comes directly from the mining industry, don’t be fooled; these services are vital across a range of industries and because of this Howarth says the business will be looking to expand in the future.
“The main draw is that we can add value to a customer’s operation” “We are not entirely tied to the mining industry. We have done a fair amount of work for other industrial organisations but it’s not the bigger part of our business,” he says. “We are now looking to spread our wings and move away from our niche slightly but we will definitely remain in corrosion protection. We’ve expanded the type of corrosion protection that we do; we are now doing flooring as well. We do acid proof flooring and fire proofing, and we do a lot of sheeting and we have also looked at steel fabrication.” Howarth also states that the company will continue with its focus on maintenance work as this is something which “cannot be put off”. “Budgets tend to allow for maintenance work,” he says, “you can delay a new build but you cannot delay maintenance - the results would be horrific.”
AFRICAN CORROSION As discussed, Howarth expects the business to grow and expand in coming years, building its reputation outside of its niche but one plan that is still under consideration is expansion across South Africa’s borders. This will be the task for son Greg when he eventually takes control of the business. “There are an enormous amount of opportunities north of the border but I am coming to the end of my career and my son will be taking over so that will be his target for the future. “We’ve looked at work in Zimbabwe and we weren’t too successful with it. Mozambique, Angola, Botswana and Namibia are our target areas for the immediate future,” says Howarth. If expansion into the rest of sub-Sahara Africa does go ahead in the future, then the company will need to look at expanding its employee base which currently sits at around 285 people. Recruitment is a challenge for Structural
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Applications but over the years the company has built a robust workforce through training its people from the ground up. “We really like to get new guys who have not been involved and train them in our own way to our own standards,” explains Howarth. “Sometimes people who are fully qualified can pick up bad habits so we have an active training scheme so that we can bring people up through the ranks. When recruiting we will sometimes bring in people with industry experience depending on the position that we need to fill. “Industrial painting has only recently caught the eye of industrial educators so now we have NACE courses but they can sometimes be too sophisticated. Paint manufactures are offering training and this is great as they will come along and not only sell their product but make sure the people who apply them are doing it properly. “It’s great to take people up through the business as they pick up the ethic and develop loyalty to the team so we do this where we can,” he says.
FAMILY FUTURE Of course, the company’s ethic comes from the top and filters through all aspects of business and in the future it will be up to Greg to continue what his father has built over the
past 35 years. “My son has been with the company for around 14 years now. I don’t spend too much time on site at all now so he is taking over. We have three African shareholders and I hold the balance of the shares and these will eventually go to him.
“You can delay a new build but you cannot delay maintenance” “I think that he wants his children to take over at some point but they have to want to. He was very keen from an early age. I took him to an Impala site when he was 14 and he was fascinated,” says Howarth. One thing is for certain as we move through 2014; whichever member of the Howarth family is overseeing the business, the focus on quality, safety and technical expertise will remain and this will allow Structural Applications to grow to the position where it can address of the corrosion protection maintenance needs of all industrial operations throughout the country.
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www.structural.co.za +27(0)11 886 0829
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