C O M P A N Y O V E R V I E W
Agility, Flexibility, And The Willingness To Succeed Written By: Abigail Phillips Produced By: Daniel Pritchard
S O U T H E R N E N G I N E E R I N G C O M PA N Y
How Southern Engineering built a company based on the demands of its customers, and made it work
Seco Ltwp Village
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gility, flexibility, and the willingness to succeed are three key drivers at SECO, which is aiming to be a standout service provider. The company is underpinned by an ethos of sheer determination to offer a wide variety of services, all at a high standard, and industry trends determines what path the company follows next. “The simple fact is that we have always been renowned for our capabilities within the marine sector,” says Cohen. “But over the last two to three years we have recognised a need to develop our on-shore expertise as well. As a company we have had to adjust our approach to sales and marketing in order to engage this new market. “We have developed different systems internally to gain the experience and the knowhow to penetrate new markets, with the aim of becoming the most successful service provider
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Ltwp Accommodation Blocks & Roofing
in the region. We have done a lot of work recently trying to understand where we add value and how we can offer advantages to the markets we serve.” “We believe this is a shift in global business and are keen to embrace the trend.” For SECO, versatility and group capability is critical. The company takes great pride in saying, ‘there is hardly anything we cannot assist our clients with,’ and there are very few companies – on a global scale – that can say that. “We are solution based,” says Cohen. “We offer solutions for our customers’ problems and challenges, allowing them to conduct business faster and more effectively.”
600+ Number of staff employed by Southern Engineering Company
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Seco jetty, filling and piling
Gaining worldwide attention SECO was also responsible for the construction of accommodation units supporting Africa’s largest wind-power project in Marsabit County, Kenya. The Lake Turkana Wind Project, as it is formally known, cost €623 million to develop and will produce 310MW of electricity when it comes fully online in 2017. Furthermore, the sheer scale and notoriety of the project gained the attention of Kenya’s sitting president, Uhuru Kenyatta, who toured the project, broke ground at one of SECO’s accommodation units, and spoke with a number of the company’s on-site employees. The
www.eslon.co.ke
The company was incorporated in 1966. Its main objectives include manufacture of uPVC & PE Pipes and Fittings. It manufactures the largest and most comprehensive range of these pipes. It offers uPVC Pipes from 20mm to 630mm diameter and PE Pipes from 16mm to 450mm diameter. Manufactured with the modern equipment and technology, these pipes are suitable for a wide range of applications such as potable water transportation, irrigation, plumbing, drainage, sewerage, borewells, carrying industrial effluents etc. Since its inception, Eslon has been a regular supplier of its products for various water and sewerage projects in Kenya and continues to remain so till date. Its hallmark is that it ensures products of uncompromising excellence, meeting all relevant International and Kenyan Standards.
Manufacturers of Quality steel products in Africa
THINK STEEL THINK TONONOKA
Eslon Plastics of Kenya Ltd. Jirore Road, Industrial Area, Off Enterprise Road, P.O.Box 41761 - 00100, Nairobi - Kenya. Sales Office Board Lines Fax E-mail
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+ 254 735 405112 + 254 726 476024 + 254 20 6651271/2/3/4 + 254 65 58408/9 + 254 07 86891874 + 254 20 6552419 info@eslon.co.ke eslonplastics@gmail.com
Month 2014
T +254 202493144-6 M +254 722 509261 E sales@tononokasteels.com www.tononoka.com Facebook Tononokagroup Twitter Tononokagroup
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president made a call for businesses across the world to turn their attention to Kenya’s outstanding capacity for renewable energy generation. Cohen said: “We hosted the president and his ministers in the SECO village that we built; he laid the first stone in a house we were building, operated one of our machines and spoke with our employees about the project.” “This is a great case study for future projects, the Kenyan Government has been so supportive. Kenya is one of the leading countries for green energy. We are one of two Kenyan companies taking part in this project and have been the first contractor to start the project, we are proud of it!” added Cohen.
Seco Fabrication Workshop
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The Flying Horse at berth in the Dry Docking facility
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Breaking into new markets SECO has been developing its capability within civil construction, building and camps in remote areas that can support in excess of 500 people. “We can manufacture, design, fit and manage the camps with our group-wide expertise. The camp division is a new one for us as a company; however we have been developing the area for quite some time. We always constructed camps however, we have started managing them because we would rather manage them ourselves than go to a third party supplier. Alpha
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Group has a long history in the food industry, but also in the areas of cold chain management, construction, logistics and more – it just makes perfect business sense for us to offer an endto-end solution. We are faster and undoubtedly more efficient as a standalone unit,” says Cohen. Building a world-class team With such a huge emphasis placed on inhouse capability, it will come as no surprise that people management and training is very important to the business. “We offer all our employees external training, allowing them to gain important qualifications and insight. We also have a robust internal training structure and put a lot of emphasis on the importance of local knowledge. We want our employees to feel part of the solution for customers, and that entrepreneurial spirit drives growth and innovation at the business. We are also dedicated to employing local people and helping the areas in which we do business thrive,” says Cohen. Passion, a thirst for growth, and the willingness to learn as an organization will keep SECO afloat for many more years to come. The company has put processes in place meaning it will never have its feet stuck in concrete. “We are agile, we will grow with the trends of the market, and we will always offer a world-class service no matter what we turn our hands to,” says Cohen. With promises like that, it’s hard to envisage anything but success for the company.
Company Information INDUSTRY
Mechanical/ Civil Engineering, Shipbuilding, Construction, Camps Solutions HEADQUARTERS
Kenya FOUNDED
1957 EMPLOYEES
600 + PRODUCTS/ SERVICES
Marine and logistics division of Alpha Group, with more than 60 years industry expertise
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SOUTHERN ENGINEERING COMPANY Mbaraki Wharf, Near Likoni Ferry Mombasa Coast Kenya, 84162-80100 seco@alphakenya.com www.secoafrica.com