BAMR – 75 years of consistency

BAMR, the brainchild of Fred Duk, is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2021, and remains a customer-focused, family-owned business.

Fred Duk, a major in the Airforce, returned from the Second World War in 1945 and had to find a means to earn an income – his first opportunity was as a commission agent. Using his background in engineering he explored the importation of instruments and founded British American Manufacturers Representatives on 22 May 1946. BAMR was born, “We have always used the acronym BAMR,” says Graham Duk, owner of BAMR and grandson of the founder Fred.

Fred Duk quickly realised importing opportunities from other countries and changed the name to British Allied Manufacturers Representatives (BAMR). The company was the first importer of the Elcometer Coating Thickness Gauge in 1947. “Elcometer was the first manufacturers of the coating thickness gauge and to this day coating thickness gauges are often referred to as Elcometers,” remarks current owner Duk.

In its early days, the company focused predominantly on instrumentation in the coating industry with the Air Force being the first target focus with Fred’s background. To this day, the business remains loyal to its core business principles. BAMR is still supplying Elcometer instrumentation throughout Africa. “We have evolved to include Elcometer’s continually increasing and diversified product range. Other than the Protective Coatings Industry, Elcometer also supply instruments and equipment that are used for laboratory and physical test equipment, predominantly in the paint manufacturing industry,” says Duk. This includes:

• Viscosity cups

• Fineness of grind gauges

• Film applicators

• Elasticity and deformation testers

• Density cups

• Hardness and Scratch testers

BAMR, owner and grandson of founder Fred, Graham Duk, with the excellent BAMR staff.

From Top to Bottom: Fred Duk, founder of BAMR was a major in the South African Air Force. He is pictured with his squadron (top). Frank Duk, Graham’s Dad, is pictured in the bottom photo.

BAMR was the first company worldwide to establish a distribution agreement with Elcometer and was their first export sale in 1947. The first coating thickness gauge, the Elcometer 101 is on the left.

Elcometer has recently launched a new range, which is specifically for the abrasive blast industry prior to applying a coating as well as a new spray equipment arm. “They are also focussing more on the Non Destructive Testing (NDT) side of the business,” he said, adding, “We have also approached and been approached by other manufacturers who are aligned to our product range, which includes Quality Control Instrumentation predominantly in the Coating and Corrosion industry. Other major suppliers of ours include Protimeter, Tramex and Max Doser who are all moisture meter manufacturers, Time, Affri, AZ and Zircon. Countries include the USA, UK, Ireland, Switzerland, Germany, Taiwan and China.”

The company remained at the CTC Building in Plein Street, Cape Town for 20 years, until Fred’s son, Frank who became owner of the business in 1961, decided to move the business to its current location at 4 Palm Street, Newlands. “We have always worked from home or close to home and I think the last year has shown that the advantages of saving time on commuting and rental has its merits,” says Duk.

In an always changing industry, BAMR has remained the constant. Compliance with industry specifications and international standards is top of mind for the company. “South Africa and Africa tends to lag behind global specifications and implementation thereof. In these ever changing scenarios I’d rather be the fox than the hedgehog,” he said, referring to Clem Sunter’s analogy.

“With our partners on both the supplier and the distribution front having similar philosophies with regards to innovation and customer service, we are very excited about the future of BAMR. We feel we are ideally situated to make the most of our position in the industry with regards to our experience and dynamic approach to give the customer the best experience possible. The extension to our suppliers offering means that our product range is continually expanding and with the customer relationships that we have built, we are sure that the solutions that we can offer will make us more relevant to their efficiency and effectiveness in supplying products and services,” says Duk.

Elcometer 456 Coating Thickness Gauge.

Elcometer 224 Surface Profile Gauge.

An exciting solution will be a new Elcometer thickness gauge, which is planned to launch in the next two years. Its coating thickness gauges are considered the best value for money in the industry and the new model promises to be state-of-the-art, robust and as easy to use as the current models.

Coating thickness gauges are used in a diverse range of applications and are an extra tool in the quality control process. It gives coating manufacturers a micron thickness of a coating on predominantly metal substrates, although there are gauges that also measure on non-metallic substrates. They have an accuracy of approximately 1% and the applications are diverse ranging from pipes, tanks, stadiums, ships and other industrial uses to automotive as well as white goods. This includes paint coatings, galvanising, anodising, powder coating as well as many other options.

BAMR is working hard to keep pace with the digital evolution and launched its E-commerce site Gaugeit. co.za last year. “We have had a great response to the incorporation of this online platform. We are continually evolving and trying to make sure that we are relevant to our stakeholders. We feel that the combination of the our 75 years of experience alongside our goal of being the best in what we offer gives the end user the confidence that they are having the best possible experience,” concludes Duk. c

For more information, please contact BAMR on 021-683-2100, sales@bamr.co.za and www.bamr.co.za