DUro preSSINGS
FEATuRE
affordable MAKING HoUSING
Q&A with Duro Pressings Chief Sales and Marketing officer John Lamb. By Ian Armitage
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Duro Pressings Focus property
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outh African alternative assets manager Capitalworks recently purchased a majority stake in Duro Pressings for an undisclosed sum in an effort to gain a foothold in South Africa’s fast growing housing market. South Africa has a significant shortage of low-cost housing, which the government and private sector developers are working to correct. Duro Pressings is a South African manufacturer of building products such as windows, doors, doorframes and garage doors. South Africa Magazine (SA Mag) caught up with Duro’s Chief Sales and Marketing Officer John Lamb (JL) and asked him to tell us more about the purchase and how the company has changed since. SA Mag: John, thanks for talking to us. First off, tell us more about Duro Pressings. Who are you? JL: Duro are manufacturers of steel and aluminium windows and doors, as well as steel garage doors. We also manufacture a range of shower doors and DIY products. We are also partners in a business called Vela, which manufactures alternative housing solutions and is currently very successful in Africa. We hope to be as successful in South Africa soon. SA Mag: What’s unique to how you approach business? What does Duro stand for? JL: The majority of our business is currently in the affordable housing sector or catering for people in the 1 – 3 LSM Category and we pride ourselves on supplying this sector with quality affordable products. Our slogan is “Building With Pride” and we want that slogan to encompass all that we do. www.southafricamag.com
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Duro Pressings Focus property
WĂźrth For speedy delivery including convenience, we have branches in Isando where our Head Office is situated as well as in Bloemfontein, Cape Town, Durban, Port Elizabeth, East London and George. In addition to that we deliver in Namibia, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland. We would like to thank DURO PRESSING for their business and we look forward to a long and prosperous business relationship in the future.
SA Mag: What defines you as a business? JL: Our people! I know many businesses say this but we truly believe it. As a business we have an offering that is unmatched in the industry in that we can offer a home owner/developer/builders merchant a basket offering that no other single supplier can. However, we can have all of these fantastic products/offerings but without the quality people that we have working in our business, the rest would be useless. SA Mag: How are you different? JL: Our basket offering to the market is far superior compared to any other single supplier. We are also based all over Southern Africa which gives us a unique opportunity to service Southern Africa effectively. SA Mag: What words do people use to describe your business? JL: Fiercely proud. 4
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SA Mag: Capitalworks recently purchased a majority stake in Duro Pressings. Have they brought into a successful business? How is the company performing? JL: The performance for 2012, thus far, has been good. It has been a bumpy start to the year as we implemented new systems throughout the group and those changes come with teething problems. Overall though it has been a good start to 2012. SA Mag: What about 2011 then? Was that a good year? JL: Our performance, versus our own expectations, was average. The market itself was in a decline but our performance versus the overall market was good. However 2011 will go down as a watershed year in Duro’s history because of that change in ownership and the new direction/ drive which was put in place.
We offer a lot more than just products - we bring services, ideas, innovations, business solutions and more to you Nationwide more than 230 Customer Service Consultants are visiting more than 20,000 satisfied customers monthly - our product quality and the service are the reasons
The 5,000 products in our catalogue are the core of our business - we trade internationally with screws, screw accessories and anchors to tools, chemical - technical products and personal protection equipment
Wurth South Africa (Pty) Ltd. Isando Industrial Business Park Block G1, Gewel Street, Isando Tel: +27 11 281 1000 Fax: +27 11 974 6169 wurthsa@wurth.co.za www.wurth.co.za
SA Mag: Okay then, what’s new? JL: We’ve implemented several new systems within the group and this will lead to Duro being better placed to service all our clients better into the future. The challenges we face are to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations in all the facets of our business. This is an even bigger challenge considering the platform that Duro is coming from. We’ve also undergone a rebrand. Following the change in ownership, it was decided that Duro needed a new look to accompany its new vision
and direction. We designed a new logo and slogan and decided to rebrand all our buildings/offices across the country. This was no small task as we had to rebrand nine buildings/ offices across the country in just nine days. Why so quick? We wanted to have a surprise element to the rebranding where people who were working in the buildings/offices would leave at the end of the day, only to return to the “new” rebranded building/office the following day. In terms of the logo/ slogan/look and feel, we wanted to keep the history of Duro in place while using this platform to “build” the
new Duro – we therefore kept some elements of the past in the new logo but added a freshness that illustrates the new beginning. SA Mag: How would you describe your position in the marketplace? JL: We are the largest manufacturer of steel windows and doors in Southern Africa. We are one of the leading suppliers of aluminium products in Southern Africa. Based on this, we are certainly one of the biggest suppliers of windows and doors in the building industry. www.southafricamag.com
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SA Mag: How has 2012 been, so far? JL: Despite all the changes that the business has undergone in such a short period of time, 2012 has started off on a positive note and the future continues to look positive. SA Mag: Every year brings new uncertainties. That given, how would you sum up the current state of the industry? And are there lots of opportunities for the company? JL: The industry has had a tough three years - pretty much in line with all other industries - but there are definitely signs of recovery. I think the Government’s role
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in the industry is critical as their performance in terms of budgeting/financing and homes/developments is directly linked to the building industry’s performance. In terms of opportunity, Duro has a wonderful base/ platform to work from and this is largely thanks to the previous owners. If we manage to meet/ exceed our customers’ service expectations, the opportunities for Duro are endless. We also have wonderful alternative housing products that, if accepted, could be the future of housing in Southern Africa.
If we manage to meet/ exceed our customer’ service expectations, the opportunities for Duro are endless
Duro Pressings Focus property
SA Mag: Could you elaborate and tell us a bit more about your future goals, please? JL: Our biggest goal is to become a truly customer centric company. This entails putting the customer/market first in all that we do. We also need to add to our existing product ranges in product and new material/material offerings, i.e. wooden doors and windows. We believe that 2012 will be the year that puts Duro “on the map” in the building industry – for too long we have not been a critical role player in the building industry, despite our size and strength and we see all of this changing in the upcoming year. We have invested heavily, ensuring that we are well placed to service our customers’ needs/expectations well into the future. We plan to upgrade a lot of our facilities and move some of our branches into bigger
premises/facilities in the near future but our national footprint is big enough and we will not be expanding on this. Our market strategy is a fairly simple one: we want to deliver a superior service/solution to the building industry through our specified channel to market. Our vision is to become the leading supplier of products in the openings category for the building industry. SA Mag: John, it is certainly a very interesting time and we wish you well for the future. But before we let you go, what do you think is the key to Duro Pressings’ success? JL: That’s easy. It is ensuring that we retain our good people and attract even better staff. To learn more visit www.durowin.com. END
Glenntec Tool & Die cc At Glenntec Tool & Die, we specialise in tool making for the plastic industry. We are capable of helping and assisting our clients with anything from 3D prototype printing to moulded production. The objective of our business is to provide a high quality product and reliable service to our customers and for eleven years we have served many companies in making plastic parts, including Duro. We take pride in what we do and stand behind our work.
Tel: 016 365 6435 Fax: 016 364 6436 Cell: 083 680 5589 Email: glenntec@absamail.co.za Address: 92 Springbok Road, Randvaal Johannesburg South 2053
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