BAFOTECH FEATURE

BA F O T E C H ( P T Y ) LT D

feature

Reward through

technology

Chris Boone, one of the founders of Bafotech, a scraper winch company tells Jane Bordenave how it has grown from a twoman operation to be one of the key suppliers to the African mining industry.

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Bafotech (Pty) Ltd FEATURE

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hen brothers Chris and Frans Boone started Bafotech in 1981, they could hardly have imagined it would become what it is today. From one desk and a couple of chairs in their parents’ dining room, the company now has over 120 employees and owns all its premises and manufacturing equipment. The ‘one stop scraper winch shop’ was originally an equipment reseller, however when the third brother Pat joined Chris and Frans as Operations and Technical Director in 1990, they opened a workshop and began production themselves. The organisation now has four buildings, three in Welkom, Free State, and one in Rustenburg, Northwest Province.

Having this fully vertically-integrated supply chains is one of the things that really sets Bafotech apart from the competition. “We are one of the few scraper winch producers in South Africa that have brought all production in house,” says Chris Boone, who works as the Marketing Director for the company. This strategy means it can ensure that its products are of a consistently high quality and deliver good value to its customers.

In addition to having its own manufacturing plants, the other element that defines Bafotech is its strong commitment to Black Economic Empowerment. “When BEE legislation came in in 2003, we were dedicated to finding the right partner in order to fulfil our duties,” says Boone, “We took our time to find the right people with whom to enter into a BEE relationship – two years in fact – before finding the right company in Matantabelo Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd, which is wholly owned by members of the Royal Bafokeng Nation (RBN). Until this point, we had been known as Tech-Kraft but when we entered into this relationship we united the ‘Bafo’ from Royal Bafokeng Nation and ‘Tech’ from Tech-Kraft to become Bafotech. Through Matantabelo Investment Holdings (Pty) Ltd, RBN holds 30 percent of our shares.” At more or less the www.southafricamag.com

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Bafotech (Pty) Ltd FEATURE

same time, Palesa Rantsoereng acquired 20 percent of the companies shares; through her, the company became 20 percent black-woman owned and overall 50 percent black owned.

In relative terms, the recession has been fairly kind to Bafotech, “Mines have curbed a lot of their spending in response to the downturn, as, of course, have we. However our biggest client, Impala Platinum, was in the process of buying a lot of new units, which carried us through the worst of it,” explains Boone. “But we also took a proactive approach, rather than battening down the hatches. We hired another marketing executive in the Rustenburg area, who went out and approached all the small, independent mines. Thanks to his efforts, we now have a lot of small mines on our books and that has helped to fill up the gap in orders and helped us along. We are not growing at the same speed as we were before 2008, but things are beginning to pick up and we are concentrating on keeping everyone happy.”

Other than the global economic situation, 4

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the company faces challenges in the form of smaller competitors. “Our market is very tight and there is a lot of competition. Of course these smaller companies do not have the same overheads we do and their focus is often on keeping costs low while keeping profit high.

However, our priority is quality, rather than cost – we are sometimes more expensive than other providers, but we believe that, taking into account the guaranteed high quality of our products, we still offer our customers very good value for their money.”

In order to maintain levels of quality and improve production, the firm has put in place several technological advances over the past few years, “our main investment has been in Computer Numerical Controlled equipment,” says Boone. “We have purchased machinery that is at the cutting edge of this technology and our shafting, bar feed, machining centre and horizontal machine elements are all completely automated. While some sections of the manufacturing process are still manual, such as vertical lathes, when we replace any equipment

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LS

2538

ENGINEERING SERVICES (Pty) Ltd

3 POWER STREET BOKSBURG EAST 1459 Tel: +27 (11) 914-3320/3 Fax: +27 (11) 914-2423 metalogik@metalogik.co.za

GIC O L D E C N A V AD

Metalogik Engineering Services is firmly established in the Southern Africa market and provide a range of services including General Engineering, manufacturing of scraper winch spares, chroming, grinding, earthmoving equipment repairs, welding, gear cutting and metal spray. With stringent quality controls and pride in our work, we are approved suppliers to a number of major companies including Barloworld and Komatsu.

we only buy new, computerised technology, so we are working towards increased automation.

This helps us increase accuracy and quality, while also reducing costs.”

As well as investment in equipment, Bafotech invests in its people through training and a strong ethos of internal promotion. “We do a lot of in house training for all our staff and we want to advance everyone in their career,” explains Boone.

“If there is a job vacancy within the company that is higher up the ladder, we will look first to our own people. Sometimes we will identify an employee who we feel would work well in the position, but who falls short on one or two things in terms of knowledge or experience. In this case we would send them for training with an outside provider to equip them for the job. When they have completed this course and take on their new role, we will continue train them on the job too. This strategy of continuous professional development helps our personnel to further advance in their careers.”

For the future, Bafotech will be pursuing strong growth, with at least 50 percent increase in turnover. “We are going to be growing in terms of profit, however we do not anticipate a 50 percent rise in terms of staff, as new advances in machinery increase automation,” explains Boone, continuing.

“The future is all about modern technology: Through advances in our own products will be able to help mines curb accidents and speed up production. We already work with our customers to upgrade machinery all the time, getting it to work safer and more efficiently, and these are two themes that are very important for everyone.”

By to working closely and continuously with its customers, Bafotech has secured a place for itself as a key supplier to the mining industry. By committing themselves to using technological advances to drive growth, improve efficiency and maintain the highest quality standards possibly, the Boone brothers have ensured that their company will be a key player for many years to come. END www.southafricamag.com

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