NEWS
7
Rifeng gets a refurb
The company, Rifeng, is changing its name to Sunridge – a shift
which reflects the fact it has grown beyond its initial role as sole
supplier of Rifeng products throughout nine African countries.
By Eamonn Ryan
It is currently in the process of adding a far wider
range to its product offering, of which the Rifeng
Multilayer Piping system will be one of this basket.
Managing director Charles Jerome explains this move
necessitates a company name change to embrace its
extended product range, with the Rifeng system becoming
one of the many brands they will offer. “Our brand, Rifeng,
is synonymous with our multilayer piping system, which
we will continue to offer to our markets in Southern Africa,
but it will now become one component of a significantly
larger product offering. Our new basket will include a far
more comprehensive product range including several
other brands. Rifeng will always remain an important
component of that basket; Rifeng has and will always
remain an important part of our business and a strategic
partner to us. We will continue to supply the Rifeng water,
chiller and LPG crimp systems as before.
“We feel we want to extend our offering to our clients,
and given the economic uncertainty and circumstances
our market is experiencing, we believe the timing of this
is right for us to focus on it now, so over the last 18 to
24 months we have been concentrating on extending our
range quite considerably.
“We’ve been quite strategic in our selection of product:
we’ve taken all the products that we believe we can be
effective in a best-of-breed offering from manufacturers
and have created our new range with brands such as:
• Bretten (our certified range of products)
• Brescia (non-DZR , aimed at the informal market)
• Brevik (an extensive accessories range)
• Lehman tool range
• Flowpex (our approved multilayer compression
system with compression fittings)
• Flowfit (our approved range of compression fittings
approved with our above-mentioned multilayer system)
“With the collapse of so many construction related
businesses in South Africa, we have noticed a growing
tension and nervousness in the market regarding the
continuity of supply of products, and consequently
having access to alternative sources of supply is also
a growing aspect of a winning formula. Smaller, more
versatile companies like ours are increasingly able to
compete with the bigger players,” explains Jerome.
Sunridge to-be
The company currently supplies multilayer piping
systems (copper-alternative piping) into a market
consisting of large housing projects in Gauteng,
as well as coastal apartment blocks such as the
34-storey The Pearls in Umhlanga Rocks to mention
a few. These projects have high-value plumbing
components attributed to them estimated at R40- to
R80-million. Its product is used in various aspects
of water reticulation – in chiller lines; LPG lines and
potable water ranging in diameters from 16mm to
75mm multilayer pipes and fittings. “Our products are
to be found in a lot more applications,” says Jerome.
“Sunridge has cut a path by hitherto sticking to a
niche in specialised multilayer water supply piping,”
says Jerome, and while it has some powerful
competitors, they tend to be more diversified. “We
introduced multilayer piping into this country about
14 years ago, and the biggest challenge we faced
at that time was the need to establish a big enough
footprint in the country in order to open up our supply
chain and have the product readily available anywhere
in the country. The market has comfort of reliability
of supply and has become educated on the benefits
of multilayer as a copper replacement option. Having
bedded this down we felt it timely to take the next
step and begin adding to our basket.
“We have taken a look at what the market wants with
respect to these ranges and re-engineered these products
to suit those requirements. We’ve literally gone into every
detail we can on the product. A case in point being our
Flowpex Compression system – we offer this system as an
approved multilayer system with an approved compression
fitting range called Flowfit.” says Jerome. “We’ve chosen ranges which we firstly believe our
clients have a need for, and secondly that we believe
we can be effective in. We have been very client
focused with respect to the selection of our basket
and have the ability to be able to distribute this range
alongside our current offering effectively across
the country to both the independent market and
multinationals.
Thereafter, he explains, they were tested locally and all the
local approvals and certifications obtained. “All this stock
arrives and will be available from the month of August.” “This is really the first step for us in our next chapter
and we look forward to growing with our clients in the
coming years,” concludes Jerome. PA
August 2019 Volume 25 I Number 6
“Sunridge
has cut a path
by hitherto
sticking to
a niche in
specialised
multilayer
water supply
piping.”
www.plumbingafrica.co.za