Plumbing Africa January 2020 | Page 60

58 CELEBRATING CORPORATE PROFILE 50 Years for what is today FNB Soccer City. “Suddenly the projects came regularly, and we were very busy locally while also experiencing good growth in Zambia, with multi-year projects in both countries. “With this growth in the business came growth pains – we had too much on our plate for three local directors and one in Zambia. This resulted in some poor results for certain projects we had, because projects weren’t being monitored closely enough. The fact that we don’t have much contracting work in South Africa at the moment because of the recession in the local economy actually suits us, as we are in a consolidation phase and were able to trim our overheads to suit the reduced local workflow,” says Zipp. Company structure and organisation All directors have a shareholding in the business and Zipp is no longer the majority owner. Today it has three shareholders / directors in the IP Group and in IP Zambia the shareholding extends to its Contracts Director heading up operations there. Zipp is the MD of the group and very involved in the Zambian operation which is headed up by the Zambian director of that company. Enzio Zambetti is the financial director and looks after finance and general management “Our focus into other African countries is close to our hearts and we are gathering the required information before wading into new parts of the continent. There are real and different challenges working in other African countries such as local partnerships, new company and tax legislation, registering with company and labour authorities and the construction regulator. If you think labour laws in South Africa are stringent – they are even more complex in some other African countries.” Every year Sasol shuts down sections of the plant for maintenance for up to six weeks, and that is when Industrial Plumbers is exceptionally busy. www.plumbingafrica.co.za @plumbingonline @plumbingonline @PlumbingAfricaOnline January 2020 Volume 25 I Number 11