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PERSONALITY PROFILE
Then came his first association with Lakhnati, who
was brought in to turn around Rainbow Chickens,
and who in turn brought in McFarlane to run
Rainbow’s northern region based in Rustenburg.
He left when the strategy at Rainbow was changed
some years later, and had stint in grain-trading,
before the next call came from Lakhnati.
His experiences up till this point, particularly at
Rainbow, were in a different industry and a different
style of business, with a large workforce and
consequently a focus on labour relations. “Those
were the toughest years of my life and my biggest
challenge, but I eventually won over the hearts and
minds of the people – and that was my greatest
achievement there.
My background – I grew up speaking Xhosa before
I could speak English – helped me. I also had a
great mentor in Epol in a sales manager, High
Saulez, who taught me that someone is never
just a customer, but a friend and partner, and that
you’ve actually got to go out and learn about him
and his business and how you can help him on his
farm – the human side of business over a beer.
Farmers don’t get to see many people.”
The walkout of senior management from Plumblink
after their two-year restraint-of-trade had expired,
was McFarlane’s second big career challenge.
“I came to Plumblink knowing nothing of the
industry, though with considerable management
experience. I was fortunate that in Gary
Chandler I had someone with a level of
plumbing knowledge which nobody else in the
industry could match.”
Plumbing wall of shame
Plumblink remained financially constrained for a
long time with Ethos as its financial backer and
couldn’t increase its stock levels by importing. It
consequently continued to heavily support local
manufacturers, even though some were out of
touch with international pricing. The advent of
Bidvest as holding company loosened the purse-
strings sufficiently for Plumblink to begin importing
a range of products today known as Plumline,
bringing affordable, quality products to the market.
“Local manufacturers would simply state, ‘That’s
our price’ ignoring the fact the market wasn’t
supporting them at those prices. Now with better
cashflow, we were able to look at things differently
and brought in our own ranges of SABS-approved
products, and it’s served us very well,”
says McFarlane.
However, poor installation knowledge is another
feature of the plumbing market, and McFarlane
says they have instances when consumers blame
the product for flooding, for instance, when on
investigation the cause was found to be a simple
error in installation. “In this instance, the damage
is the consumer’s responsibility because they hired
someone who’s not a qualified plumber.”
The new-look Plumblink is the result of fresh
thinking by McFarlane and Commercial Director
www.plumbingafrica.co.za
@plumbingonline
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@PlumbingAfricaOnline
January 2020 Volume 25 I Number 11