34 TECHNICAL
Tell me why you became a plumbing contractor – Pieter Meiring
By
David Smith
This month we chatted to Pieter Meiring of Optimus Plumbing to find out more about being a plumbing contractor .
David : Good morning Pieter , please tell our readers a bit about Optimus Plumbing .
David : Very effective branding . But tell us , how did you end up in this profession ?
Pieter : Hi David , so Optimus Plumbing was started in 2015 after I had been working for various plumbing companies around Pretoria . We decided to start our own company and we ’ ve been really blessed and a lot of doors have opened up for us . I think one of the reasons for our success is that we push a lot of money back into the company by investing in equipment such as hydrojets , drain cameras and pipe tracers as well as thermal cameras . We try to stay on top of the technology game because we believe that gives us the edge and also opens up some niche markets for us , I think that ’ s the main reason we ’ ve had some good growth since we opened . That ’ s basically us in a nutshell , our bakkies look like transformers with our unique logo .
David : It ’ s a great logo , what is the story behind that ?
Pieter : We went through a lot of ideas for names for the company and I got so tired of trying to think of a good one that I eventually went onto a website that translates English to Latin and I typed in ‘ the best ’, which in Latin is ‘ optimus ’ and I submitted it and it was approved and registered . My sister then got the idea to run with the whole transformers theme so she searched online for images of pipe fittings and did a bit of graphic design to arrange them into the transformers symbol , which we have on all our vehicles in red and blue . The red parts are reflective so they really stand out at night .
Pieter : Directly after school we knew someone who had a construction / plumbing company and I really enjoyed being outdoors and I really didn ’ t want to work in an office environment and I got an opportunity to work with them . From there , I went to London on a two-year working visa and while there I was fortunate enough to join a company which did work on some major sites like Wimbledon Centre Court , we did a lot of pipework there as well as Baker Street and other major commercial sites . It was an awesome experience really and I got quite excited about it because over there plumbing is a much more respected trade , it ’ s not like here where there ’ s a bit of a stigma around the trade and most people think you ’ re just a guy with a bakkie and a ladder – over there it ’ s highly respected and a well-paid profession .
What was also exciting is that they work with a lot of interesting technology , like freezing kits for example . At Wimbledon especially we worked with 110mm pipe and when you join them you make a groove and then you work with what they call a Victaulic coupling . They use a lot of pipe bending over there and they have cool things like copper fittings which already have solder inside them so you only have to heat them up before doing the joining . I learned a lot there and it got me even more excited about the trade because I knew where the future was heading and I just think it ’ s awesome to see the ways in which technology makes our work easier .
Optimus Plumbers
Pieter Meiring of Optimus Plumbers .
After I came back I did a lot of work around Pretoria for companies doing insurance work and come 2015 my father-in-law and I decided to take a chance and form our own company and so Optimus Plumbing was born . We ’ ve worked really hard over the years and we have a great team now so we feel really blessed . We have three apprentice plumbers from Blulever and it ’ s been quite enjoyable passing on knowledge and getting young people excited about plumbing . They work with all these technologies like hydro jetting and drain cameras which allow us to trace a problem once we find it and gauge how deep it is as well as take pictures and they really enjoy getting that kind of exposure . Due to the training we provide we now have our Level 1 BEE certification so
www . plumbingafrica . co . za @ plumbingonline @ plumbingonline @ PlumbingAfricaOnline January 2023 Volume 28 I Number 11