BUSINESS AND TRAINING 11
The independent for the independents !
By
Rory Macnamara
Plumbing Africa sat with Charles Jerome and Gavin Atkinson to talk about the growth of Sunridge Importers and Wholesalers .
Why ? Simply because it is exciting to see how a local company with a clear vision and focus is developing into a major force in the plumbing industry .
Since 2013 , Charles has developed Rifeng SA into a reasonably sized business but realised that the business needed to expand its product offering and customer base . Charles and Gavin had always admired the others ’ skill sets and that they shared a common vision for the development of an independent plumbing importer and distributor , “ From this we created SUNRIDGE . We defined the market as South Africa , but we have also expanded into the SADC region and see this as a growth point .”
As Gavin states so well , “ We set up the business in 2019 with a focus on general plumbing products , brass and sanitaryware and specialised plumbing products of the Rifeng range . But it was not long before Covid-19 slowed our entry into the market . Despite this initial setback , we have grown the turnover by 600 % since inception . We have continued to add products and numerous brands under the SUNRIDGE umbrella .”
Charles continues ,” We had anticipated that it would take us four years to achieve these milestones , so we are pretty proud with our performance and believe that the competent team that we have assembled will help us achieve more of the same , doubling our turnover over the next two years . We have always operated under the radar , getting on with the business , growing our range of products and now we have cemented our position in the Plumbing market . We have a significant wealth of experience around our boardroom table and our exponential growth has shown this .”
Gavin elaborates on this , saying , “ We have added a complement of specifiers to our sales team and expect to be adding a competent service to professional engineers , architects ’ quantity developers and developers to bring to their attention our expanding range of quality eco-friendly products designed for green buildings and to ensure reduced water usage and wastage .”
Plumbing Africa : You mention the wealth of experience , can you expand on this ?
Gavin , “ We have more than 100 years of collective experience in plumbing across a range of companies involved in the industry . We are also proud of the pioneering work that we have done in China , with some of our executives having visited China and established solid relationships with the best manufacturers who have been able to exhibit high quality and business standards as well as conforming to international specifications , since 1985 . Our experience has taught us of the absolute necessity for compliance and for achieving proper standards in the products that we import . Accordingly , all our approved products are regularly tested and conform to the relevant SANS specifications .”
© Plumbing Africa Rory Macnamara
The All woman team Saloshana Chutri , Karen Naicker , Cheryl Lutchman , Andrea Pender , Harriet van Niekerk , Narisa Rughunandan .
© Plumbing Africa Rory Macnamara
Charles Jerome Joint MD , Byron Enslin , Director Procurement , Nick Davis Director Operations , Gavin Atkinson Joint MD and inset : Ben Botha , Director Cape Town .
June 2022 Volume 28 I Number 4 www . plumbingafrica . co . za