Plumbing Africa Plumblink's first hundred stores | Page 19

Of our top 15 suppliers in value, only one
is a BEE-compliant company. Without
procuring from BEE-rated companies, it is
difficult for ourselves to be correctly rated
– but we achieve in almost every other
category. We also try to make meaningful
donations to charities and orphanages
and provide toilet facilities to rural schools
which don’t have ablution facilities –
things that really make a difference to our
communities.”
definite demand for imported products,
and we have had to follow suit to remain
competitive.” He explains that Plumblink’s
purchases from local manufacturers may
have not declined, but has detracted as a
percentage of total purchases.
Challenges to growth
The size of the business becomes its own
challenges, as any company that evolves
from an entrepreneurial to a corporate
business knows. It is, for instance, too
big for all the staff to get together for
anything other than regional motivational
sessions, and training and communication
consequently relies on the trickle-down
effect through the hierarchy. Regional
meetings are held, and training takes place
at branch level as often as possible. All
of the senior branch, regional sales and
administrative staff congregate once a year
where we celebrate the best of the best
in the form of an information day, awards
evening, dinner and (just a few) drinks.
“Up until about five years ago we definitely
supported local business as far as
possible and in many cases the market
had no alternatives to the local products
(which may in fact have been imported
anyway), but as the South African
economy opened up there has been a
www.plumblink.co.za
Plumblink extends support to local
manufacturers as far as possible, but
Chandler concedes that the reality is most
‘local businesses’ are simply importers.
Local manufacturing capability has been
decimated for a number of reasons:
the South African market lacks the
economies of scale which European and
Asian manufacturers enjoy, and the DZR
specification further limits those economies
of scale by adding substantial cost for a
raw material which almost no other country
in the world requires. In some cases, a
local product could be two or three times
the price of an import because of this fact.
“I am not saying that we are swimming
upstream of national regulations, but I
certainly am questioning the sometimes-
antiquated regulations and legislations in
our industry.”
Shopping in the Soweto store.
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