Barely a month after showcasing its business offerings at the Electra Mining Africa Expo in Johannesburg, a local emerging business, Metal Engineering Manufacturing Works (MEM Works) has secured over R1 million worth of new business.
MEM Works was one of the South African small, medium and micro enteprises (SMMEs) supported by the Department of Trade Industry and Competition (the dtic) in partnership with the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency (GGDA) to showcase their business offerings at the annual international exhibition which took place in Johannesburg last month.
The exhibition affords companies an opportunity to display their products in order to demonstrate the latest technology advancements and at the same time getting feedback from buyers. The exhibitors also get a chance to engage with their peers in industry to forge collaborations and partnerships, identity gaps between their offering and what the world is offering especially in relation to digitisation, sustainability and supplying equipment that speak directly to the bottom line for mining companies.
MEM Works has received orders from major local companies, among them Process Engineering, Nexus and Otsem. Their products include specialised fastening equipment, as well as tool and die machinery for the extrusion industry. The orders have been on items such as plating, shims and specialised precision engineering equipments.
The Managing Director of MEM Works, Mr Kofi Asiedu-Darkwah, says they are positively overwhelmed by the level of uptake of their products and the new customers they have gained from their exposure at the Electra Mining Africa Exhibition. He believes this is testament to the true value of such initiatives.
“We were optimistic when we applied for support, but we thought if we are able to get R200 000 worth of orders in a space of six months, we would regard that as success. We are therefore elated to have generated R1.1 million within three weeks. We have quoted a lot more and we have had to turn down some orders, that we believed were not beneficial to our business. We got more positive leads from the exhibition, so we are confident that there is more revenue in store for us,” he said.
In addition, Asiedu-Darkwah is happy that their rapid progress contributes to demonstrating what is truly possible when transformation is genuine and done right.
“The engineering sector has been somewhat slow to warm up to the transformation agenda. So we were conscious of that when we bought the 51% stake in MEM Works and ensuring we are in the trenches in terms of the day-to-day running and management of operations. We have committed ourselves to showcasing the true benefits of transformation and we are on the right track, because since we joined this business in 2019, we have managed to grow the revenue by up to 80%, and this happened during the tumultous time of the Covid- 19 pandemic.” he said.
The Chief Director of Competitiveness Incentives at the dtic, Mr Hawie Viljoen says the department spent over R568 702 to fund 10 companies to participate in the exhibition with the goal of transforming and improving supply chains and the economy of the country.
“Government is alive to the fact that to change the structure of the economy the promotion of increased value-addition per capita, characterised particularly by movement into non-traditional tradable goods and services that also compete in export, whilst reducing imports through localisation, is essential. The mining value chain plays a very critical role to diversify further and intensify industrialisation within a knowledge economy,” he said.
The Managing Director of Metal Engineering Manufacturing Works, Mr Kofi Asiedu-Darkwah at the company’s premises in Alberton, Johannesburg.
Enquiries:
Bongani Lukhele – Director: Media Relations
Tel: (012) 394 1643
Mobile: 079 5083 457
WhatsApp: 074 2998 512
E-mail: BLukhele@thedtic.gov.za
Issued by: The Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic)
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