World Power Products continues its proud 53 year heritage as a 100% South African owned manufacturer of industry leading high-precision, custom-designed sheet metal products as well as a wide range of in-house designed, standard off-the-shelf products manufactured locally to world-class quality.
The local sheet metal manufacturer boasts extensive design, fabrication and finishing facilities at its Johannesburg south headquarters with high-precision, custom-designed sheet metal products accounting for 70% of production. The balance is focused on standard off-the-shelf mild steel and stainless steel cabinets, enclosures, storage systems, locks and hinges as well as perforated sheets manufactured for local and international electrical, electronic, telecommunications and IT equipment industries.
World Power Products supplies a wide range of industries including the electrical, electronics, telecommunications, petrochemical, power generation, automotive, aviation, medical, military, materials handling, hydraulics, industrial storage and mining sectors. The company’s ability to move with and adapt to the economic, political, social and environmental changes that are part of South Africa’s historical landscape are the cornerstones of the company’s success and sustainability. Under the leadership of a forward-thinking and proactive management team, this smart and dynamic business adapts with the times to ensure the sustainable and on-time delivery of world-class products and service solutions at highly competitive prices.
“To continue bringing our quality product line up to our customers has not been an easy journey nor do we expect it to get any easier,” comments Managing Director, Jan Görtzen. “The South African manufacturing industry is under tremendous strain in the face of some immense challenges. In addition to having to deal with stringent labour laws, prescribed wage increases, rising steel prices and ever shortening customer lead times, Chinese imports sold at cut-rate prices present another obstacle.”
South Africa’s unemployment rate increased to 26.7 percent in the three months to March of 2016 from 24.5 percent in the previous quarter and above market expectations of 25.3 percent. “South African manufacturers are the stanchions for job creation and we want to create more employment as well as to upskill our employees through regular training,” continues Görtzen.
But while we are addressing our high unemployment rate, let us not forget that the rest of the world is moving to less labour intensive operation with more and more factories becoming automated. The outcome is faster, accurate performance. Robots don’t get sick, don’t go on leave, don’t get tired and don’t go on strike.” He adds that job creation and upskilling also places pressure on the bottom line.
In order to be sustainable and remain in business, companies across industries are constantly searching for ways to drive down operational and input costs, drive up production and profitability, deliver world-class quality products at competitive prices, while reducing their environmental footprint. World Power Products is no exception. To maintain its position and competitive edge as one of South Africa’s leading players in sheet metal manufacture, the management team recently completed an inspiring three-year journey of transformation. Görtzen explains: “To effectively meet tough economic pressures and industry challenges we reinvented ourselves by analysing every aspect of the business and identifying what processes could be streamlined, where we could work smarter and improve efficiencies and where we could save time and money so that we could offer our customers the best value for their money. We continue to deal with every uphill head on and while some challenges have been tough, we have embraced them and implemented them carefully and intelligently making sure that it is to the advantage of the company to ensure a future for all our employees. When we see opportunities we seize them.”
Employee training and upskilling are high on the company’s priority list and Görtzen confirms that empowering employees to work smarter and safer has a direct and positive impact on the company’s productivity. “A confident worker is a safe worker and produces high quality work.”
World Power Products’ management team is confident and positive about the future. “There are so many opportunities in South Africa; you simply just need to know where to look. It is important that we continue educating people about the advantages of supporting local businesses and buying South African brands; the quality is as good as and often even better than international offerings. We must remain attentive to changing laws and remain proactive.” Wrapping up Görtzen says that they are in the process of finalising their BEE compliancy. “We have given a lot of attention and effort to this important area to ensure that we are truly a proudly South African company representative of our rainbow nation.”
