Company Reports - Inspectorate SA
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Inspectorate SA
Commodity inspection and testing leaders
Written by Jennifer Denby & Produced by Francesca Birkinhead
Inspectorate South Africa is the regional arm of Inspectorate International, a global laboratory testing company focused on three main areas - metals and minerals, oil and petroleum, and environmental, food and pharmaceuticals.
With key customers across these industries, SANAS-accredited Inspectorate South Africa provides a diverse spectrum of services, comprising testing, sampling and inspection of commodities such as coal, chrome and manganese; environmental services, such as water analysis; and oil inspection and sampling testing.
To find out more about this leading firm, we speak with South African Managing Director, Fanie Nel. Having joined the firm in 2003, he tells us what he sought to bring to the firm upon joining: “The first thing we strived to achieve, as part of the firm’s profitability, was to satisfy the shareholders needs so they feel that their investment was worthwhile. Then the next thing we did was to stabilise the firm, so we focussed on the parts of the business that provided a more steady cash flow, enabling us to give a more sustainable service to our customers.
“Our goal was then to maintain a growth of 20 percent each year.”
HSE
The industry’s changing attitude towards environmental and corporate social responsibility has resulted in the entire Inspectorate Group responding. In discussing health, safety and environmental issues. Nel says: “Everybody, especially over the last 10 years, has become much more aware of these issues.”
In fact, every member of our staff, from top to bottom, has sought to become more responsible. Furthermore, Inspectorate continues to spend capital on issues such as these, substantially where the environment and hygiene is concerned.
“Environmental policies and procedures from Inspectorate International are collated from all the country offices; these then cascade down to us. From our side, we place focus on legislation compliance and maintaining high standards, as we have many dealings with customers on the mines and various international companies. We also look at our day to day operations and have everything in place to cover that,” Nel explains, adding that Inspectorate has a dedicated team of six people who are focused on safety, health, environment and quality.
“If we look at the company business, we only sell people hours and services, not products. This is our main strength in the market; we have very good staff.”
STRENGTH IN PEOPLE & EQUIPMENT
In fact, many of the business’ managers have been with the firm for over 20 years. “We have a lot of experience in our people. They’ve seen industry’s good and bad times.
“We also have a great working culture. We have a very flat structure to the company, so everyone has contact with the customers. We all work and pull together to make things happen,” Nel says. “On top of that, we have state-of-the-art equipment, most of which is used in technologies today. We always strive to upgrade and extend our equipment when we can afford it. Some of our equipment is really at the cutting edge now”
A high level of automation is becoming an increasingly larger part of the business and Inspectorate has a number of instruments and automated equipment that cover functions that were previously performed by people, Nel adds. “The other development that is becoming much bigger in our business is that virtually all of our laboratories have laboratory information management systems. We receive samples for analysis, their details are then scanned and most of the data recording is captured automatically and electronically. All the reports are then stored and drawn from the database automatically and quality checked by staff.”
To achieve more consistent validation throughout the firm’s processes, Inspectorate is integrating more software development programmes into the business.
“In terms of the future, we are focusing on more automation and computerisation. To be competitive, this is the focus we must take,” Nel says.
“Other developments focus on improving managerial skills, especially in middle management, as they are the people that actually face the customers all the time,” he adds.
FUTURE STRATEGY
Currently, Southern Africa is a developing area with high potential, most of the countries are in a development phase, and although there are many major players, there are also a lot of junior miners and newcomers entering the business; this is where Inspectorate is focusing going forwards.
“We provide junior mining companies with a full service from exploration right through to the day they ship their product. So we focus on these customers and everyday there are more and more of them,” Nel explains, before going on to highlight four to five junior mining houses that the firm is currently working with, underlining Shanduka and Coal of Africa as particularly good examples of businesses that are growing every day. “As they open more and more production sites we strive to continue to give them a good service.”
This strategy of targeting the smaller mining companies that are on the growth path seems to be paying off, as Inspectorate continues to create and maintain strong working relationships - a trend that will hopefully see them in good stead for many years to come.
With key customers across these industries, SANAS-accredited Inspectorate South Africa provides a diverse spectrum of services, comprising testing, sampling and inspection of commodities such as coal, chrome and manganese; environmental services, such as water analysis; and oil inspection and sampling testing.
To find out more about this leading firm, we speak with South African Managing Director, Fanie Nel. Having joined the firm in 2003, he tells us what he sought to bring to the firm upon joining: “The first thing we strived to achieve, as part of the firm’s profitability, was to satisfy the shareholders needs so they feel that their investment was worthwhile. Then the next thing we did was to stabilise the firm, so we focussed on the parts of the business that provided a more steady cash flow, enabling us to give a more sustainable service to our customers.
“Our goal was then to maintain a growth of 20 percent each year.”
HSE
The industry’s changing attitude towards environmental and corporate social responsibility has resulted in the entire Inspectorate Group responding. In discussing health, safety and environmental issues. Nel says: “Everybody, especially over the last 10 years, has become much more aware of these issues.”
In fact, every member of our staff, from top to bottom, has sought to become more responsible. Furthermore, Inspectorate continues to spend capital on issues such as these, substantially where the environment and hygiene is concerned.
“Environmental policies and procedures from Inspectorate International are collated from all the country offices; these then cascade down to us. From our side, we place focus on legislation compliance and maintaining high standards, as we have many dealings with customers on the mines and various international companies. We also look at our day to day operations and have everything in place to cover that,” Nel explains, adding that Inspectorate has a dedicated team of six people who are focused on safety, health, environment and quality.
“If we look at the company business, we only sell people hours and services, not products. This is our main strength in the market; we have very good staff.”
STRENGTH IN PEOPLE & EQUIPMENT
In fact, many of the business’ managers have been with the firm for over 20 years. “We have a lot of experience in our people. They’ve seen industry’s good and bad times.
“We also have a great working culture. We have a very flat structure to the company, so everyone has contact with the customers. We all work and pull together to make things happen,” Nel says. “On top of that, we have state-of-the-art equipment, most of which is used in technologies today. We always strive to upgrade and extend our equipment when we can afford it. Some of our equipment is really at the cutting edge now”
A high level of automation is becoming an increasingly larger part of the business and Inspectorate has a number of instruments and automated equipment that cover functions that were previously performed by people, Nel adds. “The other development that is becoming much bigger in our business is that virtually all of our laboratories have laboratory information management systems. We receive samples for analysis, their details are then scanned and most of the data recording is captured automatically and electronically. All the reports are then stored and drawn from the database automatically and quality checked by staff.”
To achieve more consistent validation throughout the firm’s processes, Inspectorate is integrating more software development programmes into the business.
“In terms of the future, we are focusing on more automation and computerisation. To be competitive, this is the focus we must take,” Nel says.
“Other developments focus on improving managerial skills, especially in middle management, as they are the people that actually face the customers all the time,” he adds.
FUTURE STRATEGY
Currently, Southern Africa is a developing area with high potential, most of the countries are in a development phase, and although there are many major players, there are also a lot of junior miners and newcomers entering the business; this is where Inspectorate is focusing going forwards.
“We provide junior mining companies with a full service from exploration right through to the day they ship their product. So we focus on these customers and everyday there are more and more of them,” Nel explains, before going on to highlight four to five junior mining houses that the firm is currently working with, underlining Shanduka and Coal of Africa as particularly good examples of businesses that are growing every day. “As they open more and more production sites we strive to continue to give them a good service.”
This strategy of targeting the smaller mining companies that are on the growth path seems to be paying off, as Inspectorate continues to create and maintain strong working relationships - a trend that will hopefully see them in good stead for many years to come.
