Paramount Trailers
Keep on trucking Paramount Trailers have become market leaders by offering quality and customer service based on personal relationships with their clients Writer Matt Bone Project manager Ben Weaver Established in 1997 and based South of Johannesburg, Paramount trailers is one of South Africa's leading manufacturers and refurbishers of commercial trailers. Their products range from Flat Deck to Bulk Feed trailers and they even offer specialised bespoke trailers for their clients. The business is family owned and operated, with founder and current CEO Fernando Marques and his son Warren, Managing Director since 2008, at the helm. Paramount have recently moved into a new 72,000 m² manufacturing facility. The company has over 200 employees and an on-site design department with engineers and designers, who are able to meet unique preferences, provide leading innovation and cost effective solutions to customers. Paulo Ribeiro, Financial Director of Paramount Trailers since 2010, has played an integral part in the success the company has seen in recent years. "I joined Paramount about 4 years ago and I have seen paramount grow from a SME (Small to Medium Enterprise) to a MLE (Medium to Large Enterprise) business over the last few years. During this same period our staff quantity has more than doubled." A New Home In 2011, Paramount purchased a plot of land 13km from their previous base of operations and began to lay the foundations on a R150 million manufacturing facility. Construction began in 2012, and was completed by the following August. The new custom built facility was four times as…
Paramount Trailers
Paramount leaves the competition trailing With construction of a new production facility underway this is an exciting time for Johannesburg-based Paramount Trailers. Africa Outlook learns more. Writer Ian Armitage Project manager Ben Weaver Paramount Trailers is one of South Africa's leading and established commercial trailer manufacturers. It came from humble beginnings and has been built from the ground up over the past 16 years, with its product line originally consisting of flat decks, more specifically superlinks and triaxles. In recent years it has evolved as a company by diversifying its product range and bringing more options to market - commercial trailers such as skeletal trailers, stepdeck trailers and tippers, for example. Today it manufacturers just about everything, says Financial Director Paulo Ribeiro. "We have quite an extensive product range," he enthuses. The result is that Paramount enjoyed "solid" 2012, despite the prevailing economic headwinds that hit other trailer manufacturers. "Following on from a tough couple of years, we had a difficult first half to the year; the economy was flat, there was nothing spectacular happening and it was a concern for us as a business," Ribeiro admits. "But towards the latter half of the year we picked up one or two large contracts which really turned the year around and, in tough economic conditions, it ended up being a fairly productive and good year from a business perspective." Ribeiro says that one of the main reasons for the company's success during 2012, and indeed the last few years, was its strategy to expand and diversify its…
