Umoya Energy
Power Pioneers It is an exciting time for renewable energies in South Africa, in particular in wind generation, as the country enters Round 4 bidding in August this year Writer Emily Jarvis Project Manager Rahim Ali Umoya Energy is the Independent Power Producer (IPP) that owns Hopefield Wind Farm (HWF), located in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Established in 2008 by African Infrastructure Investment managers (aIIm), the IPP was created as a Special Purpose Vehicle to develop and own HWF, making it one of the pioneering wind energy developers in South Africa. Umoya Energy's technical manager, Sam Cook, has relished the chance to be a part of the project: "Indeed it was both novel and exciting to be a part of, as HWF was the first commercial wind farm in South africa to reach the COD milestone (Commercial operation Date) on 1st February 2014. Construction of the wind farm was completed on time, within budget, and without major challenges." Umoya Energy was selected as a successful bidder in Round one of the DOE's REIPPP Programme. "Hopefield wind Farm is the culmination of rigorous studies, planning and work by a number of people since at least 2008. Strong partners and active community engagement have been key to our success. It is certainly rewarding to play a role in building the project and also building relationships with the local community." For projects in the early rounds of the REIPPP Programme, there is no local supply of the main wind turbine components. This is soon to change…
Atraco International (K) Ltd
Delivering on the Atraco Promise Over the past five years, Atraco have held a stellar reputation through upholding good business practice and ethics in all of their business dealings Writers Emily Jarvis Project Manager Ben Wigger Atraco International (K) Limited is a General Commodity International Trading Company and is one of East Africa's foremost suppliers of road and civil construction products and technology. The in-house trading company was incorporated in Kenya in September 2012 and was to operate as the holding entity of their sister company, Hanse International Ltd. (incorporated in Kenya on July 2009). Hanse was already a trading company that had vast experience in Commodity Trading in Europe, Asia and parts of Africa. "In essence, Atraco is an off shoot of Hanse and has taken over some of the operations in East Africa," says Atraco Regional Managing Director, Rita Bochere. "We specialise in the supply of building materials such as bitumen and steel products to our clients. These complimentary activities are aimed at assisting road authorities, consulting engineers and contractors in building roads and structures of the highest quality. We recognise that infrastructure, especially a good road network, is a nation's most strategic asset," she adds. The supply of these materials is accompanied by highly qualified staff , who apply years of industry experience and support Atraco's mission to provide its customers with products manufactured to the highest standards, enabling them to build roads and housing for the future. Atraco International Kenya Limited offers a full service from its offices in Nairobi and Istanbul,…
HC Heat-Exchangers
Engineering Excellence HC Heat-Exchangers manufacture an extensive range of quality products for both commercial refrigeration and air conditioning applications, right the way through to large custom built units suitable for all manner of industrial applications Writers Matt Bone Project Manager Tom Cullum HC Heat-Exchangers (HCHE) is a design and manufacturing company, specialising in air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment. Heating Centre was founded in 1973 and rapidly built a reputation for superb engineering and manufacturing within the industry. From this solid foundation, HC Heat-Exchangers was born in 2001 as a manufacturer of finned tube heat-exchangers. Over a short period of time, HC Heat-Exchangers rose to become the largest manufacturer of these products in Southern Africa. The company design and build everything from finned-tube heat exchangers and packaged air conditioning units, to compressorised simplex and multiplex systems for both the air-conditioning and refrigeration industry. a large portion of the business is also geared towards offering bespoke solutions which are designed and engineered to client specifications. HCHE service a wide range of clientele, varying from the military and petrochemical industry through to the commercial and industrial air-conditioning and refrigeration industry. HCHE have a large, highly qualified engineering division who are able to provide custom solutions to the market place, priding themselves on not only the quality of their products, but most importantly the quality of the engineering behind the product. Robert Kruger, Managing Director of HC Heat-Exchangers, points to two reasons why HCHE have become the top company in their field in Southern Africa: "there are two points which make…
MRE South Africa
South Africa's Custom Coolers Through hard work and a strong growth strategy, MRE hope to adapt to market changes and continue to provide a top-class service in industrial refrigeration long into the future Writers Emily Jarvis Project Manager Tom Cullum MRE are a specialist Industrial Refrigeration Company that designs, installs and services/maintains plants to suit the cooling requirements of any customer. The company are the second largest refrigeration contracting and compressor packager in the whole of South Africa. Each of the designs is custom made in order to best suit individual customer requirements. "we have excellent installation and service crews who are based locally. Additionally we manufacture and assemble locally as well so that we can make our products as affordable as possible," cites Dennis vd Westhuizen, managing Director of MRE. The company have gone to great lengths to ensure they adopt the very latest technologies and control systems to achieve efficient operation of their refrigeration plants. Started in 1995 in Cape Town, MRE originally had an office which covered Southern Africa but due to the demand for their services, strong growth allowed the company to open offices in Johannesburg and Durban. "as a result of the passion and dedication shown by our staff across all our regions of operation, today, we have been able to secure positive growth and have consequently gone on to have one of the best years ever in the history of the company in 2013," highlights vd Westhuizen, adding his thanks to MRE customers for their continued valuable support in "our…
Paarl Media Group
Professional Personal Printers The Paarl Media Group is a true African company who has invested both time and money into their business research and development Writers Emily Jarvis Project Manager Ben Wigger With its roots going back to 1905, Paarl media has grown to become the most comprehensive commercial printing operation in africa, with an operational capacity of 500,000 tonnes of paper a year. What's more is that the company has further extended their reach to include the international printing stage and are proud to be on par with international printing standards. This has only been possible thanks to a forward-thinking attitude and a quest to keep abreast of the latest technologies. "Through the implementation of faster, more advanced technology and highly efficient, fully automated production processes, we ensure our position as a single source for all printing requirements," says group CEO, Stephen Van Der Walt. Consequently, the Paarl media group has seen steady growth per annum for the last decade, testament to their efforts to embrace the future. Striking a Balance Between Old and New Tech Whilst print media in Europe and the US is now considered a somewhat dated technology, Van Der walt identified Africa as an emerging market for print media: "It is different here in African countries, our markets are driven by democracy and literacy rates. Nigeria and DR Congo for example are relatively new to the democracy scene. With these new political processes comes an enormous requirement for print media to be prepared for elections, education, law libraries and so on.…
Airtel Seychelles
Bringing Innovation to Seychelles First Boasting exemplary customer service coupled with dedication to technological innovation, airtel Seychelles bring the latest technologies and data services straight to the user Writers Emily Jarvis Project Manager Donovan Smith Airtel Seychelles is a special member of the Bharti Airtel family because the Seychelles operations became the tech giant's first venture into Africa 15 years ago. Since then, Seychelles has seen vast technological improvements and a whole array of new services moulded to suit the needs of the community; and no one man is prouder to have been a part of this change than Airtel Seychelles' current managing Director, Amadou Mahamat Dina. "Everything in Airtel Seychelles is always a first. By this I mean we were the first to launch pre-paid mobile services, the first to bring in 3.75G data services in Seychelles and we are soon to launch 4G LTE services in the country– and we are proud to be the first to enter the mobile finance market in Seychelles with Airtel money," he highlights. The company have come on leaps and bounds since entering the country and have expanded their footprint across all of Seychelles' islands, ensuring that their services are available to everyone. "It is important to us that our services are available to all customers and are at an affordable price. whether our customer is corporate, an SmE's or an individual, our services are available to all," explains Amadou Dina. Boasting the fastest Internet speeds in Africa - as per the broadband the testing company Ookla -…
