BDC marks 40 years with scribes in tow

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Friday August 13, 2010 00:00

The tour started in Gaborone on Wednesday with a visit to two of its construction and engineering geared outlets, Kwena Rocla and Kwena Concrete Products.

The former is a pre-cast concrete producer partly owned by southern Africa's leading producer of pre-cast concrete for manufacturing, Rocla, with a stake of 51 percent, while BDC holds the balance. The company, which specialises in a wide variety of concrete products like culverts, manholes, curve stones and sewer pipes, has an annual turnover of between P250 million and P300 million. Rocla's Chief Executive Officer, Glen Ansell, described the 18-year old partnership as beneficial. He explained that they pride themselves in quality and satisfying the market demand, adding that they produce 15,000 tons of concrete annually and manufacture more than 140 culverts a day and 800 tons of steel a year.

According to Ansell, some of its products are supplied to the government through contractors, some go to Chinese construction companies and the balance to local companies. Earlier this year, Kwena Rocla secured what it viewed as the largest order in its 90-year history in southern Africa when it was awarded the Greater Gaborone Sewerage Project.  Rocla is supplying over 50 thousand tons of pre-cast concrete products, to the value of over P100 million, for the project which aims at upgrading the sewage system for which China Jiangsu International has been appointed as the contractor. The Chinese contactor subsequently awarded Kwena Rocla the contract to supply pre-cast concrete products for the project due to its track record of timely delivery, production capacity, quality products and positive business relations. The company employes 200 people. Another project toured on Wednesday is Kwena Concrete Products, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the BDC, manufacturing masonry and landscaping materials in the form pf bricks, pavers and pre-cast products such as railway sleepers and floor slabs.

The company makes about 70,000 bricks a day and supplies the majority of its products to the government. It is the only local company licensed to manufacture sleepers and adheres to quality requirements set by the Concrete Manufacturers Association and Abetong AB, a Swedish sleeper manufacturer. The BDC will take journalists to other projects under its portfolio such as Lobatse Clay Works and Lion Park in the southern part of the country as well as Talana Farms and Mashatu Game Reserve in the eastern part of Botswana.