The Southern African Plastic Pipe Manufacturers Association (SAPPMA) has recently welcomed BT-Industrial (BTI) as a member.

The BT Industrial Group consists of three specialised business units, i.e. a professional services division that focuses on project management, quantity surveying and engineering solutions; a strategic investment unit that provides weather risk management solution into Africa; and a business division that includes specialised procurement and its successful pipe manufacturing and installations unit.

According to Kgomotso Maphai, BTI’s Executive in charge of marketing, sales and logistics, the company made the decision to start manufacturing its own HDPE pipes in 2017 in response to their clients’ needs.  

“At the time, we struggled to ensure the on-time delivery of pipes that we ordered. We soon realized that for us to protect the BTI brand and our reputation for delivering quality and reliability, it would be necessary for us to remain in control of the value chain and therefore to start producing our own pipes,” Kgomotso explains.

The company’s first pipe was produced in February 2019 at its Roodekop premises.

Today, this 100% black owned industrial solutions company supplies and installs HDPE pipes and accessories, stub ends, flanges, Y-pieces, valves, nuts and bolts. 

Their main contracts are to supply water reticulation to communities for consumption as well as for use in key mining projects where the water table needs to be decanted to alternative sites in order to allow miners to access the seam of raw material below the water table.

All of their HDPE piping supply and installation projects are managed by a team of professional engineers who are qualified in pipe system design, supported by the company’s on-site professionals situated at satellite offices in New Vaal and Witbank. 

Explaining BTI’s commitment to quality, Kgomotso says: “When we first ventured into the HDPE manufacturing space, our research told us that quality and reliability were the two key components of a successful company. BTI is passionate about producing and delivering quality. As a result, our first step was to ensure that we attained the SABS Sans 4427 accreditation, followed shortly after by the ISO 9001 certification for quality management systems.  As production started to pick up and demand for our pipes grew, it became important for us to also get SAPPMA’s approval of our strict quality protocols”.

The BTI Quality Management team, led by their head of engineering, Farai Chamisa, attended SAPPMA’s PIPES XII conference last year and found the event to be very informative and a great place to network with other industry leaders and potential clients.

“Our company policy is one that states that you never stop learning.  SAPPMA’s dedication to providing reliable and objective design information to the market by way of consultations, conferences and technical literature and fulfilling an instrumental role in upgrading and amending existing standards, aligned with our policy of continuous learning and improvement. We were therefore eager to get SAPPMA’s endorsement and display the logo on our pipes in order to demonstrate to clients our unwavering commitment to quality,” Kgomotso says.

Because membership to SAPPMA is also one of the key requirements for participating in major potable water projects, Kgomotso adds that the membership add significant value and credibility to the company’s operations. 

“SAPPMA is pleased to welcome BTI as a member and supports its zero tolerance for sub-par workmanship and commitment to quality management. In the markets they serve, pipes need to be manufactured within strict guidelines to ensure water is not polluted and that it won’t cause risk to communities.  

“Similarly, poorly manufactured pipes pose a serious threat to  the safety of miners on site if they burst, could cause unnecessary delays to the mining process and result in avoidable cost escalations that erode the mine’s profitability. It is therefore vitally important for BTI to be able to demonstrate that they produce excellent quality pipes that work optimally and pose no risk to their end-users.  

“With the Government’s renewed commitment to improving and maintaining the country’s water infrastructure, we look forward to greater opportunities for our industry. SAPPMA will be supporting BTI  and our other members to ensure they have the necessary processes and procedures in place to make the most of these prospects when they come to fruition,” concludes SAPPMA Chief Executive Officer, Jan Venter.