company announced the expansion has
led to increased business which “meant
that Flowcrete South Africa outgrew its
original site in the city and had to move
to a new location double the size of the
previous one.”
“Moving our Cape Town operation
to a larger site marks a significant step
in our capacity to supply more high
performance resin flooring materials to
developments in the region faster and
more effectively than ever before,” said
Flowcrete South Africa’s managing direc-
tor, Craig Blitenthall in May.
Although the company will remain
within the same Cape Town industrial
park, Flowcrete is now situated at Unit
6 & 7 but has enhanced its capacity to supply high quality resin flooring
products to commercial and industrial
construction projects, especially in the
Western Cape, from a central and convenient location.
Flowcrete South Africa says the construction and building industry in the
Cape Town area has a high demand
for several systems from its HACCP
International certified Flowfresh range
of the hardy industrial epoxies Flowcoat
SF41 and Flowshield SL as well as cementitious based concrete repair products such as Conrep SF65.
The company said the Western Cape
region is fast growing with high value
infrastructure, industrial and commercial
developments that have created a huge
market for flooring solutions.
Market researcher and analyst Frost &
Sullivan estimates Western Cape’s share
of South Africa’s construction industry at
17. 6 percent just behind Gauteng’s 43. 3
percent, which is the country’s largest.
The expansion of Flowcrete South
Africa’s Cape Town operations is just but
one of the strongest signals that South
Africa’s resin flooring market is enjoying
a boom, a trend that has stood the test of
time since 2009. The trend is supported
by growth in urbanization, which has in
turn created the need for industrial parks
and housing projects.
Investors in South Africa spent an es-
timated $1.3 billion in business related
to real estate last year, which was 34%
higher than what they spent in 2014
according to South Africa-based Fortune
500 Company, Jones Lang Lasalle IP, Inc
(JLL), which focuses on specialised real
estate services.
JLL said the growth was driven by
offices, which reported an investment
growth of 70.7 percent for 2015. The
country’s retail sector recorded a 47. 8
percent rise in value while industrial posted a 22.2 percent increase.
The company says in 2015 the retail
accommodation segment “performed
well despite the current economic cli-
mate, which has encouraged owners to
hold onto their assets.”
“The sector has also seen a number of
large malls being developed in key areas
across the country, increasing competi-
tion in a retail sector plagued by consum-
er challenges,” it said.
In the residential market segment,
government and private sector reports indicate rapid growth of properties valued
at less than $22,000, a clear indication
of the impact of President Jacob Zuma’s
government sponsored subsidized housing program.
The National Department of Human
Settlements says the country’s formal
housing has grown by 50 percent since
1994, translating to an additional 5. 6
million formal homes.
The department estimates by 2020
more than $18 billion would be invested
in commercial and residential housing
segments including “affordable bonded
housing by banks, rental accommoda-
tion developments by private sector
and agencies, government subsidies,
housing investments by big employers
and mining companies, bulk services
development for townships and hu-
man settlements, upgrading of current
informal settlements infrastructure and
community infrastructure like schools,
churches, business sites and other ame-
nities.” This is could one of the highest
growth catalysts for the resin flooring
market in South Africa in both the short
and medium term.
According to Richard Weissenberg
Business Unit Leader Chemicals,
Materials & Food – Africa, the share of
the flooring market in South Africa’s total
construction market is about 18.9% behind that of admixtures and water proofing at 36.4% and 23.9% respectively. He
said in October repair & rehabilitation
and the sealants & grouts hold a 12 percent and 8 percent respectively.
South Africa’s current domestic production of resinous flooring solutions is
not adequate with Weissenberg saying an
estimated 40 percent of the segment was
imported in 2013, a trend that could still
be prevailing. This is compared to the 7
percent of the cementitious that was imported during same period. CW
“Moving our Cape Town operation to a
larger site marks a significant step in our
capacity to supply more high performance
resin flooring materials to developments in
the region faster and more effectively than
ever before,” said Flowcrete South Africa’s
managing director, Craig Blitenthall.
