“Hulamin has remained focused on delivering high quality products at competitive costs’ ~ Richard Jacob, CEO of Hulamin
As the only major aluminium rolling operation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Hulamin is one of the largest exporters, representing more than 60% of sales. In January 1990, Richard Jacob had joined Hulamin and since then, held various positions in manufacturing, and sales and marketing. In 2002, he was appointed to the Executive Committee and in 2007 assumed the responsibility for Investor Relations. 3 years later, in 2010, Richard became the Chief Executive Officer of the company.
Here, we have shared with you all a brief interview with Mr. Jacob, who implicitly told us about Hulamin’s key strengths behind producing an extensive range of products and also spoke about the key strategies to maintain a sustainable growth rate. If you want to know more, continue reading the interview.
Q: What are the key strengths that have been helping Hulamin to continually produce an extensive range of quality products?
A: Hulamin has remained focused on delivering high quality products at competitive costs while ensuring that customer service is prioritised. Hulamin has focused on developing its people using lean manufacturing tools in a programme tailor made for the Company.
Q: As the Chief Executive Officer of Hulamin, what would be your key strategies to maintain a sustainable growth rate in this current volatile metal market?
A: As a fixed asset - capital intensive business, our sales volume performance is largely dictated by our installed capacity. We have a number of expansion opportunities that are at various stages of feasibility. We are also developing additional business models to grow sales.
Q: While the use of aluminium is growing in the new age vehicles, do you see the automotive and transport industry to be the major driving force of your aluminium extrusion business in 2019?
A: Demand for extruded aluminium in the engineering sector in Souther Africa has remained subdued for the last few years. We are convinced that sales of extruded aluminium will grow to reflect its preferred properties in the auto and transport markets in the region.
Q: What is your outlook for the South African aluminium industry in 2019? How do you think the sanctions and tariffs will impact the country’s industry in 2019?
A: The entire economy in SA has been in recession since the start of 2019. As a non-aligned country SA should not be targeted directly in most trade wars. However, as a major exporter, Hulamin remains vulnerable to trade actions in its major markets i.e. USA and Europe.
Q: What significant difference do you see in the aluminium industry when you became the Chief Executive Officer of Hulamin in 2010 and now?
A: The automotive demand for our products has grown beyond expectations, although having been in the industry for close to 30 years, it has been spoken about extensively. At last, expectations are starting to become reality.
Q: Since the packaging sector is one of the largest markets for aluminium flat rolled products, what is your plan of action for generating maximum business from that sector in 2019?
A: Hulamin sells about 50% of its products into the packaging sector. We are optimising sales, developing new products and maximising purchases of scrap aluminium in order to keep ahead.
Q: How technology and equipment are going to play a major role in the development of aluminium industry in the future?
A: Such is the advancement of technology that being a generalist (wide product range) is no longer a viable long term strategy. We are developing products, know how and equipment to capitalise on our existing strengths to expand our capability into more advanced products. At the same time we are also investing in developing our in-house technology capability to be able to offer our customers certain advantages for sourcing from Hulamin. Also, numerous new products are emerging that we are developing that did not exist 5 years ago.
