Developments News Magazine

Shopping centres hold a special place in festive holiday routines worldwide, from sunny South Africa to snowy Poland. “No matter what you may think (or not think) about shopping malls, they are simply an unbeatable place to be this time of year,” says Hadley Dean, CEO of EPP, Poland’s largest owner of shopping centres, which is listed on the stock exchanges in Johannesburg (JSE) and Luxembourg (Euro MTF). Hadley puts this down to the experience and delight that only shopping centres can offer. The sights: malls do decorations in a spectacular manner. Management spends a great deal of time and effort creating a festive environment crafted to put you in a good mood, and it works. Even better is that, like snowflakes, no two centres are decorated exactly the same. The sounds: head to your local shopping centre where you are guaranteed they will be playing holiday tunes; there may even be live performances. The taste: Food and beverage have become a critical point in modern shopping

People do business with people they know, like and trust. Building relationships, however, takes time and effort. Even so, relationships are fundamental to growing small businesses, and entrepreneurs should never lose sight of that. At small business accelerator Property Point, a Growthpoint initiative, relationships are considered to be so fundamental for building sustainable small companies that they are one of its three pillars: Risk, Reputation and Relationships. “The obvious relationships that a small business wants to nurture are those with clients, funders, suppliers or mentors. While less apparent, when you are building a business from the ground up, the power of peer networking is invaluable,” says Desigan Chetty, Head of Operations at Property Point. “Entrepreneurship can be an isolating journey, but you don’t have to go it alone. Having a strong peer network can help you as a business owner, and support you with referrals, advice or even just an empathetic friend to mee

Maluti Crescent Shopping Centre, formerly Setsing Crescent in Phuthaditjhaba in the Free State, has unveiled the first part of its major redevelopment and expansion undertaken by JSE-listed retail REIT Vukile Property Fund. It is well on track for its official launch on 21 March 2019. Developed and leased by Flanagan & Gerard Property Development & Investment and designed by MDS Architecture for Vukile, the redevelopment will become the largest shopping centre in town. Construction work, started by main contractor Concor Buildings in January 2018, will be completed in time for the launch of the new Maluti Crescent in March 2019. It includes the significant extension of the existing mall, which will add 12,357sqm of gross lettable area and boost its size over 34,000sqm, as well as undercover parking and a taxi rank. It will fundamentally change the shopping experience for shoppers in its area. This redevelopment is transforming Maluti Crescent from a strip mall to a stat

The improper disposal of waste is one of the fastest growing risks to our planet and way of life. Rotting food leads to increases in methane gasses as the food decomposes in landfills. To address this, the City of Cape Town plans to start banning wet waste from its landfills from 2022. The Waste Transformers from the Netherlands and South Africa’s own JSE-listed international property company Growthpoint Properties have united to help take on this challenge. They are leveraging end-of-pipeline food waste from shopping malls and adopting a de-centralised approach to organic waste. An on-site, anaerobic digester has been installed at Growthpoint’s N1 City Mall in Cape Town, which is processing the waste from the mall to generate clean methane. This methane is consumed by an internal combustion engine to produce green electricity and hot water for the shopping centre. A fertiliser is also created, which will be used for the mall’s gardens. It is an on-site, smart, green, transporta

Brokk, the world’s leading manufacturer of remote-controlled demolition machines, hires Ted Graser as its southeast regional sales manager. Graser manages sales for both Brokk robotic demolition machines and the company’s Aquajet Systems AB hydrodemolition robots. He provides support to customers throughout Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and the Carolinas. “Ted’s sales and equipment experience are a valuable asset to our team,” said Peter Bigwood, Brokk vice president of sales and marketing. “His knowledge of the southeast region and drive to help service customers gives him valuable insight when it comes to building and maintaining relationships.” Graser joins Brokk with 25 years of construction and industrial equipment sales experience, including managing international territories for Link-Belt Excavators, a U.S.-based heavy construction equipment manufacturer; Time Manufacturing Company, a Texas-based manufacturer of aerial lifts; and Sennebogen, a German material handlin

World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim, currently on an official visit to South Africa, was hosted yesterday afternoon by the Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Compensation Commissioner Dr Barry Kistnasamy, the Minerals Council South Africa, and the Occupational Lung Disease (OLD) Working Group and its six member mining companies: African Rainbow Minerals; AngloGold Ashanti; Anglo American SA; Gold Fields; Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate to Dr Kim the outreach work being carried out collaboratively by these organisations in mining regions and labour-sending areas around the southern African sub-continent. The World Bank was instrumental in providing initial investments and analytical work which assisted in towards a more comprehensive and fully integrated occupational health services for ex-mineworkers in southern Africa. The purpose of the work is to track and trace former mineworkers, test them for any occupational lung diseases they ma

Talbert Manufacturing, a North American leader in specialized heavy-haul solutions, offers the 60CC/55SA-LD trailer for optimum versatility. The trailer pairs with Talbert’s optional East Coast-style E2Nitro™ spreader, allowing for 60-ton capacity with a close-coupled configuration or a 55-ton hauling capacity with a spread axle configuration. This innovative Talbert design gives customers flexibility to switch between configurations to meet differing hauling regulations. While maintaining a 60-ton rating at half the deck length, the 60CC/55SA-LD offers a 6-inch ground clearance with an 18-inch loaded deck height — two inches lower than competitive models. “We’re the only manufacturer offering a trailer in this hauling class with an 18-inch loaded deck height,” said Troy Geisler, Talbert vice president of sales and marketing. “Those two inches make a huge difference in today’s hauling world.” The Talbert 60CC/55SA-LD is a hydraulic detachable gooseneck trailer featuring a non-ground

World Bank president Dr Jim Yong Kim, currently on an official visit to South Africa, was hosted yesterday afternoon by the Minister of Health Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, Compensation Commissioner Dr Barry Kistnasamy, the Minerals Council South Africa, and the Occupational Lung Disease (OLD) Working Group and its six member mining companies: African Rainbow Minerals; AngloGold Ashanti; Anglo American SA; Gold Fields; Harmony and Sibanye-Stillwater. The purpose of the event was to demonstrate to Dr Kim the outreach work being carried out collaboratively by these organisations in mining regions and labour-sending areas around the southern African sub-continent. The World Bank was instrumental in providing initial investments and analytical work which assisted in towards a more comprehensive and fully integrated occupational health services for ex-mineworkers in southern Africa. The purpose of the work is to track and trace former mineworkers, test them for any occupational lung diseases they ma

Growthpoint Properties continues to grow internationally with a further ZAR908 million investment in Australia. The leading JSE-listed REIT is following its full rights in the funding call from ASX-listed Growthpoint Properties Australia (GOZ), in which Growthpoint has a 66% shareholding, for the acquisition of the Bank of Queensland headquarters in Brisbane. GOZ acquired the 24,665sqm A-grade office building, fully occupied by the Bank of Queensland and Collection House, with a weighted average lease expiry of 7.5 years and a weighted average rent review of 3.9% a year. The building is new, completed in 2014, and is certified with excellent green and energy efficiency credentials. GOZ will partially fund the AUD250m acquisition, which has an initial yield of 6.1%, through an equity raising of up to some AUD135m. Growthpoint has confirmed that it will be taking up its full entitlement of around AUD89m, or ZAR908 million. Norbert Sasse, Group CEO of Growthpoint, comments, “The g

In recognising the vital role that technology plays in securing business, SKF continues to move with the Industry 4.0 tide. In line with the company’s ‘World Class Manufacturing’ initiative, SKF has implemented the operator 4.0, a new approach to managing machinery and operations from the palm of employees’ hands. Since SKF’s launch of the ‘World Class Manufacturing’ digitalisation model at Göteborg plant in 2015, the company has been rolling out new innovative digitalisation and automation features to improve production and turnaround times to the ultimate benefit of customers. This automation transformation also upskills employees and enhances their job experience with smarter technology leading to a more productive and safer working environment. The introduction of Operator 4.0 relieves operators from manual tasks and requires them to broaden their knowledge in order to be in a position to understand a more comprehensive system, with multiple connections. Smartphones are a vi

Atlas Copco is firmly committed to community development and regularly participates in philanthropic initiatives. On 02 November 2018, the company joined forces with Rand Air to hand over a donation to the Apricot Tree Centre situated in Benoni, east of Johannesburg. A team of eighteen cyclists from the two companies selected Apricot Tree Centre as their ‘Ride for a Purpose’ at this year’s Telkom 94.7 Cycle Challenge on 18 November. “When Atlas Copco’s Supplier Development Manager, Marilyn Govender, who rode for Apricot Tree in her own capacity in last year’s Cycle Challenge, approached us to get involved in this worthy cause, we eagerly agreed,” explains Atlas Copco’s Group Human Resources Manager Wendy Buffa-Pace. “Recognising the good work done by Apricot Tree and the tremendous need of this non-profit organisation, we decided to raise the funds even before the cycle event!” The Atlas Copco / Rand Air cycling group displayed their generosity and dedication to helping those in need

Johannesburg - The building that housed media outlets previously owned by the Gupta family has been sold for R29.5 million. Located in Midrand, the building visible from the M1 North became the first item to go under the hammer as properties of the companies formerly known as The New Age and ANN7 were auctioned on Wednesday. Bidding for the building with three semi-detached warehouses started at R20m. Auction attendees slugged it out until the successful bidder's R29.5m offer was accepted. The Star reported last week that the auctioneers, Park Village Auctions, had expected it to fetch between R30m and R35m. The media outlets, which the Guptas eventually sold to former government spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi for R300-million through vendor financing, have been liquidated, thus the auction. Manyi renamed the outlets Afro Voice and Afro Worldview months after obtaining them. But this was not enough to save the newspaper and 24-hour news channel that had attracted controversy as

Work on the Vaal River System rehabilitation project, in Sebokeng, is now under way after a technical team from the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) completed its assessments, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula has said. Following the deployment by Finance Minister Tito Mboweni of SANDF technical teams to restore infrastructure, including dysfunctional plants and substations, at the polluted Vaal River system, the team has, over the past three to four weeks, assessed the issues and produced a final report on what needs to be done going forward. The defence force embarked on rehabilitation assistance in October after it emerged that the communities in Vereeniging, Sebokeng, Boipatong and Sharpeville face alleged water pollution caused by raw sewage flowing into the river from pump stations in the Emfuleni municipality. While there is a lot of rehabilitation work ahead, owing to a range of challenges, including a lack of maintenance, ageing infr

Owing to the global trade war in steel prices, local manufacturers, such as local steel fabricator Fabcon, are finding it difficult to quote for long-term construction projects. “The stockholding of any steel company is dramatically reduced, as companies are unwilling to hold stock for a longer period of time,” says Fabcon Steel director Andrew van Gool. As a result, fluctuating prices are putting pressure on design elements, which means that engineers have to design around what steel they can get, as opposed to what they want, he remarks. This has created an opportunity for Fabcon, which has “the added flexibility to service small and large-scale projects, unlike many large steel companies that have inherent limited flexibility”, says Van Gool. Fabcon aims to provide turnkey solutions based on engineering services in terms of drawing design and certification, followed by the actual erection of the structures required. This, he explains to Engineering News, gives the company a “lea

The International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) on Monday committed its members to implement the United Nations (UN) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Speaking at the UN Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights, ICMM CE Tom Butler announced the industry body's new performance expectations that will "define what mining with principles looks like in practice", by setting a benchmark for the industry’s environmental and social performance. The performance expectations, which will apply to all ICMM members, were developed with extensive input from nongovernmental organisations, international organisations and academics. “ICMM’s council of 27 CEOs have shown real leadership in being the first industry body to commit to implementing the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. “Importantly, other companies will also be able to publicly commit to our performance expectations and I hope this will lead the broader industry to further impro

The South African stainless steel industry is in an early developmental stage with regards to construction and cladding, despite many architectural projects having been completed over the past few decades, says South African Stainless Steel Development Association (Sassda) Western Cape regional manager Michel Basson. This early stage, he adds, provides an opportunity for the local stainless steel industry to grow rapidly over the next decade, considering that stainless steel – while slightly more expensive – has the unique ability to resist corrosion, heat and chemical damage, thereby providing a total life-cycle costing that is, in most cases, “unbeatable”. Basson explains that albeit that most stainless steel grades can be used for architectural application, high-strength duplex grades of stainless steel provide added strength, which allows for a reduced thickness of the material, subsequently providing a cost advantage over conventional grades of steel since the construction will