Fire delays delivery of new stock

FIRE IN DURBAN HABOUR DELAYS DELIVERY OF GOODS (Click for more)

Just when you thought that importing goods for the South African market was easy, something like this happens.

A huge blaze at a chemical storage facility at the Durban Harbour, has resulted in ships that are carrying our cargo to be delayed outside the port until given the all clear.

The fire has created a huge backlog of ships, which has knock on effects for eveyone including ourselves.

Hopefully our products will be offloaded today, which will enable us to deliver orders into stores over the next few days.

Customer Service & Marketing

Customer service forms a major part of our business.
So much so, that we utilize the services of a consultant, & utilize essential "human contact" technology to ensure that all of our clients are kept up to date with happenings & specials that we may be running, as well as just keeping in contact with our client base.

All of our clients are also business owners. We do not deal with the general public on a sales level, so we deal for the most part with retailers, designers & landscape & interior contractors.
This can sometimes make it dificult to get the opinion of the consumer, as we generally judge the success or failure of our products, by the sales data from our B2B customers.

We do however value feedback from the end user of our products as well, & to this end we have created a newsletter signup facility on our website, as well as this blog.
This enables us to communicate directly with the consumer of our product, & gain valuable insight into what their likes & dislikes are, & what the good as well as bad points are of our products, & how they are perceived by the public in stores around the country.

With being a national company, with our head office in KZN, it is difficult to get to all the stores that carry our product around the country, so we rely heavily on our agents & customers to keep us informed about what is happening at store & consumer level.

We are only human, & we do slip up from time to time, but it is our opinion, that's it's how you deal with the slip up, that makes you or breaks you.

We like to think that "Impossible is nothing, miracles take a little longer!"

Environmental Issues

We are only a small part of the greater whole on this planet, yet we contribute more waste than any & all of the other parts put together!
We have become victims of excess, & the planet is now paying for it.
The time has come for us to reconsider how we go about our daily lives, & how our actions affect others on a global level.
The buzzwords these days are Recycle, Reduce, Replenish, & as a company we are looking at ways to do this.

For a start, we source our timber from responsible forestry resources, & are members of the FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council)
The Council's stated mission is "to promote environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial and economically viable management of the world's forests".

As discussed in a previous post, we are also looking at using other materials like engineered or reformed bamboo, to construct some of our products
Bamboo is a far more eco friendly product, & another benefit of it, is that it is stronger than pine, denser & more resistant to insect attack & rot.

We are currently doing a complete audit on our manufacturing processes & factory management, & it is our intention to have this completed shortly. We want to be thorough, & not just pay lip service to the idea. We need to ensure that all our staff buy into the concept, & understand the ramifications of their actions.

Wood. A scarce commodity

Timber in this country is becoming a scarce commodity, & according to major industry players, there is going to be no let up anytime soon.

The building industry accounts for 64% of all the timber used in this country, & with the building boom in full swing, infrastructure being set up for the 2010 World Cup Soccer & the recent devastating forest fires in Kwa-Zulu Natal & the Free State, have resulted in timber increasing in cost by over 35% in the last 6 months, & this is set to increase even more.

David Crickmay of Crickmay and Associates, a forestry and formal consultancy that has done research on the shortage of timber, said: "Only 1 percent of our land in South Africa is used for planting commercial trees. "The shortage of timber is forcing us to overcut our trees, which is also reducing their age and it will create problems for us in the future."

Without being prophets of doom, we as a company are already preparing strategic solutions to this timber shortage, & one of the solutions we are seriously looking into, is the use of "engineered" bamboo in our manufacturing processes.

Bamboo is extremely eco friendly, & is even being featured as "green plastic" in low environmental impact car interiors.

The benefits of bamboo have long been known to the east where it originated from, & it is only now, that the west is looking at it's benefits.

As a crop, the turnover period from planting to first harvest & then subsequent harvests, is far superior to traditional timber plantations.
Bamboo comes into production in 3 to 4 years and reaches maximum productivity in 7 to 8 years, producing 2 to 10 tons of bamboo shoots per acre.

With this in mind, & the timber problems that we are facing, bamboo is a very attractive option

Types of Screening

In this post, we are going to look at a few different types screening that are available in natural materials.
The natural materials that are used, vary considerably, from rigid timber slats, in anything from pine to exotic hardwoods, but pine is one of the more popular.
Other softer materials, are used as a weave, or fastened with wire to maintain their shape. These screens are generally supplied in a roll of a predetermined height & length, the most common being 1.5M-2M High, & 2M-3M in length.

Some material used for screening:


Woven Bamboo & Mozo Bamboo Framed Screens


Brushwood & Peeled Reed


Pine Bark & Split Bamboo



Pine Timber Trellis Diamond & Square 32 & 96mm apetures (Formal)

All of these screens, should be protected from rot & insect attack, & should last for a number of years outdoors.
We are opposed to using CCA for social & environmental reasons. Click HERE for more information.

All of these screens, need to be mounted into either a frame, as is the case with most of the more rigid materials, like timber & the larger bamboo pieces, while the softer more flexible screens, can be mounted directly onto a fence or a rough wooden screen (if the back is not visible)

Information supplied by: Decor Lattice