A Legacy of Leadership: Johan van der Westhuizen’s 47-Year Journey at GRS

The time has come to close a chapter of my life that was filled with passion, enjoyment, excitement, interaction with many and team spirit. I was asked to give an overview of my experiences and hope this gives the reader an understanding of the history of GRS. One wonders why a registered professional engineer joined and eventually retires at a sheeting company.

The answer lies in a young design engineer at Dorbyl Structural Engineering being frustrated with having to take off quantities during the recession of 1986, who asked his boss to be moved temporary until the end of the recession, to a different department to gain experience. The reply with-in a week was to be transferred to Brownbuilt Metal Sections, heading a small department that marketed, sold and constructed protective structures that could withstand bomb blasts and RPG7 attacks.

This was followed by Technical Manager and National Marketing and Sales Manager all with-in 3 years.

By then I was hooked by the diversity and constant changing environment in which we operate. Instead of moving back to engineering, decided to use engineering skills to diversify our products and marketing skills to be the leading manufacturer and supplier in our industry. This drive to differentiate and be profitable instead of being just another supplier became a passion. Thanks to Jaap Bekker, the famous rugby Springbok prop who retired as National Marketing and Sales Manager and David Monro, General Manager who played a big role in my forming years.

The challenge was to stop the trend of breaking even every financial year and create a profitable company. The exco team consisting of the GM, NMSM, Financial Manager and Factory Manager met on Saturdays in the board room to brainstorm and device action plans for review and improvements. The plan started with only one mobile mill, calculating the return on capital, adding more equipment and staff to determine the point where additional investment didn’t lead to an improvement in return.

Having introduced Klip-Lok 406 which was the first product in South Africa to roll-form high yield steel, it didn’t make financial sense to also stock commercial quality steel for IBR, Nu-Rib and Corrugated Iron. Supa-Clad and Custom-Orb were thus designed to be roll-formed from the same mother coil as Klip-Lok 406 and marketed successfully against IBR and Corrugated Iron. We further convinced the board to close the contract division as competing with one’s customers was not a good idea.

This together with a revised Approved Contractor system went down well with customers. I have fond memories of the branch and budget meetings that were generally hosted by branches on a rotation basis. These were great team building opportunities. The success of Klip-Lok406 resulted in one competitor reporting us to parlement, claiming public money is wasted on installing sheeting on government buildings that will break in a brittle fashion. The accusation based on a report from a university could apparently be caused by the son heating the sheet on a hot day followed by a hailstorm during which the sheet would be cooled down suddenly or caused by temperature variations over time.

The rumours spread like wildfire with other competitors climbing on the bandwagon. The Laboratory for Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering at the University of Pretoria was commissioned to perform series of tests which inter alia explained the difference between elongation and ductility and proofed them wrong. We accompanied the parliamentary commission to inspections of Klip-Lok and competitor roofs during which we highlighted the differences. Fighting fires and explaining to professionals kept us busy for a long time. At the end we took great pride in leading the industry to change to using ductile high yield steel which ironically all competitors now use without hesitation.

These successes in becoming a valuable financial contributor to Dorbyl’s stable lead to the asset swap with Grinaker LTA whereby DSE was exchanged for HH Robertson and Dekex. Dekex was incorporated into HHR, based in Monteer Road, Isando and Global Roofing Solutions were born with HHR and Brownbuilt as divisions. HHR was dominant in pierced-fix sheeting and Brownbuilt in concealed-fix sheeting. HHR’s niche was their paint- and embossing lines. The paint-line was the first in SA and a competitive advantage as special paint systems and small quantities of special colours could be supplied.

During 2003 Dorbyl decided to disinvest and the management was offered the opportunity of a management buy-out. This created new opportunities with huge responsibilities. Money was borrowed from the bank and with no back-up from a big company to assist when cash flow normally runs low at the beginning of a new calendar year, cash flow was carefully managed. Another concern was whether professionals would still specify our products knowing the big company back-up to support guarantees has fallen away. Luckily nothing changed as GRS had by then built a reputation of being the leader in our industry.

Furthermore, the cultures at HHR and Brownbuilt had to be aligned.

These new challenges were addressed by the executive directors by meeting every Friday afternoon to discuss events of the week and formulating initiatives to address new challenges. A lesson learned was not to pick a fight with one’s supplier. Whilst the paint-line was earmarked to supply in-house sheeting requirements, sales to the white goods industry upset our main supplier to the extent that it was better to close the paint-line down. Both divisions were eventually housed at the Boksburg premises. GRS was sold when approached and senior management retained for a fixed period. Thereafter, the new owners decided to combine Stalcor and GRS under the banner of Consolidated Steel Industries under new management.

My vision for GRS was not to be part of a merchant and thus moved to a different role. Personally, I am very happy with the new GRS operating on its own. My passion for a profitable, market leading GRS, kept me loyal to the company. Ups and downs are normal in any business and success depends on how this is handled. Constructive debate, finding the best solution, buy-in by all around the table and then implementing the decision played a major role in the success of GRS. We grew closer to each other striving for the same goal.

All employees impacted my life over the years, treated me with respect and I want to share my appreciation and gratitude to all for the times we spent together. The saying goes that one in time forgets what people say or do, but one never forget how people made you feel.

I am honoured and thank you all for the opportunity to spent nearly 47 years of my life in the same company.

I feel it is time to scale down a bit but have been asked to take over at SAMCRA (South African Metal Cladding and Roofing Association). This gives me the opportunity to still interact with industry players and hopefully be of value to an industry that has been very good to me. I will watch the growth of GRS with interest.

Thanks for all the good times together, enjoy the year-end break and may you all be blessed with only the best this life has to offer.

Johan.