Bulls n Bears Entrepreneurship Zone :: Building success through innovative construction methods

[Bulls n Bears]

 <http://www.oldmutual.co.zw/> 

 

 

In 2001, the South African housing crisis prompted Frank Finnemore to apply
new engineering principles to an old idea and develop it into an innovative
building technology that would help solve the huge demand for low-cost
housing in the country.


How did this all start?


Back in the 1940’s and 1950’s, Finnemore’s late grandfather – who was a
farmer in South Africa’s Free State province – wanted to build a dam.
Getting bricks to the farm came at a huge cost and he subsequently invented
a steel building mould that would extrude a circular concrete wall. The
finished reservoir was strong and watertight. Soon he was building
reservoirs for all the farmers in the area. The technology was, however,
never further advanced.

When the 2001 housing crisis arose, Finnemore saw a business opportunity by
using a re-engineered version of his grandfather’s invention. Using his own
savings and some bank finance, Frank enlisted a mechanical engineer to
redesign the mould. Tests were run by the South African Bureau of Standards
and the first FinnBUILDER Gemini moulds rolled off the production line not
too long after. Through further development it became an adjustable mould
that could be set to build external and internal concrete walls of various
thicknesses.

Next came the simplified, easy-to-use and adjustable Circular mould for the
building of reservoirs and rondavels, followed by the Pillar mould – also
adjustable – as a solution to building boundary wall pillars in record time.


How did the company grow into the business it is today?


FinnBUILDER has been steadily growing since its early days, selling moulds
and offering licensing and training programmes to building contractors, home
owners and entrepreneurs all over Africa.

“We target building projects in all sectors of the housing market –
low-cost, affordable and luxury,” says Finnemore’s wife and business
partner, Praline. Today it has a production facility in Johannesburg and
apart from its own eight permanent staff, has 13 active licensees in eight
African countries – South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique,
Uganda, Ghana and Kenya.

She says the licensee system was introduced in 2015 to improve the
consistency of applications and quality across all building sites. The
licensee system improves quality management and ensures the structural
integrity of houses built with this system. It was immediately welcomed by
the National Home Builders Regulatory Council (NHBRC) and the major banks in
South Africa.


There must have been challenges along the way?


For the first year after Frank started FinnBUILDER, Praline remained with
the law firm where she worked. There she registered the patents and
trademarks for the moulds before joining her husband full time in the
Johannesburg-based business.

“As the new company had limited advertising spend, we showcased the moulds
at various shows and home expos around the country,” says Praline. Every now
and then they ran articles in various DIY, agricultural and engineering
magazines.

She says although they believed that they had an innovative solution to the
housing crisis, the NHBRC at that time was not interested in innovative
building systems. They rejected the FinnBUILDER technology on more than one
occasion and for the first five years the company had to target the
agricultural and farming communities.

Financial constraints also made it difficult to grow the business at a
faster pace. “Escalating running costs, the economic meltdown of 2008 and
general lack of business confidence in the country meant that from time to
time we had to scale back on production at the factory and fine tune the
logistics of running the business,” says Praline.

But they persisted with their system and then, in 2006, the minister of
housing and human settlements instituted a nationwide innovative housing
competition to find credible building systems that could fast track the
delivery of low-cost housing. The competition drew building innovations from
Africa, Europe, Australia and China. Based on technical criteria and social
acceptance, FinnBUILDER was appointed as the winner of the All Africa
Innovative Building Competition.

Today, government is increasingly allocating a percentage of new housing
developments to contractors who use innovative building systems. As
FinnBUILDER was awarded the Best Innovative Building System in South Africa,
licensees have this advantage when tendering for contracts. The system is
also ideally suited to African climatic conditions and the startup costs are
considerably lower than most other innovative building systems, says
Praline.


What can we learn from their experiences?


Praline says although success did not come easily or quickly for them, she
can only advise entrepreneurs to believe in themselves and their products
and to persist even when they feel like throwing in the towel.

“Keep the end goal in sight. Set smaller, achievable goals to keep focused.
Accept criticism positively. Listen to your customers. Be prepared to make
changes.” She says it may take a number of years before a business really
takes off. “So be passionate about what you do. Work tirelessly, exercise
patience and celebrate each milestone along the way.”

And in the end, “nothing succeeds like success”, believes
Praline.--Howwemadeitinafrica

 

 <https://www.howwemadeitinafrica.com/?attachment_id=61731> 

Building affordable houses using a FinnBUILDER adjustable mould.

 

 

Invest Wisely!

Bulls n Bears 

 

Telephone:    <tel:%2B263%204%202927658> +263 4 2927658

Cellphone:      <tel:%2B263%2077%20344%201674> +263 77 344 1674

Alt. Email:    <mailto:info at bulls.co.zw> info at bulls.co.zw  

Website:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AF
QjCNH8LYgdY55h-XKseuM8Kpr-JKdfhQ> www.bulls.co.zw 

Blog:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bulls.co.zw%2Fblog&sa=D&sntz=1
&usg=AFQjCNFoIy6F9IXAiYnSoPSgWDYsr8Sqtw> www.bulls.co.zw/blog

Twitter:                  @bullsbears2010

LinkedIn:               Bulls n Bears Zimbabwe

Facebook:
<http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FBullsBearsZimba
bwe&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGhb_A5rp4biV1dGHbgiAhUxQqBXA>
www.facebook.com/BullsBearsZimbabwe

Skype:         Bulls.Bears 



 

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: winmail.dat
Type: application/ms-tnef
Size: 383637 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://listmail.bulls.co.zw/pipermail/bulls/attachments/20180626/2575def6/attachment-0001.bin>