PMR Africa awards Corobrik Diamond Arrow status

Allin Dangers, Corobrik director of Sales, Inland Region

This means Corobrik achieved the highest mean average score in its category, to be judged 'first overall' of the brick companies surveyed.

Incremental improvement

Commenting on the award, Dirk Meyer, managing director of Corobrik, said, "It was particularly pleasing to see steady incremental improvement on that of the past two years. Credit must go to all who work at Corobrik. We set 'a repeat performance' of the past two years as a minimum objective for 2012/13 and the outcome, in what has been a challenging economic environment, is a manifestation of a solid all-round team effort.

Focusing on the basics, working to be the best we can be in all facets of the business is what it is about. It is a continuous process involving the development of our people, commitment to make positive interventions to address the imbalances of the past, ongoing investment in superior technologies, ISO 9001: 2008 factory management systems supported by our ISO IEC 17025 certified Central Laboratory to assure quality consistency ahead of industry standards, fine-tuned logistics capability and a deep sensitivity to the ongoing welfare of the environment."

Rising to the challenge

According to Meyer, "Our steady progress towards achieving SANS 14001 Environmental Management Systems certification through the business was rewarding with 4 of our operations now SANS 14001 certified and others busy with the accreditation process. As for logistics, with 15 factories, 3 regional offices and 28 Corobrik centres distributing more than 5 million bricks to different sites across South Africa every working day, the challenge remains to never drop the ball - and if one does, to be proactive in pursuit of a best resolution for the customer.

Our score of 4.25 out of 5.0 has set a challenging benchmark for us for the coming year. With all Corobrik employees with more than a year's service as shareholders of Corobrik through the Corobrik Staff Trust, their ongoing efforts to enhance shareholder value within the context of our long-term business strategies, will, if we get things right, hopefully be reflected in next year's mean average score. No matter what the outcome, we will certainly be working hard again on the basics to underpin another solid performance," added Meyer.

The PMR Africa annual survey asks respondents to rate companies on eleven attributes, namely:

• Ability to meet orders
  
• Black Economic Empowerment (BEE)
  
• Competitive pricing
  
• Do deliveries meet promises?
  
• Environmentally friendly solutions
  
• Flexibility
  
• Quality of products
  
• Range of products on offer
  
• Response to queries
  
• Social responsibility initiatives
  
• Sustainable development practices.