The Sunday News
Roberta Katunga, Senior Business Reporter
BUY and Build Hardware Centre in Bulawayo is expanding its business to cater for the majority of new homeowners in the high-density suburbs in the city by opening a new branch in the industrial area of Kelvin West.
Operations manager Mr George Bhebhe said the hardware, which opens its doors to the public tomorrow, was a deliberate strategy of taking business to the people as it is centrally located.
The construction of the state-of-the-art building where the hardware shop will be located began about 18 months back and is set to create employment for 20 people.
“As a business, we noticed that our customers at times struggle with transporting the goods they would have bought in the city centre to their houses, that is why we decided to open another shop closer to where they are located. This also means that they can spend less on transport costs,” said Mr Bhebhe.
Mr Bhebhe said their company was always striving to give back to the community by creating employment opportunities and investing in the city as part of efforts to revive business.
He said Buy and Build which is the sole distributor of Botswana imported Makoro facebricks and tanks has become a one-stop shop for a number of hardwares and home owners-to-be due to their competitive prices.
The Makoro facebricks are now being widely used in the country for building as they are said to be stronger and cheaper.
“We import about 500 000 bricks a month from Botswana and these are popular with most people because they save on money for labour of plastering and painting as with these bricks all that is unnecessary,” said Mr Bhebhe.
However, concerns have been raised over the importation of clay bricks with local manufacturers calling for the inclusion of these products in the SI64 list that restricts importation of certain locally produced goods. According to the local clay bricks manufacturers, they are losing business to the imports.
However, Mr Bhebhe said no local manufacturer was producing the Makoro type of bricks and urged companies like MacDonald bricks to match the quality and standard of the imports.
“We do stock locally made bricks at our hardwares but the problem is that they are of an inferior quality to the imports and we usually make losses. For example, for every load of MacDonald bricks we order, a minimum of 1 000 bricks are breakages.
“We need our local manufacturers to produce quality products that do not shortchange the customers. They have to compete effectively with the imported products without calling for protectionism,” he said.
According to Mr Nigel Staal of Makoro their bricks have a number of advantages. He said Makoro Clay brick-walled houses afford better thermal properties.
“This reduces the energy consumption, ultimately saving you money on the artificial heating and cooling of your home. Our bricks are also sustainable and made using environmentally friendly material,” said Mr Staal.
