The refined balance of operating as a large Company with SME values has helped the construction and engineering specialists at GPM Services to form unrivalled sector relationships over the past 17 years and is staying true to this ethos as it plans the next phase of its extensive expansion and diversification within the SADC region.
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH HONESTY AND INTEGRITY
Reputed and hailed as one of the leading businesses in the industrial mining domain, the Company’s expertise across site construction, fabrication and mechanical maintenance services have fostered vital, successful partnerships over the years, but it is arguably GPM’s manner and approach that can be attributed as its main differentiator.
“Integrity, responsibility and trust are the cornerstones of GPM Services,” the Company affirms. “We place as much emphasis on our human relationships as we do on turnaround times, product quality and service delivery.
“Established in 1998 by Joe Coetser, the Company has built its reputation on experience, integrity and trust, and focuses on cultivating client relationships by providing excellent service levels and quality products.”
Coetser remains at the helm to this day, having formed a vision and mission which is just as applicable and evident across GPM’s operations today as they were 17 years’ ago.
“At GPM Services our goal is to provide services and facilities equal to that of large firms, yet back them up with the relationship found in smaller firms,” the Company continues. “We strive to be a leading service provider in the design, procurement, fabrication and installation of civil, structural steel, mechanical, piping and light steel frame structures; project management, site construction and reliability centred maintenance and risk solutions.”
Subsequently able to provide clients with the most feasible and viable solutions available, and compounded by a business model which adheres to the very latest and most pressing health & safety procedures, GPM Services’ offering is flexible enough to meet the full range of customers’ needs.
Operations Manager, Raymond Eales says: “We do projects small to large depending on the availability of our skills. We are not a corporate company and have a few clients that we still successfully do business with. Due to the close relationship we have with our clients we prefer to get involved from the beginning to the end.
“Our key to growth in the sector we specialise in is the fact that we deliver our projects in time. We have a 100 percent success rate in the projects we have completed.”
ALL-ENCOMPASSING SERVICES
Such success has been achieved across a range of project management and construction services – including engineering and draughting, fabrication, civil works, shuts and maintenance, piping, project management, and electrical instrumentation – and epitomises GPM’s ultimate objective to achieve and maintain its customers’ full satisfaction.
“For this purpose we manufacture all our products and maintain our services as agreed with our customers and deliver the goods on schedule and to standards,” the Company adds.
Having worked alongside multinational industry heavyweights such as Glencore in the past, and indeed currently, GPM’s projects are testament to the reputation achieved within the wider industry, offering a wide range of professional services at affordable rates in the process.
GPM’s own international stature further enhances its marketability, with registered offices in Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique.
“We are also currently exploring Zambia and Tanzania, and are in the process of tendering for work in the latter through our South African division,” Eales explains. “We are currently already busy with projects in Namibia, Mozambique and South Africa.”
Significant completed projects also include work carried out for Xstrata, COSIRA, Logiman Engineering, Outotec and ASA Metals, accompanied by a series of plant upgrades, pump stations, screening plants, concentrator plants, workshops, reactor upgrades and alloy maintenance; combining to showcase the all-encompassing nature of GPM’s service offering.
HONESTY AND INTEGRITY
Another differentiator committed to behind the scenes of GPM’s external operations is the internal ability to move quickly with the times, and update its aofrementioned offering in line with the latest industry trends and market demands; the latest of which playing into the hands of the Company’s light steel frame division.
Eales notes: “Our LSF division has been successful in the projects it has delivered, and the demand for these projects is increasing by the day. We are now looking at spreading our skills field and taking on the contractor’s camp sector.”
In order to achieve such flexibility, again from an internal perspective, GPM continuously updates its technologies and administrative procedures in order to improve efficiencies, productivity and, ultimately, the end product delivered to clients.
Incorporated within this philosophy is an equally important focus on local skill adoption and progression, with people management described as a key facet in the Company’s success.
“The current challenge we have in the industry is to have the correct skills to do the work, and that is why we continuously offer training to our workers and ensure that they have a good, safe working environment to operate in,” Eales explains.
Additional team-building events and retention incentives further encourages such loyalty amongst its workforce, and harks back to the ethos which underpins GPM’s overall business model; proving that it’s not the size of GPM or indeed its clients that counts, but the service that is provided across each and every project.
“Honesty and integrity makes all business relationships a success,” Eales concludes. “We take pride in what we do and ensure that we keep our teams and clients happy. We will keep on delivering a quality product within our clients’ timeframes and budgets.
“GPM Services is not the biggest company, but the best.”
