South African pump manufacturer Hazleton Pumps International took top honours in the Most Innovative Company and Customer Service of the Year categories of the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa’s (Seifsa’s) Awards for Excellence.
The inaugural Awards encompass the following categories:
• Most Innovative Company of the Year
• Health and Safety Award of the Year
• Best Corporate Social Responsibility Programme of the Year
• Customer Service Award of the Year
• Most transformed company of the Year
a. Company employing fewer than 100 people
b. Company employing more than 100 people
• Artisan Award
• Environment Stewardship Award
• CEO Awards
a. Gold Award
b. Platinum Award
c. Association Award
Steel products manufacturer Scaw Metals was declared the winner in the Health and Safety and Artisan of the Year categories, while power transmission specialist Voith Turbo scooped the Best Corporate Social Responsibility Programme of the Year award.
The Most Transformed Company of the Year award went to Africa Steel Holdings for companies with fewer than 100 employees and to automation technology group ABB for companies with more than 100 employees.
The Scaw Metals Group is an international group, manufacturing a diverse range of steel products
Seifsa CEO Kaizer Nyatsumba presented CEO’s Awards to Kgaogelo James Sello for being the Top 2014 Artisan Student for scoring the highest marks and achieving his Mechanical Engineering – N6 Certificate; to Melco Conveyor Equipment for being the company that made extensive use of Seifsa’s products and services and participated in the federation’s workshops, events and forums; and to the Construction Engineering Association of South Africa for being the most active of Seifsa’s affiliated associations; as well as a Lifetime Leadership Award in the metals and engineering sector to Arthur Stuart Boynton-Lee.
Nyatsumba said the metals and engineering sector was faced with several challenges, including the prevalence of cheap imports from Asia, the lack of competitiveness in local manufacturing and policy uncertainty. “In such turbulent economic times and a challenging business environment, we believe that it is critically important for those companies which excel at what they do to get the acknowledgement and recognition they deserve,” he stated.
He further commended all the companies that had entered for the awards and congratulated the winners in the respective categories. “I would like to encourage [these companies] to continue to work hard towards excelling and providing the sector with examples of excellence. This will inspire other companies to improve their operations so that they can be afforded the opportunity to win at future Seifsa awards,” he added.