Mac Brothers Catering Equipment, one of the largest independently-owned catering equipment manufacturers in South Africa, has recently been awarded a contract to supply equipment and services for the roll-out of Burger King in South Africa.

Mac Brothers was established in 2002 and has grown to become one of Africa’s leading catering equipment suppliers. This is no surprise when you walk around the facility and see the state of the art technology the establishment has on offer.

The fabrication factory and head office is based in Cape Town, with branches in Johannesburg, Durban and Harare. Mac Brothers manufactures and supplies a range of stainless steel catering equipment and refrigeration equipment to clients within the hospitality industry including, but not limited to, restaurants, hotels, golf and wine estates, canteens, prisons and hospitals. Mac Brothers also has an extensive dealer network throughout Africa, including Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Congo, Nigeria, Lesotho, Swaziland, Ghana, Uganda and Mauritius.

Mac Brothers manufactures and supplies a range of stainless steel catering equipment and refrigeration equipment to clients within the hospitality industry

The company has supply agreements with catering equipment manufacturers around the world and imports a range of complimentary equipment from the UK, Germany, Italy and the USA.

Equipment made locally includes food warming and display equipment, racks, shelves, stands, trolleys, sinks, tables, wall cladding and grease traps and industrial bulk catering equipment.

An electric range includes flat top griddles, deep fat fryers and pasta cookers. The gas equipment range includes table model radiant gas grills, radiant gas grills, boiling tables, flat top griddles, woks and salamanders.

The refrigeration division of the company’s range includes under bar fridges, swing door and double sliding door coolers, wall chillers, deli cases, upright freezers, under counter bottle chillers and freezers, polar wells, salad valleys and ice bins.

Five years ago Mac Brothers’ manufacturing processes took a giant leap forward when the company purchased a Salvagnini P4 panel bender, supplied by Potgieter Industrial Machinery

Imported equipment includes refrigeration units, slicers, dishwashers, combi steamers and baking ovens, ice machines and ice makers, commercial garbage disposers, instant boiling water dispensers, compact fat fryers, commercial pizza ovens, atomising grill systems, commercial ovens, cleaning and sanitising systems and oil management systems.

When visiting Mac Brothers the first thing that is important to realise is that not only is the company focused on leading the way in implementing the latest technology in its range of products and the manufacture of them, but more importantly the company is 100% dedicated to it’s people.

The standard of machinery on the Mac Brothers factory floor is at a level equal to any international competitor. Equally Mac Brothers is producing equipment that is of a standard that can compete anywhere in the world.

The immaculate fabrication shopfloor

The facility is run like absolute clock work and each and every piece of stainless steel is moulded to perfection, polished, turned, checked and rechecked to ensure that the end user is receiving nothing but the very best product.

For example, there is a team of engineers running extensive programs to collaborate the three state-of-the-art Italian Salvagnini sheet metal processing equipment, which laser cut, mould and bend every piece of stainless steel. The design team, who work with the design engineers using 3D engineering programs, do 3D animated renderings for clients to showcase the end results of their sustainable kitchens before they are even built.

Mac Brothers were one of the first in the industry in South Africa to pioneer the use of 3D architectural design software such as Revit and 3D Max. The team of designers liaise with clients from conceptualisation through to final building plans, focusing on creating an efficient, sustainable and productive working environment that is world class. Mac Brothers offers the 3D animated renderings for presentation purposes, which enables the client to “view” their completed kitchen even before the first brick is laid.

The gas equipment range that Mac Brothers manufactures includes table model radiant gas grills, radiant gas grills, boiling tables, flat top griddles, woks and salamanders.

Mac Brothers has a Project Management Division that is actively involved in overseeing every kitchen fit-out process, including consultation with other specialists for plumbing, electrical, ventilation and gas services.

The latest production equipment allows the company to employ the latest stainless steel fabrication techniques available from Europe for the manufacture of their products. On the design aspect for manufacturing and assembly the company is using the latest 3D product design CAD/CAM software from SolidWorks.

Fast-forward of stainless steel fabrication
Five years ago Mac Brothers’ manufacturing processes took a giant leap forward when the company purchased a Salvagnini P4 panel bender. The company has subsequently introduced a Salvagnini L3 fiber laser and more recently a Salvagnini E3 electric press-brake. All of the machines have been supplied by Potgieter Industrial Machinery.

The latest investment in the capital equipment department at Mac Brothers is the installation of the Salvagnini B3 KinEtic press brake, which arrived on the shopfloor in January 2014

“Panel benders and folding technologies have evolved to handle more parts and various lot sizes. When fabricators think about automated bending, a robot tied to a press brake usually comes to mind. So do high volumes. But press brakes aren’t the only automation option, and high volumes aren’t always a prerequisite. Automated panel bending and folding systems hold one side of the blank while bending the flange up or down. Systems serve various environments, according to sources, including batch or kitted production, high or low volume, high or low part mix, and so on,” said Erald Smith, Mac Brothers’ Factory Design and Development Manager.

“New iterations of the technology overcome previous limitations. For instance, manual folding systems, like their brake counterparts, could fold in only one direction. Today some automated folding systems offer single beams that articulate, altering their pivot point and moving around previously bent flanges to fold in positive and negative directions.
Part geometry has also thrown up some hurdles. Press brakes can handle extremely complex, small parts that both panel bending and folding systems historically couldn’t touch. But new technology can indeed bend small parts automatically using hold-down tooling borrowed from folding and panel bending, and introducing a way to handle the part without articulated-arm robots, which can have difficulty grasping small workpieces.”

Mac Brothers manufactures and supplies a range of stainless steel catering equipment and refrigeration equipment to clients within the hospitality industry including, but not limited to, restaurants, hotels, golf and wine estates, canteens, prisons and hospitals. Mac Brothers also has an extensive dealer network throughout Africa, including Namibia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Congo, Nigeria, Lesotho, Swaziland, Ghana, Uganda and Mauritius

“Limitations remain though. Systems can bend flange heights only so tall. Single-beam folding and most panel benders specialise in bending thin stock. But within those constraints, established and emerging technology may help remove those all-too-familiar bottlenecks in the bending area.”

“The Salvagnini P4 is capable of producing metal panels using a complete and automatic machining cycle that is both programmable and flexible. The P4 panel forming system was created to make up or down bends, be they single or multiple, radiussed or flattened, on all sides of the panel in rapid sequence and with no operator intervention.”

“The P4’s patented universal bending tool provides the flexibility to enable all types of bends and radii. The P4 sheet manipulator ensures accuracy with the integrated rotator turning the blank to the proper angle for bending by the universal bending tool.”

Mac Brothers hires over 220 people all of whom are up-skilled and invested in and although the factory facility is regularly upgraded and re-evaluated, the team at Mac Brothers make it their mission to ensure that this becomes a positive attribute in the up skilling process of their staff and not a job-loss scenario. The result of this is happy staff

“The machine can perform positive and negative bends, and form complicated and contoured shapes. It has a table size of 2.5 by 1.5m and is capable of bending mild steel up to 3 mm and stainless steel up to 1.5 mm.

“In our case increased demand coupled with the introduction of new products to our range necessitated a machine with flexibility. Additionally most of the equipment that we manufacture for the food, beverage and catering industries is in the public eye and aesthetically it needs to be ‘pleasing on the eye’. This makes the P4 ideal for our situation.”

Salvagnini L3 fiber laser
“The P4 is a hungry machine and needs to be fed. It is used solely for our own consumption. With the increase in panel bending requirements we needed an increase in cut-to-size material and the Salvagnini L3 fiber laser fitted the bill.”

Equipment made locally includes food warming and display equipment, racks, shelves, stands, trolleys, sinks, tables, wall cladding and grease traps and industrial bulk catering equipment. An electric range includes flat top griddles, deep fat fryers and pasta cookers

“The machine was introduced into the production line in 2013 and has been working virtually 24 hours a day six days a week. It certainly keeps the material flowing to the P4, which in turn keeps churning out the components.”

“The Salvagnini L3 fiber laser cuts up to 2mm thick stainless steel. The type of equipment that we manufacture I do not see us in the need for thicker material to be cut. Besides the P4 can only bend up to 3.0 mm thick mild steel and 1.5mm thick stainless steel.”

The arrival of the Salvagnini B3 KinEtic press brake
The latest investment in the capital equipment department at Mac Brothers is the installation of the Salvagnini B3 KinEtic press brake, which arrived on the shopfloor in January 2014.

“Our existing press brakes don’t have all those lovely things like the speed and power levels similar to those of a hydraulic press brake while delivering the accuracy of an electric press brake and maintaining the consumption of a hybrid system (‘green’ efficiency), all managed by the proprietary SiX CNC controller.”

“The B3 was purchased because of production demand and we needed a bigger machine. The B3 has 4250mm bending width, which we specifically need for canopy production components, a 220 ton bending force and a 600mm throat.”

The Salvagnini L3 fibre laser supplied by Potgieter Industrial Machinery

Another view of the fabrication shopfloor

The Salvagnini L3 Fibre Optic Laser, the P4 Panel Bender and the B3 press brake are all linked together with a SigmaNest nesting program for optimal ‘green’ efficiency and perfect quality end product.

Mac Brothers’ world-class equipment has been featured at many culinary events, competitions and demonstration arenas including those of the South African Chefs Association (SACA) where it has recently been elevated to Patron of the SACA.

Staff
Mac Brothers hires over 220 people all of whom are up-skilled and invested in and although the factory facility is regularly upgraded and re-evaluated, the team at Mac Brothers make it their mission to ensure that this becomes a positive attribute in the up skilling process of their staff and not a job-loss scenario. The result of this is happy staff.

The company is also involved in a pilot phase of the Western Cape Artisan Development Programme, which was launched at the Mac Brothers facility in Epping towards the end of last year.

Conquering Burger King
Mac Brothers recent accomplishments among other things, also includes the sponsorship of the last two seasons of MasterChef South Africa.

The company has also tied up the exclusive agency to manufacture all equipment locally for the Burger King franchise stores, which started opening in South Africa towards the end of last year, and other Burger Kings worldwide.

“This certainly is a feather in our cap to be associated with such a well known brand. We are one of only three companies worldwide and we will be responsible for supplying them with with the full equipment range and service thereafter. It is projected that they (Burger King) will open over 200 stores in South Africa over the next 5 years,” said Derek McMahon, Managing Director of Mac Brothers.

“It is also possible that Burger King will also use South Africa as a platform to expand it’s growth into other African countries, and we relish the prospect of expanding our ability to export our products north of the border”.

Mac Brothers has a Project Management Division that is actively involved in overseeing every kitchen fit-out process, including consultation with other specialists for plumbing, electrical, ventilation and gas services. The latest production equipment allows the company to employ the latest stainless steel fabrication techniques available from Europe for the manufacture of their products. On the design aspect for manufacturing and assembly the company is using the latest 3D product design CAD/CAM software from SolidWorks.

Burger King South Africa has recently signed a deal with Sasol that will see an undisclosed number of its sites incorporate a Burger King outlet into it’s already successful forecourt convenience stores.

“From small beginnings in a factory in Woodstock we have come a long way. It is our vision to become the leader in innovative product design and service excellence to the food service industry in Southern Africa, in turn making our clients successful. This we can achieve through our commitment to technical expertise in the manufacturing of stainless steel kitchen, cooking and refrigeration equipment as well as our range of leading local and imported brands.”

“Our commitment is to supply a ‘One Stop Shop Service’ to our clients from manufacturing to commissioning and after-sales service nationally and internationally,” concluded Derek McMahon.

For further details contact Mac Brothers on TEL: 021 505 4100 or visit www.macbrothers.co.za