Buffalo Executape was returning to a 24-hour shift as the demand in the market increased, managing director Trevor Girnun said on Monday.
The company is owned by Bidvest and specialises in self adhesive tape. We are about to start going back to the 24-hour shifts, something which has not happened in the past seven to eight months. Our sales volumes are starting to increase, he said.
The company imported bulk jumbo tapes from countries such as Israel, Germany and Italy and convert it into portable tapes. Their clients range from manufacturers to retail end users.
Girnun said their strong customer base came from the automobile, aluminium and steel sectors and with the sectors experienced a downturn, they also experienced squeezed margins.
We were not completely down, but we did experienced some pressure. But now things are getting back to normal and one needed to talk about new strategies. It is time to implement those strategies, he said.
He added: The company is also distributing surface protection foam which is largely used by steel and aluminium companies to protect these metals from getting scratched en route to factories. Girnun said the company never retrenched any of its employees.
We never thought about retrenchments and we did not need to. We did cut back but no lay-offs took place. Instead we looked at our, think about new strategies and improved on efficiency, said Girnun.
However, the business does involve a constantly changing product like cell phones, he said.
We are expecting an upturn particularly during the November/December period which is traditionally one of our busiest periods, he said.
The company, which currently co-branding with a Sellotape brand, was busy with plans to position its own South African product Amastikkistikki.
This is a proudly South African tape product which we are aligning with the best and strong brands in the world such as Tessa , Scapa, Davik and Sellotape. But the Amastikkistikki brand will be independent of these brands he said.