Lafarge - Grey Matters

PAGE 1 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011

CONTENTS

2 MESSAGE FROM NATIONAL MARKETING MANAGER

3 COMPETITION

4 READYMIX MARKETING TEAM

5 PUBLICATIONS

6 MOTIVATION

7 DISPLAYS

9 INTERESTING PROJECTS

13 NEW PRODUCT

14 NEW SERVICE

15 FUNNIES

LAFARGE READYMIX

LAFARGE READYMIX

DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 2

This has been a very challenging year not only for Lafarge but for South Africa and the

global economy. I was appointed as National Marketing Manager in November 2010 and

relocated from Durban to Gauteng in January 2011. I have adapted well to the new envi-

ronment and really enjoy working and living in Gauteng. (No, I have not become a Lions

supporter even though they deserved to win the Currie Cup)

With so much going on in an ever changing and hectic environment employees are not

always aware of what is happening in all the departments and don’t realize how closely

everyone is linked in the Lafarge chain. Everyone is connected somehow and everyone

plays a vital role in ensuring the success of Lafarge.

As a team we decided to design a newsletter to make people aware of what we are doing

as a marketing team. This is a new team of diverse, young, (apart from me) enthusiastic

individuals with lots of experience. There are many things going on behind the scenes that

not everyone is aware of and hence we decided to produce this newsletter as a means of

education, motivation, information and entertainment. We would like to send this out

quarterly and hope that people will enjoy reading it. Please feel free to make comments

on what you think of it and how we can improve on it.

We look forward to the challenge we have ahead of us next year especially our Turbo Plus

challenge. The Vap percentage is sitting at 23% currently. The challenge is to get to 30%

in 2012, I know we have the people who can rise up to the challenge. We have to become

a company that is seen to be innovative, customer driven and a solution provider.

I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this newsletter and would like to wish all

the readers a restful, happy holiday and a safe return in 2012.

Regards

Neville Wearne

P.S. Look out for the TV ads in the New Year.

Neville Wearne

National Marketing Manager:

Lafarge Readymix

Message from our National

Marketing Manager


COMPLETE THE CROSSWORD PUZZLE AND WIN!

How to enter

1. Complete crossword

2. Scan and email/fax completed crossword to

[email protected]

Fax: 086 630 5067 (Don’t forget to include name, and number)

Prizes

R500 Pick ‘n Pay voucher

Closing date for entries is 30 January 2012

Winner will be announced 6th February 2012

FYI

You will notice going forward that we will be including a

QR code like the one we have here on all our advertise-

ments and editorials.

Get your QR code reader from http://www.mobile-

barcodes.com. Once you have downloaded the reader

all you do is scan the barcode with your cellular phones

camera. Try it out by scanning this barcode.

COMPETITION

Across

3. French word for concrete 4. Where is the Lafarge technical centre in France? 6. Name of barcode found on advertisements 8. What product was supplied to Berrisford Construc-

tion? 10. What type of Artevia was used at Spier Wine Estate

Down

1. What captured the concrete that was being poured

underground into the Middelbult Mine? 2. What colour pigment was used for the walkway bor-

der at Pinewood Garden Village? 5. At which conference was an article of Hydromedia

distributed? 7. Who is the Readymix National Marketing Manager? 9. From which country did 700 volenteers arrive from to

assist with the affordable housing project?

http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

http://www.mobile-barcodes.com/qr-code-software/

Neville Wearne

Regional Support

Brent Paterson Shane Campbell Anathi Zitumane Sivu Ngobozana

Herbie Groenewald Natalie Lume


READYMIX MARKETING TEAM

Pieter de Bod Beverley Reid Pia van der Merwe Hakeem Johnson Jac Meyer

Where we are advertising

PUBLICATIONS


Seven C's of Success by Brian Tracey

Clarity: Eighty percent of success comes from being clear on who you are, what you believe in

and what you want.

Competence: You can't climb to the next rung on the ladder until you are excellent at what

you do now.

Constraints: Eighty percent of all obstacles to success come from within. Find out what is

constraining in you or your company and deal with it.

Concentration: The ability to focus on one thing single-mindedly and see it through until it's

done takes more character than anything else.

Creativity: Flood your life with ideas from many sources. Creativity needs to be exercised like

a muscle, if you don't use it you'll lose it.

Courage: Most in demand and least in supply, courage is the willingness to do the things you

know are right.

Continuous learning: Read, at the very least, one book a week on business to keep you

miles ahead of the competition. And just as you eat and bathe, organise your time so you spend

30 minutes a day exploring e-mail, sending messages, going through web sites, because like ex-

ercise, it's the only way you can keep on top of technology. If you get away from it, you'll lose your

edge.

MOTIVATION

DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERSl PAGE 6

This display can be found in the reception area of the

Longmeadow Offices. Lafarge Cement and Ash Resources

also have a display on either side of the Aggregates and

Concrete display.

This is a Readymix permanent display at the Home Ideas

Centre in Edenvale, Gauteng.

DISPLAYS


Where can you find our displays ?

Longmeadow

Home Ideas Centre, Edenvale

Building Centre Exhibition, Cape Town

Building Centre Exhibition, Cape Town

This display is at the Building Centre Exhibition Centre in

Milnerton, Cape Town. The Wall in this centre was built

using Ultra Enviromix. Peri Formwork partnered with us on

this project. You will also find a polished floor at this cen-

tre, the concrete was donated by Lafarge Readymix.

Lafarge Readymix also have a permanent display at

Waterfall Estate which is situated in Kyalami,

Johannesburg. Unfortunately we do not have a picture.

DISPLAYS


Selection Warehouse, Cape Town

Lafarge Laboratory, Paarden Eiland

Regional Office, Metro Industria

CESA Conference, East London

This display can be found at the Lafarge laboratory in

Paarden Eiland, Cape Town.

This is the Readymix display at our Regional office in

Metro Industria, Cape Town.

This is our stand at Selection Warehouse in Cape Town.

This is also a permanent exhibition.

This is a picture of our stand at the CESA Conference and

Expo in East London that was held between 13-15

November 2011.

Agilia Impresses

Berrisford Construction

Lafarge Readymix have recently supplied Agilia

Vertical to Berrisford Construction for the con-

struction of two facade walls at House Bradbury

in Bakhoven, Cape Town.

Mark Bruinders and Brent Paterson presented Agilia as a

solution to Berrisford Construction, Freespace Architects,

iCE Group Engineering and Manduka's Formork Contractor

back in April 2011. Numerous meetings between these

players and Lafarge representatives were held to discuss

logistical issues such as formwork pressures, shutter

preparations and pumping procedures.

Lafarge also introduced these role players to Peri-Wiehahn

who in return helped them with formwork design and also

supplied the formwork for the job. The off-shutter quality

of the Agilia walls at the Good Hope construction site in

Mannenberg was to be used as a benchmark comparison

afterwards.

Manduka's Formwork erected the formwork and

Lafarge supplied 10.5 m³ of Agilia Vertical for

the first wall on 20 September 2011.

Lafarge pumped from the bottom up and with the excep-

tion of a few nervous people on site concerned about the

hydrostatic pressure on the formwork, everything went

well. The formwork for this wall contained shutters for two

windows and was tied into two suspended slabs.

The wall was approximately six meters high and eight

meters wide and it took around forty five minutes to pump

the concrete into the formwork.

Manduka Formwork then erected the formwork for the

second wall with a lot more confidence. This wall was a

suspended wall whereby glass windows will be fitted later

in the project. The wall is also tapered to 40mm thick on

one edge. We supplied 11.5 m³ of Agilia Vertical on the 12

October 2011 with this wall also being pumped from be-

low through a valve in the formwork. This wall was similar

in size as the first wall but without windows. All went well

and the pumping took approximately forty five minutes.

The Client, Main Contractor, Architect, Engineer,

Formwork Supplier and Formwork Contractor

were all extremely happy with the results.

Well done to Mark Bruinders and the Paarden Eiland

Readymix plant staff as well as Rhuwayda Lalla and her

technical team for making this project a great success.


INTERESTING PROJECTS

Agilia Vertical was used for this wall

Before the concrete was placed

Spier Wine Estate, Stellenbosch

53m³ of Artevia Polish were delivered from the Lafarge Readymix Blue Downs Plant to Lloyd Brothers,

a customer of Linda Lemmer on October 12th 2011. The floor was placed by Black Bird Trading and

polished by Concrete Grinding & Polishing early November. Pieter de Bod assisted Alison Channing

Architects with concrete samples of various combinations of colours containing Hex river aggregate.

Originally Alison Channing Architects wanted a 9mm Hex river aggregate, but later settled for the

13mm with a cream pigment.

The end result was a beautiful, silky, durable and low maintenance floor.



Pinewood Garden Village

Originally enquiries for the Pinewood Garden Village started in June 2011. Douglas Craythorne

and Pieter de Bod, Readymix Southern Area Product Manager, discussed ideas on how to

accommodate the Architect's request. This was a challenging project as the architect wanted

200m³ of Artevia Exposed, this was composed of 13mm Hornfels with a charcoal pigment.

The architect also wanted borders on either side of the 1.4 meter path to be composed of

13mm Hexriver Sandstone with a kalahari pigment. The architect was discouraged to use con-

crete for the borders however the architect would not budge and was adamant that Lafarge

had to find a way to increase the chance of making it a success.

To date the Lafarge Wetton Plant have supplied just over 100m³ of concrete. “I must say the

finished product exceeded my wildest expectations. When I visited the site no cracks were

visible in any of the four hundred plus linear meters of border and the finish was superb”, ex-

plains Pieter de Bod.

The extra effort in tying the borders to the path using mesh, putting the retarder on very early

and covering it with plastic immediately thereafter seems to be doing the trick. The darker

colour of the borders also attracts more heat and which makes good curing practises so much

more important. Here Neville Haanjes and Marius Killian from Contemporary Concrete need to

be commended for their outstanding work on site.

Due to the high standard of work on site and the quality concrete supplied from the Wetton

plant, the Estate will continue with a second phase in the new year using Lafarge products.

A beautiful example of an Artevia Polish floor

The Middelbult Mine project was first discussed

on the 29th of September 2011. Roedolf van

Wyk the Senior Engineer for Mantella Trading

made contact with Anna-Marie Müller the Evan-

der DSM to discuss the possibility of Lafarge

supplying them with Agilia Foundation with a

required strength of 40MPa. Mantella also re-

quired that the Agilia Foundation reach a

strength of 15MPa on the first day. The chal-

lenge Mantella was facing was that the mine

was being flooded underground. Water was

leaking into the underground tunnels; if this

persisted the whole mine would be lost. This

would have been a huge loss for Sasol.

We supplied 1215m³over a period of 11 days

starting the 3rd of October 2011. The concrete

was poured into a funnel at ground level and

dropped 130 meters underground through a

100mm diameter pipeline. Underground the

concrete was captured in a Putzmeister Pump

and then pumped through a 80 meter pipeline

into a wall. The wall was 7 meters long, 4 me-

ters high and 4 meters thick.

This project came with several major difficul-

ties. Many of the tunnels were flooded knee

high, the working space was very cramped and

moving people and machinery around was a

very difficult task. The team also experienced

pump breakdown while pouring causing the

trucks to wait on site until the problem was re-

solved.

The Mine and Mantella were very impressed

with what Lafarge was capable of doing in such

a short time frame. The mix was a great suc-

cess and they even received a further 23 to 25

seals that must be done before the end of No-

vember 2011.

"Well done to Anna-Marie Müller and

her team at Evander Readymix for going

the Extra Mile."


Evander Readymix go the

Extra Mile

Hakeem, Product Manager North Country,

was invited to go underground to observe

the whole operation.


Concrete being poured into the funnel

and dropped 130 meters underground

Top view of the funnel used

Housing Project Blitz

Mellon Housing is involved in many affordable housing projects in

the Western Cape. They have partnered with Lafarge as a concrete

supplier in most of these projects. One of Mellon Housing’s initia-

tives is to invite volunteers for a week once a year to come and

build for the community on a specific project.

The Irish volunteers are one of the volunteering groups that partner

with them on these projects. This year was not any different; the

Irish volunteers arrived in Cape Town on the 12th of November

2011 to build houses for one week from the 13th to the 18th of No-

vember. About 700 volunteers arrived from Ireland and were wel-

comed by a march through the township where they were going to

build.

The house slabs were already cast and ready for the teams to start

with the brick work and houses were already at different stages of

building. The hard work started on the 13th when slabs were allo-

cated to various teams to build the walls up to the roof, including

fitting of doors and windows, roofing, plastering etc depending on

the stage of the house.

Lafarge’s Tygerberg Readymix plant supplied 6m³ of mortar every

morning at 07h00 so that the teams could start building without

any delays. The truck did a milk run, supplying all the teams to start

off in the morning and then their mixing teams would site mix mor-

tar as and when needed during the day. We supplied 30m³ in total

for the duration of the blitz; the volumes have drastically dropped

compared to previous years due to the economic crisis.

The volunteers did a fantastic job providing shelter for the less privi-

leged; they managed to complete 120 houses in total by the end of

the week which were at various stages of building when they ar-

rived.

They have challenged Lafarge to make a difference in the commu-

nity by putting together at team for landscaping on the next blitz

which will be early in 2012.



Lafarge truck supplying mortar for the

project

Volunteers at work

The end result was 120 colourful houses

Houses nearing completion

20 – 22 June 2011 marked the start of the Knowledge Transfer session

for Hydromedia lead by Stephane Venon, from the Lafarge Technical Cen-

tre in Lyon, in Cape Town. This was followed by a second transfer session

from 27 – 30 September 2011 lead by Vincent Teissier, Product Develop-

ment Manager – VAP’s.

Hydromedia, also known as “no-fines” or “pervious” concrete is a unique

and effective means to address important environmental issues and sup-

port green, sustainable growth.

Some important characteristics of Hydromedia:

Compressive strength of 10 – 20MPa

Flexural strength of 1.5 – 3MPa

Workability up to 90 min’s.

Aggregate size of 9.5 -13mm

Hydromedia does not have to be grey but can be produced in all our stan-

dard Artevia colours.

Data sheets and brochures will follow early in 2012. The product has been

referred to in recent articles in Concrete Trends, February 2011; IMIESA,

November/December 2011 which was distributed at the recent CESA con-

ference held in East London.

To date the Southern and Eastern Regions are able to produce Hydrome-

dia successfully while laboratory testing continues in the Northern Region.

We urge everyone in those regions to contact Herbie Groenewald the Prod-

uct Manager for assistance wherever “no-fines” concrete is specified or

being sold to try and convert these sales to possible Hydromedia sales.

Things to look out for in 2012:

Contact:

Herbie Groenewald – 083 656 8908

[email protected]


NEW PRODUCT

This picture shows how the water

is being filtered through and out of

Hydromedia concrete.

Colourful example of Hydromedia


NEW SERVICE

Some adverts used in 2011

Mid October was the start of Lafarge Readymix’s Placing and Finishing Ser-

vices. This exciting initiative is being headed by Shane Campbell Product

Manager and he is currently heading the Pilot phase in Gauteng. So far

18 jobs have been quoted and the year to date orders booked is R1,2 mil-

lion. The orders booked are for Artevia Colour, Artevia Exposed, Artevia Pol-

ish and Ultra Foam. Cape Town have also quoted two jobs for Artevia Ex-

posed. We are confident that interest in this service will continue to grow in

2012.

Placing and Finishing Services

Shane Campbell Product

Manger: Placing and Finish-

ing Services

A builder in hell

A builder dies and reports to the pearly

gates. St. Peter checks his dossier and

says, "Ah sorry, you're in the wrong place."

So the builder reports to the gates of hell

and is let in. Pretty soon, the builder gets

dissatisfied with the level of comfort in hell,

and starts making improvements. After a

while, they've got air conditioning and flush

toilets and escalators, and the builder is a

pretty popular guy.

One day God calls Satan up on the tele-

phone and says, "So, how's it going down

there in hell?" Satan replies, "Hey, things

are going great. We've got air conditioning

and flush toilets and escalators, and

there's no telling what this builder is going

to come up with next."

God replies, "What??? You've got a builder?

That's a mistake! He should never have

gotten down there; send him up here." Sa-

tan says, "No way. I like having a builder on

the staff, and I'm keeping him."

God says, "Send him back up here or I'll

sue."

Satan laughs uproariously and answers,

"Yeah, right. And just where are YOU going

to get a lawyer?"

A little something to get you laughing

An Engineer and a Construction Worker are sitting

next to each other on a long flight across country.

The Engineer leans over to the Construction Worker and asks

if he would like to play a fun game. The Construction Worker

just wants to take a nap, so he politely declines and rolls over

to the window to catch a few winks.

The Engineer persists and states that the game is real easy

and a lot of fun. He explains "I ask you a question, and if you

don't know the answer, you pay me R5. Then you ask me a

question, and if I don't know the answer, I'll pay you R5."

Again, the Construction Worker politely declines and tries to

get to sleep.

The Engineer, now somewhat agitated, says, "OK, if you don't

know the answer you pay me R5, and if I don't know the an-

swer, I'll pay you R50!" This catches the Construction

Worker's attention, and he sees no end to this idiotic torment

unless he plays, so he agrees to the game.

The Engineer asks the first question. "What's the distance

from the earth to the moon?" The Construction Worker

doesn't say a word, but reaches into his wallet, pulls out a

five rand coin and hands it to the Engineer.

Now, it's the Construction Worker's turn. He asks the Engi-

neer: "What goes up a hill with three legs, and comes down

on four?"

The Engineer looks up at him with a puzzled look. He takes

out his laptop computer and searches all of his references.

He taps into the Airphone with his modem and searches the

net and the Library of Congress. Frustrated, he sends an

e-mail to his co-workers -- all to no avail.

After about an hour, he wakes the Construction Worker and

hands him R50. The Construction Worker politely takes the

R50 and turns away to try to get back to sleep.

The Engineer, more than a little miffed, shakes the Construc-

tion Worker and asks, "Well, so what's the answer?"

Without a word, the Construction Worker reaches into his

wallet, hands the Engineer R5, and turns away to get back to

sleep.


FUNNIES


Documents

Lafarge - Grey Matters