By Diane Silcock
CONSTRUCTION in the Western Cape is soaring with locally-based Portland Group taking full advantage of the boom. Established 36 years ago, the family-run business located in Durbanville, just outside of Cape Town, has three main legs to its business: quarries, readymix concrete, and precast concrete.
Portland is well known for the quality of its aggregate from the natural Malmesbury Hornfels deposits in its 65Ha quarry in Durbanville. This is also home to their offices, a crushing plant, three readymix concrete plants, and the Hollowcore 5600 m2 indoor production plant. Over the years, it has expanded its operations to Saldanha Bay, Paarl, Worcester, and recently acquired the Paardeberg granite quarry in Malmesbury.
Portland Group general manager Martin Mostert says there is extensive development taking place in the Western Cape creating a high demand for concrete and related products. “It’s an open market and highly competitive, therefore it’s vital we keep up-to-date with what’s happening in the market across all areas of our business. We are a hands-on operation and know our clients’ needs, working smarter and better to remain competitive.”
Their ability to gauge the growth in this sector, knowing when to invest and the expectation around investment, has stood Portland in good stead. This is evident by the expansion of their operations and their growing footprint in the Western Cape. In the past five years, the company established two new quarries, namely Portland Worcester Quarry in Rawsonville and Portland Paardeberg Quarry, just outside Malmesbury. Their biggest readymix plant is situated in Saldanha, but their flagship plant is still based in Durbanville. There are also two established readymix plants located in Malmesbury and Paarl, with demand having picked up steadily in those areas over the past few years.
Recent capital equipment purchases include Volvo articulated dump trucks from Babcock with a further order having been placed for an excavator. Added to this is Portland’s acquisition of new readymix concrete trucks and upgraded staff transport vehicles, from FAW Cape Town.
One of the group’s latest projects is supplying aggregate for the upgrade of the long-awaited Vissershok road which is right on its doorstep. This is a three-year project and entails a bypass with two bridges.
“At our new granite Paardeberg quarry,” says Mostert, “we have also started mining our own sand and I believe it will be one of the best in Cape Town. Quality of sand influences finishing for instance when it comes to plastering.”
At Worcester, Portland is utilising the river stone for crushing which is helping farmers in the area to maintain the river especially during the rainy season when flooding occurs. A river management plan is in place which is monitored daily plus environmental studies are undertaken.
Precast slabs allow for faster construction
Hollowcore precast slabs are another expertise offered by Portland manufactured at their Durbanville facility where they utilise technology from Elematic in Finland. A project the group is proud of is the V&A Waterfront parking system which was the first demountable parking deck in South Africa. Slabs with a thickness of 200 mm were used at an 8 m span with no structural topping or screed done on top of the slabs due to the deck being demountable.
A new development is the extension of their Hollowcore plant to enable the manufacturing of concrete preslabs, the application for which is decking for high-rise buildings and flats. Mostert says one of the key benefits of using precast slabs is the speed of construction thereby providing a cost saving to the contractor.
Serving the Western Cape
Portland is no doubt a leading supplier to the construction industry in the Western Cape and well respected, having a rich 36-year history of product development, reliability and technical expertise. With its clear growth trajectory, the group is capitalising on the construction boom in the region.
