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Issue 01 December 2011
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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
PAGE 3 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
COMPLETE THE CROSSWORD PUZZLE AND WIN!
How to enter
1. Complete crossword
2. Scan and email/fax completed crossword to
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?
Neville Wearne
Regional Support
Brent Paterson Shane Campbell Anathi Zitumane Sivu Ngobozana
Herbie Groenewald Natalie Lume
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 4
READYMIX MARKETING TEAM
Pieter de Bod Beverley Reid Pia van der Merwe Hakeem Johnson Jac Meyer
Where we are advertising
PUBLICATIONS
PAGE 5 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
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
PAGE 7 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
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
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 8
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.
PAGE 9 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
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.
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 10
INTERESTING PROJECTS
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."
INTERESTING PROJECTS
Evander Readymix go the
Extra Mile
Hakeem, Product Manager North Country,
was invited to go underground to observe
the whole operation.
PAGE 11 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
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.
INTERESTING PROJECTS
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 12
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
PAGE 13 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
NEW PRODUCT
This picture shows how the water
is being filtered through and out of
Hydromedia concrete.
Colourful example of Hydromedia
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 14
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.
PAGE 15 l GREY MATTERS l DECEMBER 2011
FUNNIES
DECEMBER 2011 l GREY MATTERS l PAGE 16