Turning scrap into gold

If you ask a bunch of youngsters what they want to be when they grow up, you’ll probably get astronauts, racing drivers, soccer players and the occasional investment banker, but it would be a pretty niche selection to go for scrapmetal dealer. It may be as old-school as you get and a long way from the most glamorous business in the world, but Insimbi is showing that none of that really matters as long as you are making decent money.

The company puts a bit more gloss on its mission, saying that what it does is to “sustainably source, process, beneficiate and recycle metals”, and the recycling angle certainly does manage to stick it a little closer to the zeitgeist.

Most importantly, Insimbi says that despite the state of disaster and all the various lockdowns, it has managed its most consistent and robust performance, which has vindicated the acquisition and diversification strategy it had been pursuing over the previous five years.

In the period Insimbi grew its revenues 48% to R3.1bn, and operating profit was up 181% to R95.2m. This was helped by strong commodity prices and a stable rand, and volumes and revenues are back to or exceeding pre-pandemic levels.

CEO Fred Botha pays tribute to the extraordinary levels of resilience displayed by SA citizens and businesses, but he says he is seeing a rising number of businesses folding under the pressure and, rather alarmingly, he suggests that we can only have faith that the government is doing what is needed to support the economy to get back to growth.

We can only have faith that the government is doing what is needed to support the economy