LAFARGE ZAMBIA
and a local competitor doubling production in 2019, meaning the market moved from being undersupplied to dramatically oversupplied,” Khan explains.
“This type of change is not normal, and it creates an industry shock that can have multiple short term impacts – price drops, position changes, brand impacts and talent leakages.
“I arrived at a very exciting time in January 2019 – our business was on a precipice with just two options. One, we downsize materially with restructurings and closure of plants; or two, we recover in 12 months and take back our leadership position. If we were not successful in 12 months, the group would not have an appetite to continue burning cash with a negative net profit.”
While innovation has been key to the revitalisation of the business, the core part of the plan involved going back to basics.
The company has streamlined over the last two years and currently has two cement plants and three kilns which provide 3,200 tonnes per day of capacity. Indeed, it is the only two-plant operation in the country, its sites at Lusaka (one million tonnes capacity) and Ndola (400,000 tonnes) providing a material strategic advantage in terms of logistics, as well as producing the widest product range on the market.
This network is supplemented by several delivery depots, 70 retail outlets (Binastore), and around 700 employees and a similar number of dedicated fleet drivers – a total of about 1,400 team members.
“I owe a very sincere thank you to our customers, our suppliers and transporters and, of course, the Lafarge Zambia staff,” Khan adds. “They have all stepped up. The work that has been done to turn this business around in 12 months is nothing short of spectacular, and none of this would have been possible without having each one of the three groups fully engaged.”
Indeed, the CEO is quick to further acknowledge the company’s people