Chryso Southern Africa will from 2019 increase its product offerings to the decorative concrete market as well as basic concrete producers, says Thierry Bernard, president and CEO of The Chryso Group.

Paris-based Bernard, on a recent visit to the Group’s South African operations – which includes a.b.e. Construction Chemicals - said Chryso is planning to concentrate much more on the decorative concrete market in future.

“Since Chryso acquired Moderne Méthode’s decorative product offering, as well as its Béton Academy training facility in France in 2017, new market opportunities have opened for us world-wide. Moderne Méthode has unrivalled expertise in stamped and polished concrete and some spectacular finishes which are impressing architects and designers all over the world.

We have already created a Moderne Méthode department at Chryso here in South Africa and we intend to extensively grow the range of decorative products available locally in future.”

As far as basic concrete production is concerned, Bernard said the poor quality of local aggregates had been a persistent problem for local concrete producers for many years. “In this regard, we are planning to embrace the concept of QUAD and CLEAR technologies: new admixtures that will greatly assist concrete producers to manage low quality aggregates and/or clay-containing aggregates.

This will allow our customers to add quality to their end-products and cut costs.”  

Chryso’s research and development facilities, such as the Jet Park Centre of Excellence, had been enormously successful and there are plans for Chryso to add similar facilities to its global operations, starting with Dallas, Texas, in 2019.

Currently the Group operates such high-tech centres that provide invaluable testing and advisory services to customers in South Africa, Mumbai and Paris.

In terms of global expansion, Chryso intended to start a production facility in West Africa in 2019 and there were plans for further acquisitions globally to spread the Group’s international presence, Bernard added.

He said the success of Chryso Southern Africa and its subisidary, a.b.e. Construction Chemicals, in a challenging local market had been remarkable and exemplary for the Group as a whole.