As Vesco and its subsidiaries celebrate 60 years of successful operations, the founding Leger family has big ambitions for the future.

Despite several challenges, the family-owned enterprise is currently in year three of its ten-year strategy to capture 10% of the world’s business and grow tenfold within that decade.

‘Vision 10 10 10’, so dubbed by CEO Dr Jean-Patrick Leger, aims to capture international business in the company’s “little specialised niches”, where Vesco has a product that works better than its competition’s.

Speaking to Engineering News during a site visit in Virginia, in the Free State, on the eve of the July 14 celebrations, Leger said that, if Vesco obtained that 10% global market share in those niches, the company would be able to grow its production ten times the current volumes and ten times the sales volumes.

The group has already invested in the future, with capacity already ramped up to produce five times the current production volume.

“We have made real progress,” he said, referring to work being done on securing business in the US and India that would make a substantial impact on the group’s vision.

VescoPlastics exports more than half its total sales to more than 100 countries, with large orders regularly sent to the US, China, South America and Australasia.

The company is known for its low-friction bearings and wear material, as well as polymer rods, hollow bars and plates, produced at its 20 000 m2 factory in Virginia.

It produces several polymers with different coefficients of friction, temperature and chemical-resistance levels and load-carrying abilities, and has the largest machining capacity of any enterprise or mine in the Free State, with over 60 modern computer numerically controlled lathes and milling machines.

The company was continuously improving its processes and responding to client needs for improved delivery times, polymers that meet new requirements and engineering for new applications, said founder Alain Leger.

Celebrating the six decades, a bond between friends and a commitment to its local community, Vesco has also opened a new R3.2-million wing of the Meloding Day Care Centre, in a township less than 5 km from the company’s Virginia factory.

One year after the death of Sister Elizabeth Radebe and six years after the death of Maire Elizabeth Leger, the latter’s husband, Alain Leger, and son, Jean-Patrick Leger, unveiled the new building to honour the two women’s work and decades-long friendship.

Named the Two Friends Wing, the new building doubles the size of the existing facilities of the daycare centre.

At a reduced cost to Vesco and “looking for a challenge”, architect Krynauw Nel, known for his work on the Malapa Hominid Fossil Site Cover at the Cradle of Humankind, designed four classrooms of the same size, as well as ablution facilities in existing buildings, in such a way that the building process and maintenance would be energy efficient.

The steel-framed, south-facing building uses “near-perfect insulation” across the board, including under the floors and ceilings, double glazing and high-thermal plaster.

“Further heat gain is ensured by having windows as light catchers, which show as dormer windows at the top of each classroom roof,” he explains.

Nel also used black chambers with glazing to the north exposure to build up heat that is then released into the classroom through an internal window that is opened; this method is based on an idea borrowed from colleague Iain Lowe’s projects in Lesotho.

Alain Leger, speaking at the event, said that education was the most important thing for the future of the country.

“I strongly believe the younger the educational foundation, the better,” he told attendees during the opening ceremony.

“Therefore, the Meloding Day Care Centre will be doing the most important work in educating the young.”

“I would love to see 10 000 schools like this one. No one is paying attention to preschool education, which is so important,” Jean-Patrick Leger added.

“This new building provides a model of what classrooms for preschool children and schools more generally could be, at a time when there is such a need for preschool education and attention to higher standards of school education,” Nel said.

Speaking to Engineering News on the sidelines of the launch of the new wing, he explained that the majority of South Africans did not have proper exposure to the possibilities that architecture, as a skill, could add to the building sector over and above the construction and engineering aspects.

Vesco, which was in 2017 awarded first prize for the best artisan training in South Africa by the Steel, Engineering and Iron Federation of South Africa, is passionate about education.

Vesco and its subsidiaries, with fewer than 100 employees and trainees, also takes on-site training very seriously, believing that the private sector should take the initiative to train artisans and other skilled personnel the country needs amid a high unemployment rate.

“People do not take training seriously enough,” said Jean-Patrick Leger, highlighting the small number of apprenticeships across South Africa.

Vesco has adopted a one-for-three solution – a policy of actively training young people in practice, with one apprentice or learner for every three permanent staff members.

However, the company currently boasts close to one apprentice or apprentice candidate for every two permanent employees.

Jean-Patrick Leger added that, if all companies in South Africa committed to providing the same level of training, there would be a significant impact on the current skills deficit, with an estimated 500 000 people receiving training each year in the manufacturing sector alone.

“We have shown that it is possible, but there needs to be a different approach to training in the country,” he highlighted.

For its commitment to training, the local polymer bearing manufacturer received the Artisan Award at the Steel and Engineering Industries Federation of Southern Africa’s (Seifsa’s) Awards for Excellence last year.

At the time, Jean-Patrick Leger told Engineering News that the company had had a strong focus on training for over two decades, providing learnership and apprenticeship programmes.