South African brickmaker Corobrik announced on Monday it has embarked on a multi-billion rand investment roll-out to grow its business and develop new markets over the next five to six years.

Corobrik CE Dirk Meyer said that the lion’s share of the initial R1-billion allocated during 2017/18 would go towards a R800-million megafactory that will be built alongside its existing Driefontein factory in Gauteng. It is due to be commissioned in 2020.

According to Meyer, this is the largest project of its kind under way worldwide at present and will deliver a facebrick factory that is the biggest and most environment-friendly in Africa.

He said this was likely to be followed by another megafactory on the East Rand, with future expansion in KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape within the next five to six years.

Corobrik currently operates 13 clay brick factories and 14 kilns countrywide which produce a mix of plaster and face bricks for the residential and commercial markets. It also has two concrete operations in Durban which supply concrete paving and retaining walls.

Meyer added that the new Driefontein facility would produce around 100-million bricks per year, double that of the existing facility there, and use only a third of the energy currently used by its predecessor where the 30 year-old kilns are outdated and not fuel efficient. The new, sophisticated kilns will be fully automated.

“Once the new facility is fully operational, the obsolete older facility will be shut down and demolished. In addition, the new operation will produce zero waste,” said Meyer.

“State of the state-of-the-art technology would be supplied and commissioned by German supplier, Keller, which has been in the industry for over 100 years.”

The design phase of the project began two years ago. Last year, the company completed an intricate audit process to investigate three different manufacturing processes. This culminated in the signing of the agreement with Keller in January this year.

“While the equipment itself would be manufactured offshore, it would be installed using local expertise and labour,” he said.

Meyer added that the new Driefontein facility would follow in the footsteps of the Rietvlei facility which Corobrik had developed into its first mega factory. This had clearly shown the advantages of using the latest technology to produce a high-quality product.

“We believe it will lower the cost of manufacture whilst significantly improving the quality of our product. This will not only improve efficiencies and grow existing markets but allow us to develop new products and income streams on the back of a projected economic recovery in the country. This fits perfectly with our objective of growing the company organically.”