Twenty-three years ago, a father and son team set up in business to manufacture stone crushing equipment for the local crushing and screening industry. What happened between then and now is living proof that entrepreneurship can literally move mountains as the East Rand-based company, which began with a staff of just three, now employs close to 200 people and has an annual turnover in the region of R550-million.

The company is known today as Pilot Crushtec International and is South Africa’s leading supplier of solutions for the mobile and semi-mobile, crushing, screening, recycling, sand washing and materials handling sectors.

CEO Sandro Scherf is far from resting on some decidedly substantial laurels and is determined to grow the business further.

“I have real confidence in the crushing and screening industry, locally and in sub-Saharan Africa as well as in intercontinental export markets like Australasia and South America,” says Scherf.

The potential for growth is such that he felt that the time was ripe to buy the equity held by his existing partners in Pilot Crushtec to form a new enterprise to be known as Pilot Crushtec International (Pty) Ltd.

Scherf now enjoys 100% indirect ownership of Pilot Crushtec International and is vigorously pursuing a course that will create improvement in every aspect of the business and its operations.

“We are upping the scale of our business in terms of being able to offer bigger products with big performances, as well as gaining entry into new markets. Both myself and the management team have a renewed passion about where we want to take the company and the incorporation of ‘international’ in our name reflects our business aspirations,” he says.

Scherf is both an optimist and a realist and is adamant that work has to be done in bolstering existing infrastructure to sustain ever increasing growth.

“A move to new premises or at least a major expansion of our existing Jet Park facility is definitely on the cards and we will be making major investments in human and physical resources. We are already recruiting new members for our sales force to strengthen our drive into Africa and are actively increasing the numbers of our service and technical support teams,” says Scherf.

Another aspect of its drive toward streamlined communications will be the establishment of a help desk manned by experienced personnel able to diagnose possible problems and provide operational advice to customers on site.

Returning to the subject of passion, a word which is frequently used in Scherf’s vocabulary, will be the introduction of a share participation scheme for senior management to stimulate the motivation and leadership that will power the company forward.