For someone with such an impressive track record, Centurion Glass & Aluminium (CGA) MD Alex Kerrod is a humble man.
In addition to experience spanning more than a decade in the glassing industry, he has three other assets in great quantity: energy, innovation and entrepreneurial flair. But, he chooses to describe himself as an "adrenalin junkie".
Kerrod's hard work and entrepreneurship stems from his student days at Rand Afrikaans University (now the University of Johannesburg) where he sold pottery from the boot of his car for a living. He's never looked back.
"I'm hands-on. I'm not afraid of taking calculated risks," he says.
"But I'm not going to take credit for our success, you have to give that to the team. It's through its hard work that we've always landed with our feet down in everything we do."
Throughout our interview, Kerrod refers to his staff as "committed and passionate".
During his first two years at the helm of CGA, company turnover doubled. This was followed by another two years of doubling turnover. By last year, four years into Kerrod's tenure, the Pretoria-based glazier and aluminium firm was on the verge of going public to raise its profile. And cash.
However, CGA ended up dumping its listing plans when its top brass met those at Accéntuate (then Safic Holdings) - a company that was, at the time, seeking acquisitions to bolster its construction and infrastructure asset base.
"From a strategic perspective, Accéntuate is a good fit. Being part of a bigger group allows us to do things we wouldn't have been able to do on our own. We deal with a lot of the same architects and quantity surveyors (as sister companies) and this means there is cross pollination," Kerrod says.
"There are also synergy benefits and as part of the group, we feel that we're strong enough to weather the market downturn. We've made provision for a slow down, but we're not forseeing it any time soon." His affair with CGA has catapulted the Centurion outfit to the top 10 of SA's glassing industry and the firm competes with the likes of World of Windows and LND Enterprises. Its staff compliment has grown from a mere 42 in 2004 to 134 today.
CGA has worked in the past with construction and civil engineering firm Wilson Bayley Holmes-Ovcon on a hotel revamp at Sun City, has carried out some work at Meropa casino and is starting work on Sunnypark Hotel with Stocks Building. The company is busy with the Mooi River Mall in Potchefstroom and is due to start glassing the Royal Bafokeng Nation stadium in the North West. Projects range in size from R400 000 to R7m and span various industries, including hospitality, property and public and private hospitals.
"Going forward, we expect hotel refurbishments and inner-city rejuvenation projects to pick up," Kerrod says. He says the company, which has only one factory in Pretoria, is ready to expand its footprint and product range.
Started as a family business in the early 1990s, the company is this financial year expanding its product line to include curtain walling and glass facades and is exploring more technical systems.
"We're now looking at setting up in the Cape, mainly from a logistics perspective. We want to establish either a depot or factory and can dovetail on Accéntuate's footprint," he says.
"In the long term, we're looking beyond SA's borders. We've had enquiries from Botswana, Mozambique and Angola." The fenestration glassing unit did business in Botswana before the South African construction boom shifted its focus to local business. "We'll be glad to go back if it's profitable," Kerrod says.
He is aware that the said boom is not going to go on forever, but takes solace from the fact that "if the cooling off happens, it will be followed by an uptick - we are prepared either way".
