South Africa is the powerhouse of Africa

Today, South Africa is the powerhouse of Africa, the most advanced, broad-based economy on the continent, with an industrial sector ready to match any first-world country. We have a first world infrastructure, supported by a well skilled and productive labor force at competitive rates. The way of doing business is European. Communication takes place in English. A similar time zone eases real time communication and last but not least, we have intellectual property protection with copyrights respected. This is all backed up by a first world communication, banking, legal and education system with a number of very good universities.

Elprom, originally a small firm of 6 people, was established in Stellenbosch near Cape Town in 1991. It primarily serviced the hand assembly market segment. In 1994 the company was bought by two of the current directors, me and Rob Hutton-Squire. In 2002 we sold 50 % of the company to an interested party for strategic reasons, and again in 2005 we sold the balance of its shares to the same party.

One of our first customers was an enterprise that designed digital voice recording systems. With their volumes increasing, the need to move to a higher level of technology and their requirement to export to large European customers they started looking for a contract manufacturer capable of servicing their requirements. So we decided to invest in the necessary technology in order to be able to satisfy these requirements. Since then the growth has been exponential. The company has grown to its current size employing over 350 people and occupying its custom built 4500m2 facility in the Stellenbosch Technopark. Today, our enterprise serves some of the most technologically advanced companies in a wide range of high-tech industries.

We are able to provide our customers with services such as prototype assembly, small batch manufacturing, design for manufacture consultation and a repair and refurbishment facility. Our facilities include multiple high speed assembly lines with a total component placement capacity in excess of 100 000 CPH (components per hour), through hole board population, robotic and wave soldering, AOI inspection, ATE testing, state of the art X-ray facilities, laser marking and cutting and mechanical and enclosure assembly with functional testing to customers requirements. Our highly experienced buying department are able to source components from across the globe at very competitive prices. More often than not, a reduction in BOM costs can be achieved when utilising our component buying service.

The company also has the necessary equipment and skilled labour required to rework and repair all types of components including BGAs and QFNs. The prototyping department is also very well equipped to manufacture small volumes of highly complex board assemblies in a short turn-around time.

Our repair and refurbishment department is available to assist customers in the aftermarket repair and refurbishment of their products. This service has proven to be highly successful due to the fact that we manufactured the products in the first place, and therefore have the necessary knowledge to repair them. Board level repairs, firmware upgrades and complete unit refurbishment extend the useful life of a product.

Are you capable of PB-free manufacturing compliant to RoHS?

Our manufacturing processes are fully capable of Pb-free manufacturing as required by some of our customers. We also provide a “Conversion to Pb-free”-service. Through this we assist customers convert their existing products to Pb-free.

A characteristic aspect in South African society is the so called prepayment technology. Most of the cell phones, fixed line telephone services and even water or electricity is supplied on a prepaid basis. And we are lucky to produce a significant portion of the related electricity meters. There are three international companies represented in the country and we manufacture the complete requirement for one of them being at minimum one third of the total volume of meters produced.

We put strong emphasis on the uplifting of previously disadvantaged people. We are committed to promoting ethical behaviour and to act with integrity in all aspects of our operations, be it with customers, suppliers, or one another. We embrace the BBBEE initiative. ”Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment”, or BBBEE, means the economic empowerment of all previously disadvantaged people including those with disabilities through diverse but integrated socioeconomic strategies.

Both directors, Hutton-Squire and I, are qualified as Electronics Technologists with a passion for electronics and electronics manufacturing. This passion helped to instil a very high work ethic and level of pride in all the staff at the company. By the way, 25 per cent of the company is owned by the personnel. We also have a very low turnover of staff. Many people have been working with us for more than ten years. So we can say, it’s not a classic factory, it’s a pleasant environment to work in.

The company currently operates within Germany from offices shared with Polyplas GmbH and will have its own offices in the first quarter of 2008.

EPP Europe 404