The competition is encouraging participating sawmills to improve, thereby becoming more competitive.
The award is made annually at Sawmilling South Africa’s annual general meeting. This year’s award was won by Langeni Sawmill, Merensky Timber.
Their main improvement came as a result of improved efficiencies with improvements in volume recovery and reduced production costs.
Andrew Crickmay presenting the award to Deon Breytenbach of Merensky Timbers.📷 – Timber IQ Rory Macnamara
The award was launched in 1991 covering the 1990 information. Ron Rance, former CEO of Rance Timbers, once said, “Crickmay benchmarking is one of the most important contributors to the improvement of efficiency of the Southern African sawmilling industry.”
The award is given to the most improved sawmill performance among formal sawmills in the Republic. It recognises mills who have shown improvement in profitability and productivity over a five-year period.
The award was created by David Crickmay and Associates under the auspices of the SA Lumber Millers Association (SALMA) which was subsequently taken up by Sawmilling South Africa when it started in 2007.
The benchmarking started in 1988 in a report known as the Intermill Comparison (IMC). The report compares mills’ productivity and performance and aspects of production on a R/m3 basis. The information is aggregated, and mills can identify their own information by a confidential pin number.
The runners-up were:08-
AC Whitcher
Bracken
E’mpuluzi
Jessievale
Kubusi
Lawa
MTO George
RF Gevers
Thornville
A stunning example of timber at the Future Africa Centre at University of Pretoria. 📷 – Timber IQ Rory Macnamara
