The business of African Brick Centre is transacted through its subsidiaries. A description of the activities conducted by these subsidiaries follows.

Manufacturing operations

Landton Properties owns the premises on which the manufacturing facilities of African Brick Krugersdorp are situated. The Krugersdorp facility is 90 hectares in extent and consists of a factory building and an administrative building.

African Brick Krugersdorp

• The core of the current manufacturing facilities at the Krugersdorp factory was built in 1984 and extensively upgraded in 1994. The manufacturing process was designed in-house in 1994.
• Maximum production capacity of 36 million bricks per annum through a computer-controlled tunnel dryer system and a further 24 million bricks can be dried outside.
• The Krugersdorp facility is the closest FBA manufacturing facility to Rustenburg and the West Rand.
• The nature of the clay reserves allows the factory to produce a brick with a dark blue colour. No other manufacturer
  can duplicate the features of this product, which commands a premium price.
• In 1996 the mining rights to the nearby Syferfontein clay deposit were acquired. The raw material (clay) resource at the Syferfontein mine, 100 hectares in extent, is of an exceptionally high quality and scarce in occurrence west of Johannesburg.

African Brick acquired the strategic Zuurbekom property in 2003, which lies in close proximity to the large Syferfontein reserves and which the company intends to develop as its third manufacturing facility.

African Brick - Lenasia

• African Brick expanded its manufacturing capacity in 2008 when the Coega factory was commissioned. The factory has a production capacity of 24 million bricks per annum.

Output from the manufacturing operations of the African Brick group is sold to the retailing arm of the company at market related wholesale prices. This is a key strategy in ensuring a consistent pricing policy being applied over the full spectrum of wholesale and retail customers of the African Brick group.

African Brick has always been managed responsibly when it comes to environmental issues, with all statutory approvals and permits in place. African Brick has started the conversion application process in order to convert old order mineral rights to new order mineral rights. African Brick Krugersdorp are also registered in terms of the Atmospheric Pollution Prevention Act (Act 45 of 1965).

Retail Operations

The franchisee operated centres operate under the African Brick Centre trademark and are granted exclusive marketing rights for a particular geographical area.
The retail section of African Brick Centre also markets third party building materials, with more than 50% of retail sales coming from these sources.

Company History

African Brick was incorporated in South Africa under the name "African Brick Centre (Proprietary) Limited" on 25 March 1999 and converted to a public company under registration number 1999/006214/06 on 6 September 2007. The African Brick group has its origins on the West Rand of Johannesburg where, in 1945, the late Ben van Graan moved his clay brick-making facilities from the south of Johannesburg to the current Krugersdorp manufacturing premises. African Brick has, to date, primarily been a family owned and managed business with select key management now also owning minority interests in the business.

The group experienced strong growth between 2003 and 2008, attributed to the increased productivity at its manufacturing facility and success with the rollout of retail outlets. As a result of the recession, retail activity declined during 2008 to 2009.

Today the group has a balanced approach toward manufacturing and retail activity.

African Brick is one of only a few larger independant brick makers still lef in South Africa since 1983. African Brick has sold close to 1 billion face bricks which have been built into more than 20 000 homes and other buildings. As these bricks have unique colours, African Bricks products are the natural choice when additions and/or improvements to these homes and other buildings are undertaken. African Brick has a low level of business risk when compared to large construction, building project and contracting business.