Top Quality Plastic Pipes Producer in Africa — Interplast

Interview with Hayssam Fakhry, Managing Director of Interplast

Can you give us your overview of the sector? How are you weathering the crisis? How has it impacted your overall performance?

At the moment, Ghana is going through a hard time. Weathering the crisis means trying to survive the hardships for now and that is what we are doing. It will not continue like this, eventually there will be an upturn and things will go back to normal and everyone will have a smile on their face again. We are making sure that we are running our business very tightly in order to survive this current crisis.

What are you doing in order to maintain your status?

We are increasing our exports. We rely a lot on exports. Obviously we are running the company with a much more detailed look into things, for example looking into where we can save, be competitive and most importantly to ensure that we stay above everyone else.

What have been the major developments since our last interview in 2013?

Since 2013, we have introduced a couple of new products in new sectors which are now starting to see good approval from the market. We would like to stay with what we are doing at the moment and not invest much more in new technologies until we come out of this situation and we can invest a bit more, spend a bit more money and grow at the rate we used to.

Tell us about those new products.

One of the products we have introduced is the warning mesh which is essential in the running of your pipelines. Most of the breakages we have are because people have no idea there is a pipeline where they are digging. So we have introduced the warning mesh. If someone is digging to lay something new down or to build roads, they will see the mesh and understand that there is a pipe. The colour of the mesh will tell them what type of pipe it is, whether it is for water, electricity, telecom or gas and so it will help avoid unnecessary breakages and losses for the state.

Which would be the fields that you are interested in?

We are very interested in gas, agriculture and drains for rain and waste water.

We would like to introduce very large sized corrugated pipes for all the drains in the cities.

You are present in more than 20 African countries. Are you also looking towards further regional expansion?

Of course, we always want to grow.

Do you have production facilities in every country where you are present?

No. Our production facilities are only in Ghana and will remain only in Ghana for now.

In terms of the next strategy for Interplast, will you be introducing other niche products?

Absolutely; we would like to introduce very large sized corrugated pipes for all the drains in the cities. As you know, all of the drains in Ghana and West Africa are open drains, therefore they gather all of the plastic bags and all of the dirt that people throw around which causes choking in the water ways and flooding, which we saw a few weeks ago in Accra. Once the gutters and drains go underground then the flooding and the dirt going into the drains will be much reduced. I think that will be our next product.

With regards to the flooding and social development in general, do you have any specific activities in terms of corporate social responsibility?

We always run activities and take care of our social responsibilities. We had to help out a lot of our staff who were affected by the floods. We had to relocate them or give them loans so that they could move their families to safer places. Socially we are always active. We always take care of our environment and if there is a need, then Interplast is there.

Looking forward to the future, where would you like to see the company in two years when we meet again?

In two years I would like to see us investing in a lot of new equipment and technology, especially in the building sector. The aim of the company is to become one of the biggest in Africa. I don’t think that will happen in two years but that is our aim.

If you could sum up your major challenges at the moment with regards to the Ghanaian market itself, apart from the ongoing economic crisis, what would they be?

Electricity is our main challenge. Power supply is essential for us and it would reduce a lot of our losses if we could have a stable power supply. That is by far our main challenge and our largest overhead.

Conversely, we have some excellent staff. Sometimes the turnaround of staff can be quite significant because some tend to look for further opportunities. However the staff we have and that we have trained are really good and we are very happy with them. Their performance is more than acceptable.

How many employees do you have?

Interplast has 700 employees.

With regards to your international plans, what is your target?

East Africa will be our next target.

You are a fully Ghanaian owned company and have been here for the past 22 years. What message would you have for anyone considering investment in Ghana?

Well, importantly, Ghanaians are lovely people so it is very enjoyable to live with them. I think the safety situation in Ghana is amazing. I would strongly recommend Ghana to anyone interested in investing in West Africa. If you take all of the factors such as democracy, safety, the way people are etc. Ghana is a really good place to invest.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Interplast does everything properly and up to international standards. I think that the notion that people have that says we are in Africa and so things are ok but not perfect is history now. In Africa we can do things as well as in any other part of the world. I believe now is the time to come and give this continent what it really needs because it needs everything so I do encourage everyone to come and set up and look at the opportunities here.