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Galiem
Jacobs has worked for different paint companies over a period of 20+ years.
He has spent most of those years in a development laboratory developing
new paints. Galiem saw the potential for a new player in the market,
especially amongst previously disadvantaged business people Today,
Galiem is the proud owner of MANDALAY coatings in PAROW and manufactures
a range of specialised paints and coatings for the building industry. In
fact he is one of the few manufacturers in the world who can proudly say
that he has exported paint to Antarctica .He has exported 30 tons of a
water based fire retardent mastic coating.
He started his career in the paint industry as a paint technician in 1977 and since then he worked himself to the top until he was appointed as a technical director at a leading company. Whilst still a paint technician, Galiem studied analytical chemistry on a part time basis at the Peninsula Technikon. As he did not get the satisfaction that he wanted from his job and he decided to resign as technical director and that is when Mandalay Coatings in Parow came into being. Galiem started his business in 1996 with his wife and only two people other employees and now he has11 people working for him. He has realised the importance of having the necessary business skills and is currently doing a marketing course which has been organised by WECBOF (an organisation which helps to improves business skills of small businesses). The export order for Antarctica was his first order in his business. I had to produce it within two weeks and it had to withstand minus 40 degrees Celsius during transportation, he said.
Today his paint company is well recognised in the paint manufacturing industry as he specialises in producing cold resistant and fire resistant paint just to mention a few products. His customers include the Cape Town City Council, the South African Navy, the South Peninsula Municipality, Anglo American Mines and many corporate companies nationally.
His advice to people who want to succeed in their small businesses is, “be an expert in what you are doing, go out and seek knowledge, always remember that big sales today is history tomorrow, and there is no substitute for hard work, you must keep on strategising.”
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