"Less affluent suburbs have more wet waste, while at the other end of the socio-economic spectrum, you find more packaging. This, of course, impacts on the recycling and waste minimisation and the design of the waste disposal facilities. We have seen how, as suburbs change, so the profile of the waste changes."

"We aren't just waste specialists though," says Chris. "We have been involved with a motor component manufacturer for 30 years now. We place a lot of emphasis on our client relationships and work very hard at keeping those at optimum levels."

"In 1972 we started working with August Läpple, whose parent company is in Heilbron in Germany. They currently have 3 plants in Pretoria and one in East London, although at one stage they had 5 plants in Pretoria."

"Their needs - as with all our clients - are our prime concern, and we have built a solid foundation of expertise to meet all of those needs. Heinz Teifel was MD in 1972 and he only retired in 1993. Those early days were tough for us; the demands of a high-pressure environment coupled with the exact demands of that famous German precision really kept us on our toes," says Chris proudly.

"A ball of fire, Werner Klenk, replaced Heinz Teifel in 1993. He also kept us on our toes. Our third MD - so to speak - arrived in 1996. He has introduced highly automated pressing lines in Plant one in Pretoria - there has been no respite in the pressure."

"In 1987 we introduced AllyCAD into our offices. That was still the DOS version," says Chris smiling fondly. "To ensure that we could meet the demands of not only August Läpple, but all our clients, we decided to create a comprehensive set of site layout plans. August Läpple gave their enthusiastic blessing to this project and it has rewarded us handsomely over the years."

"This collection of plans comprised all the different layers of services in each plant. We had cadastral, stormwater, sewer, water, existing buildings, structural items, and fire protection layouts. We could now almost do expansions over the phone. We have actually developed the brief in the boardroom with AllyCAD."

"August Läpple is, of course, just one of our long-term clients. NCP Alcohols have been with us for 15 years, while NCS Resins are not far behind. At one stage, NCS Resins wanted certain sections or their drawings in an electronic format. With AllyCAD it was a breeze. We simply exported them in j-peg and bitmap format."

"We are the custodians of all NCS Resins Pinetown and Isipingo electronic site layouts. Of course, once the Windows version of AllyCAD was released, our work has become even easier. The time savings are incredible. The range and depth of functionality is enormous, in fact I believe that AllyCAD is restricted at times by the available hardware! I have often wondered if anyone has ever used AllyCAD to its full capability," says Chris.

The rewards of meeting client needs are clearly visible at SKC Engineers. Focused priorities, hard work, and the right tools make a formidable team that is hard to beat. 
Client relationships are never wasted at SKC Engineers; they are treasured and nurtured.