Ba Industries nails export award

NAILS are an

important Hijjß

ingredient

that goes into the con struction activity. Ba Industries Ltd (BIL), located in the riverside town of Ba has been proudly making nails since 1974. BIL again made history when it became the proud winner of the FTIB’s 1998 Network Exporter of the Year award for excellence in exports. General manager Utkarsh Pundlik believes the foundation of success includes investing in state of the art technological machinery, mastering its use, maintaining exceptionally high stan dards and equipment and providing in house staff training on an ongoing basis.

BIL not only manufactures nails but galvanises them in Fiji’s only Hot Dip Galvanising plant set up in 1997. Apart from bright and galvanised nails, BIL also manufactures chainlink fencing and barbed wires. Since its inception, BIL has grown with technology, quality and production capacity to cater for the growing demands of both local and export markets. BIL has a lion’s share of the local market for all its products, and exports to American Samoa,

Western Samoa, Vanuatu, Tonga, Tahiti, and the Solomon Islands, amongst other Pacific Island countries.

BIL also exports in a big way to Australia and New Zealand. Low manufac turing costs and proximity to the export markets have helped BIL to establish mar kets abroad. BIL is also exploring the pos sibility of developing newer markets.

BIL successfully installed/commis sioned a nail factory in Kiribati in 1993 and a rotary galvanising plant in 1997, as well as training their staff to operate them. BIL is the only wire and fencing products man ufacturing company in the South Pacific to be accredited with ISO 9002 certification and a thoroughly documented quality man agement system.

BIL is the only one in Fiji to have its own Hot Dip Galvanising plant. This was commissioned in April 1997. The invest ment made in this project is well over F 5250,000. This was made to ensure that all the galvanised products including nails met the stringent requirements of the

Australian (AS 1650-1989) and New Zealand Standards. The company has been awarded the

Overseas Membership of the Galvanisers Association of Australia and thus has access to the latest developments in Hot Dip galvanising. BIL also galvanise brack ets, anchors, chains, and other similar products, and undertakes galvinising jobs for various industries such as construction, marine, mining, and hotels. The effective size of the BIL bath available for galvanis ing is 1.4 m (long) by o.Bm (wide) by 0.5 m (deep). BIL plans to invest moreen new technology and equipment to increase pro ductivity and efficiency, diversifying its product base. They already have installed and commissioned Fiji’s first thread rolling machine to manufacture different types of helical and threaded nails. BIL has invest ed approximately F 5250,000 (in 1998) in installing the latest technology weighing and packing machine to cater for specific blister pack requirements of the Australian and New Zealand markets. This has been done to fully satisfy customer’s packing needs in BlL’s effort to achieve customer delight. ■