BAMR

Instrumental growth

With a history covering three generations of successful business, BAMR has been an expert in the supply, repair, service and calibration of instruments since 1946.

The company specialises in hand held instrumentation for use in the coatings, corrosion, physical paint, testing and allied industries, representing some of the market leaders in this arena from its base in South Africa. Operating from Cape Town, this family run business looks to combine quality products at competitive prices with personalised service delivered from its compact but experienced staff base. BAMR has represented the world-leading manufacturer and supplier Elcometer Instruments in South and Southern Africa since 1948. This Manchester, UK based provider is also a family run business and has won the Queen’s Awards for Technology and Export in recognition of its premier supply to the coatings and anti-corrosion industry.

BAMR’s wide and comprehensive portfolio covers a plethora of needs including climatic control testing, concrete testing, coating physical test equipment, inspection accessories, metal detection, moisture instrumentation, surface preparation and ultrasonic wall thickness assessment, to name but a few. Operating as the middleman between the front-running international manufacturers and suppliers, and customers managing infrastructural and turnkey projects, BAMR manages a constantly evolving portfolio to high success.

Graham Duk, director of BAMR and grandson of its founder, outlines the company’s unique selling points: “The fact that we have been established for decades is highly beneficial, we have been representing the market leaders for over 60 years. We are also supplying only the highest quality products, which I believe is critical to our successful position in the marketplace. Moreover, we are offering an advanced service that pays attention to detail, and it is a combination of all of these factors that ensures repeat business.”

The company’s wide range of product capabilities means its has been involved in a diverse and varied range of projects. As a supplier to the operator managing the project, direct involvement is rare for BAMR, though the company’s most recent achievement has been the reception of major orders for the construction of a pipeline. Large purchases were made for hand held instrumentation that assesses the corrosion qualities of pipes before they are placed underground. The construction of huge infrastructure and stadium contracts for the 2010 Football World Cup has also been a major source of business and a large factor resulting in the South African economy being relatively more buoyant than the world economy as a whole.

BAMR has no direct involvement in the design and innovation of products, meaning that it has to be reactionary in its business model, responding to new launches, as and when they arrive rather than attempting to forecast its future portfolio. Despite this, the company’s offering is consistently expanding. Its latest addition from Elcometer include : the re-launched Elcometer 456 Dry Film Coating Thickness Gauge with its new IMO compatible feature; the Elcometer 224 Surface Profile Gauge for measuring the profiles of Blast cleaned surfaces with the ability to download the readings to a computer and thereby have a permanent record as well as the Elcometer 319 Dewmeter with Bluetooth and Datalogging features with the ability to record Temperature, Relative Humidity, Dewpoint, Delta T to name a few. Rhopoint have also recently launched the Novo Gloss IQ Goniophotometer which has the ability to measure Gloss, Haze, Distinctness of Image (DOI) at a very competitive price which makes it a very useful instrument and tool. BAMR now also represent Subsite in the USA who supply Pipe and Cable Locators as well as Cable Avoidance Tools.

During the global economic crisis that has seen many companies fight for survival, BAMR has witnessed less impact than most on its sales book with customers remaining loyal to its essential provision. Its day-to-day operations experienced the greatest downturn though this has started to pick up again, as Graham notes: “The country’s economy as a whole has taken the brunt of the financial downturn and though we experienced a minor decline in our daily business we are already seeing a general increase and improvement in our customer base, while our turnover has been maintained. Being in the position that we are as a distributor, we cannot underestimate the role that our manufacturers and suppliers play in our success. It is their investment and initiative that keeps us up to speed with the market trends and in touch with client demand. We rely a lot on the fact that our suppliers are at the forefront of the industry as that means we remain dynamic and competitive.”

Looking to the future, Graham is optimistic that BAMR’s influence will continue to expand across South and Southern Africa and further north into Africa. Over the past few years the company’s product portfolio has experience rapid growth and the plan for the coming months is to consolidate its product offering and concentrate more on its customer base. “Looking at where we were five years ago and our vision for five years time, I would say that we want to be in a similar position, at the cutting edge of the market. The only change I want to see is a deeper penetration into our existing markets, developing alongside our customers rather than spreading ourselves too widely,” Graham concludes.