Guillaume Roux, group managing director/CEO, Lafarge Africa plc
The Lafarge Advantage
Created in 1833, Laaafarge group, headquartered in France, is a world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in three of its activities: No 1 worldwide in Cement, No 2 worldwide in Aggregates & Concrete, and No 3 worldwide in Gypsum.
Located in 62 countries with 64,000 employees, Lafarge is a world leader in building materials, with top-ranking positions in its Cement, Aggregates & Concrete businesses.
Lafarge ranked amongst the top 10 of 500 companies evaluated by the “Carbon Disclosure Project” in recognition of their strategy and actions against global warming. With the world’s leading building materials research facility, Lafarge places innovation at the heart of its priorities, working for sustainable construction and architectural creativity.
The core values include health and safety as first priority, commitment to respect, care and excellence as well as commitment to be ranked among the World’s most effective industrial groups in terms of environmental protection, social responsibility and corporate governance
To make advances in building materials, Lafarge places the customer at the heart of its concerns. It offers the construction industry and the general public innovative solutions bringing greater safety, comfort and quality to their everyday surroundings.
Lafarge’s long-term presence in the business, its high degree of vertical integration and advance in product research and innovation give the company a competitive advantage in terms of product quality and consistency, product differentiation as well as allowing stronger operational efficiencies.The business model focuses on achieving excellence in local management while capitalizing on best practices developed throughout the world.
Commitment To Building Better Cities In Nigeria
About Lafarge Africa Plc
Lafarge Africa Plc, a leading Sub-Saharan Africa building materials company, is a subsidiary of France-based Lafarge group, a world leader in building materials. Listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange with a presence in Africa’s two largest economies -Nigeria and South Africa – Lafarge Africa Plc, formerly Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc,actively participates in the urbanization and economic growth of Africa.
Making urbanization a success is one of the challenges of this century and at Lafarge, our ambition is to contribute to Building Better Cities. As a world leader in building materials, Lafarge supports the metamorphosis of cities with innovative solutions that provide cities with more housing, making them more compact, more durable, more beautiful and better connected.
The vision of Lafarge Africa Plc is to be the most trusted and preferred partner of African construction professionals and home builders by delivering cement, concrete and other building solutions that are best in quality, environmentally sustainable and nationwide available at affordable cost.
We are known for putting values at the forefront of the way we do business. The following principles are the hallmark of our business operation: Health and Safety, People Development, Corporate Governance, Customer Care/Market Orientation, Corporate Social Responsibility, Performance, Value Creation, Respect for Employees and Local Culture, Environmental Protection, Conservation of Natural Resources and Energy.
Lafarge Africa Plc is growing in a sustainable way and building on strong values. We put these values at the forefront of the way we do business: health and safety, environmental protection, corporate governance (Ethics) and social responsibility (in the areas of education, health, youth empowerment, and shelter). We develop a highly competent workforce to operate our plants and businesses, through intensive training and exchange programmes.
More importantly, we endeavour to create more value for our customers, providing them with the highest quality products and solutions. In Nigeria, our well-known brands – Ashaka Portland Limestone Cement, Atlas Classic Cement, Elephant Cement, Oilwell Cement, Powermax Cement, Readymix, Roadcem and Supaset Cement – all stand for quality, consistency and long term strength.
Our presence in Nigeria started with Cement in 2001 with the acquisition of Blue Circle. Today, combining our operations in Nigeria – 4.5MT in WAPCO (with two plants in Ogun State), 1MT in Ashaka Cement Plc (Gombe State), 2.5MT in United Cement Company of Nigeria Limited (Cross Rivers State) and 0.5MT in Atlas Cement Company Limited (Rivers State) – with operations in South Africa, Lafarge Africa Plchas a current installed cement capacity of 12Mt, which is expected to grow to 17.5Mt by 2017. This is in addition to strong market leading positions in aggregates, ready mix concrete and fly ash.
Our Concrete operations started in Nigeria in 2011 with Lafarge Readymix. Weleverage on the Group’s 50 years of experience in innovative concrete solutions and this puts us in the position to provide quality concrete solutions designed to meet the specific needs of today’s builders. Today, Readymix Operations has 7 plants and is growing rapidly.
For many years, Lafarge has been committed to a deliberate strategy of sustainable development that combines industrial know-how with performance, value creation, respect for employees and local cultures, environmental protection and the conservation of natural resources and energy. The Company is committed to progress and attentive to the ever-changing needs of local communities, contributing to the improvement of their quality of lives by setting up local development programs in the key areas of healthcare, shelter, education and youth empowerment.
Lafarge Africa Plc leverages its innovative expertise to provide valued added solutions in the building and construction industry in Sub-Saharan Africa as it strives to achieve its ambition of Building Better Cities.
Our Product Brands
Ashaka Portland Limestone Cement
This is a Nigerian Industry Standard Certified product and is widely used in Northern Nigeria. This is a trusted brand in the north with a 30 year pedigree and is used in many building and civil engineering works.
Atlas Classic Cement
Atlas Classic is a signature brand of a sister company Lafarge WAPCO. The brand conforms in to NIS and BS/12/1991 standards. The quality is very high providing solutions with power, maturity, resilience, durability and reliability. With quality assured production and materials handling processes in place, the Atlas Cement Brand has consistently delivered on its value proposition since its emergence in the Nigerian market in 2001.
Elephant Cement
A 53 year-old formidable brand of impeccable standard and quality; it backs solution provision with power, maturity, resilience, durability and reliability. Little wonder it has consistently won the NIS Certificate for product quality by the Nigerian Standard Organization for over two decades now. The Elephant brand has helped to build that edifice, brought that monumental project to life, created that serene atmosphere and positively impacted the lives of Nigerians socio-economically.
Since its existence in 1960, Elephant Cement has made visible landmarks in the areas of developmental projects which include:National Assembly Complex, Abuja; the Federal Secretariat, Abuja; Shell Trustees Residential Estate, Abuja; the Stallion Estate, Abuja; Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos; Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Lagos; MKO Abiola Gardens, Lagos; NITEL Building Lagos; Niger House, Lagos; Airport Hotel, Lagos; Cocoa House, Ibadan and Premier Hotel, Ibadan amongst others.
Oil Well Cement
The Federal Government of Nigeria in her effort to encourage cement manufacturers to fast track the backward integration approved the importation of oil well cement to service the oil and gas sector. Atlas cement currently gets its supply of oil well cement from the Lafarge Sagunto plant in Spain. Its classification and standard is API well cement class G (HSR)
Powermax
Powermax is Premium Technical cement that combines excellent strength performance at all ages with versatility and enhanced durability benefits. Its characteristics of superior workability and good early strength, in particular, make Lafarge Powermax the effective solution to the productivity demands of large construction projects while also satisfying the needs of homeowner building projects.
Readymix Concrete
Readymix is a product of Lafarge Nigeria’s commitment to innovation. This solution is specifically designed to meet construction needs. Readymix is concrete mixed to project specifications and delivered to construction sites when needed.
Sulfacrete
Sulfacrete is a Portland limestone cement with clinker developed to provide high sulphate resistance and a moderate heat of hydration. Designed to reduce damage to concrete, mortar and grout exposed to sulphate attack including manholes and effluent treatment plants, Sulfacrete also minimises the risk of alkali silica reaction and reduces the thermally-induced stresses in large pours by providing moderately low heat cement. Sulfacrete has excellent durability, early and final strength, low alkali cement with guaranteed uniformity and consistent quality.
Supaset Cement
Supaset Cement is cement specifically formulated to meet the requirements of the block making and precast segment of the construction industry. Its birth was borne out of profound customer research to satisfy the need for specialized cement for these segments of the industry. Elephant Supaset combines three key value propositions of Early Setting, Early Strength and the unique Latter Strength which is a distinguished quality our flagship, Elephant Cement, has been known for over the years.
Lafarge Africa Plc
Head Office:
27B, Gerrard Road
Ikoyi, Lagos
Abuja:
CLAN Place, Plot 1386A,
Source : BusinessDay