REGULARS - PERSONALITY PROFILE
Andrew Gove
− solid in every way
MD of GWR Roofing, Andrew Gove, values hard work and
enjoys the fruits of his labour.
By Ntsako Khosa
WHAT IS YOUR CURRENT POSITION?
Managing director at GWR Roofing.
WHAT ARE YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES IN YOUR
CURRENT POSITION?
I am responsible for the daily operations of GWR Roofing.
I have admin, sales and operational staff reporting to me. I
monitor the cashflow, sales and production of our teams.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE IN YOUR CURRENT
POSITION? WHAT HAVE YOU ACHIEVED SO FAR?
I am continuously working toward creating a leading
roofing company that generates employment in South
Africa while producing quality work in the building and
residential sectors. I have grown this organisation from a
‘one-man band’ to a company that employs 42 people.
I hope to continue this trend and invest in South Africa
and its people.
I enjoy offering solutions and
good service to my clients.
Seeing the growth of my staff members is a great pleasure
to me and I am very proud that I have team leaders who
have grown both personally and professionally. It is my
goal to see these team leaders move into a supervisory
position or to even start companies of their own.
WHAT ARE THE MAJOR CHALLENGES THAT THE
INDUSTRY NEEDS TO OVERCOME?
At GWR Roofing we install timber trusses, either
prefabricated by a truss manufacturer or handmade
according to an engineer’s detail.
We find the challenges in the industry include:
• Underspecified material grades and inaccurate
measurements of trusses that may lead to structural
failures during or after installation;
• Inefficient project planning prior to roof installation
that results in time and material wastage which
increases the cost of roofing in general;
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• Poor installations completed by erectors who lack the
relevant knowledge in terms of reading plans. This,
together with ‘cutting corners’ during installation may
also lead to structural failures; and
• Unknowledgeable roofing inspectors / engineers
signing off non-compliant roofs. The Institute of Timber
Construction South Africa (ITC-SA) trains competent
roofing inspectors and they have been actively
involved in educating the relevant stakeholders against
the use of unknowledgeable and unregistered
inspectors.
WHY DO YOU USE TIMBER IN CONSTRUCTION?
Timber is the traditional material for the construction of
roof structures in South Africa. Our treated pine handles
harsh weather conditions very well. Timber is also
aesthetically pleasing.
EXPLAIN HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN YOUR CAREER
AND HOW DID YOU END UP WHERE YOU ARE TODAY?
In 2008 I was employed by a truss plant as a sales
representative. My responsibility was to bring roofing
projects in and manage the process from sales and delivery
to completion. I would visit my sites two or more times a
week to liaise with the fitters onsite. My boss at the time
harboured a very negative attitude toward erectors, he
said that they were the ‘lowest of the low’ in the roofing
industry. I found this hard to believe as I often handed
them cheques that were five or six times my salary! As the
global recession worsened, I was laid off. I then spent a
year working for a training company, writing training
manuals for bankers.
Fortunately, I was contacted by an ex-client of mine,
who had the money to go ahead with a job that I had
quoted on a year prior. I promptly organised the supply
and installation of his roof which we completed without
a hitch.
With the proceeds of that first job I was able to pay a
deposit on a vehicle. I left the training company and
entered the construction industry.
It was a difficult start; I had only three staff members,
Ottoman Mkize, Simnikiwe Mdukiswa and Afikile Machifa.
Over the years with a lot of hard work and with buy-in from
my staff we have developed GWR Roofing from base level