Delivering a quality product through quality partnerships

In the Johannesburg suburb of Jeppestown, Ian Falconer started a modest stair building company. Since its inception in 1982, Falcon Shopfitters has impressively expanded their small start-up into a portfolio of worldwide clientele using their interior and exterior solutions.

Falcon Shopfitters work closely with interior design companies, using in-house draughts men to bring a small or large contract to timely completion—without compromising vision or standards—all aspects a client has the right to expect. Falcon’s mission lies within delivering a quality product and shopfitting for clients by partnering with experienced architects, designers and project managers, all working together to provide the best service. With over 10 million Rand invested in plant and machiney over the past few years, Falcon has one of the best equipped woodworking factories in Africa, which has not been put together at the expense of our labour force. Even during the global recession, the company has stayed strong.

The company has a close-knit community of workers and much of its staff have been with the company since its inception. The company today boasts a staff of 150.

“We have all been here for a long time. It’s very well entrenched,” says Falconer.

The company has worked in a number of different locations for a number of different types of clientele including casinos, hotels and banks.

“We started off as stair builders and then we went into domestic, then retail, then commercial. Then we started with hotels and casinos and then things really started to move. Expansion prompted those moves,” says Falconer.

Sizeable projects include GrandWest Casino, the Capetown International Convention Centre and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. Though the company advertises on their website, they maintain a personable approach to advertising.

“A lot of our advertising is done by word of mouth. There are quite a few companies in South Africa that do the same,” he said.

Competition in the field

The business specializes in casinos and five star hotels and has partnered with a variety of interior design firms to see their projects come to fruition. Currently, Falcon has eight in-house project managers who help to coordinate and manage the variety of tradesman that work with them.

“When someone approaches us, they have drawings or we can do them with a bill of quantities. All our design teams are out of house and they are normally the people who come to us with the work,” says Falconer.

The company prides itself on the quality of their work, with a quick turnover period.

“Very often time is a key factor. Instead of paying 80 pounds to get the job done in six months, they will pay 100 pounds to get the job done in four months.” Though Falcon has done a lot of jobs outside of Africa, its priorities lie within their home country. “We’ve worked in Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Mozambique, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe… I think we’ve worked to some level in almost every African country,” says Falconer. “In-house training updating machinery is very competitive on a worldwide basis. We have a lot of CNC machines, routers, planners, etc. We work with very cutting edge technology.”

Environment awareness

Falcon uses a lot of wood for its products, but is environmentally aware of its carbon footprint, with a policy on using products that have an FSC forest certification. Falcon also uses environmentally sound Enviro-skip services which safely remove waste products.

Growth and the economy

Though the company has seen rapid growth since its founding, with the current economic recession their expansion has come to somewhat of a standstill. Regardless, Falconer still has high hopes for the future and stands by his company’s high standards of quality production.

“In the coming years, we will increase our turnover a bit. Times are tough so we will maintain an even keel at the moment. We won’t look at expansion until the coming years,” says Falconer. “We will delivery on time and quality is our expertise. Sometimes we are not the cheapest, but if the customer wants good quality and on time, we are the ones to come to.”

Windmill Casino Bloemfontein Project

A recent big development for Falcon Shopfitters, in conjunction with Northpoint Interior Designers, was the new Windmill Casino and Entertainment Centre in Bloemfontein. This Sir Herbert Baker inspired development totals a R240 million cash investment for the region and is bound to have numerous positive spin-offs for the local economy.

According to Davidson the main design consideration was to create a complex that is sensitive to its surroundings and to keep the scale and exterior facade as harmonious as possible. This first for Bloemfontein will house a casino gaming floor which measures 1 411 square metres and is divided into smoking and non-smoking areas. The area is equipped with 230 slot machines and 10 tables. There is of course the capacity for future expansion.

Servicing the gaming floor is the can-can walk up bar. Other facilities include the two main conference rooms, Windmill rooms A and B, which can be opened up into one main conference venue, seating approximately 190 people.

OR Tambo Domestic and International Arrival Project

Falcon Shopfitters, noted for a range of high profile installations, salient amongst those WesBank Fairlands. Falcon was commissioned as turnkey contractor to have total oversight of the project.

The commission included Falcon acting as main contractor with ancillary trades required to complete the installation such as tiling, steelwork, granite, glass, stainless steel and Vitrex crews, subcontracted by Falcon, to assist with the completion of the installation.

The project included cladding that went onto columns, walls and bulkheads in both the domestic and international arrival areas plus the multi-tiered hyphen section that connect both areas (wings) with one another, including the dependencies or services now housed there— the aeronautical theme apparent throughout.

Fairlands Project, Johannesburg, 2008

Wesbank Fairlands ranks among one of the more interesting and challenging projects that Falcon have undertaken in recent years, it was a rare opportunity to combine the exacting skills of their craftsmen with the technology of our CNC equipment and the co-ordination ability of our Project Managers.
The manufacture of all the various components was drawn in the latest Autocad and programmed by Ernest Warkus while co-ordination, logistics and Site installation was directed by Pieter Grobler.

All the 3 dimensional framing which forms the tunnels, cocoons, screen walls, seating areas and counters was manufactured and pre-assembled in Falcon’s 6000 square metre factory in Heriotdale Johannesburg, before being dismantled and re-fitted on site similar to a giant jigsaw puzzle consisting of 140,000 components with 320,000 joints.  

www.falconshopfitters.co.za

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