John Tallant Medal for Nuvo’s Collin Stroberg
IN MARCH, Collin Stroberg of Nuvo Rubber Compounders was a deserved recipient of the John Tallant Medal at the Institute of Materials’ National Rubber Conference.
The medal is presented to an individual who has made exceptional services to the rubber industry or to the Institute in either the technical, commercial or pioneering fields, all boxes for which Collin earned a tick.
Nuvo Rubber Compounders, of which Collin is MD, has for several years been an unstinting supporter of the IOM rubber conferences, where it has regularly been the platinum sponsor. Without such sponsorship, industry events are often not possible, whereas the IOM rubber events have provided a platform for people in the rubber industry in southern Africa to get together biennially.
Attendence was good, and the conferences provided an opportunity for many in the rubber sector to network and revive relationships, which is after all the core of any industry. In many other industries get-togethers have all but disappeared (or were hammered into submission by the Covid shutdown), so the sponsorship by Nuvo and other companies in the rubber business has provided a real shot in the arm for the industry overall.
Nuvo Rubber has also set an exemplary example in the rubber business. Originally at Hitec Rubber in Johannesburg, under Collin’s management, the company merged with Natal Rubber Compounders in 2005, which necessitated a move to Maritzburg in 2005. There have been several milestones over the past two decades, including the change of name from NRC to Nuvo in 2008; ISO 9001 certification that year; the introduction of its top rubber lab in 2014; the sale of its rubber belting production business to Rema TipTop in 2019; and – possibly most relevantly – uninterrupted supply of rubber compound to the rubber and tyre manufacturing sectors across Southern Africa throughout this period.
And this was all handled calmly and progressively, congrats Collin!
• Previous winners of the John Tallant Medal include luminaries such as Dave Ransom, Ray Everitt, Prof Willy McGill, George Warman, Tony Hesp, Dave Duncan, Ron Dunwoodie, Barry Hutchinson, Coen Burger and John Lithgow.
