PIMMS Group celebrates 25 years of South African manufacturing, innovation, and growth
IN 2001, Stephen Stanley financed a single injection-moulding machine, employed one person, and started PIMMS. There was no large factory, established customer base or portfolio of products, only a 24-year-old toolmaker with technical knowledge, entrepreneurial courage, and a determination to build something of his own.
Twenty-five years later, PIMMS Group has grown into an advanced manufacturing operation serving customers in South Africa and international markets. The thinking behind the business remains remarkably consistent: understand what the customer needs, solve the problem, and manufacture an excellent product.
PIMMS’s injection-moulding capacity is supported by capabilities that extend beyond running machines. The company has its own fully equipped toolroom, allowing it to manufacture, maintain, and repair tooling internally. This improves response times, protects production continuity and gives the team a deeper understanding of every product it manufactures.
The toolroom is also open to other organisations requiring precision engineering, tool repairs, maintenance or new mould manufacture. Customers can access PIMMS’s engineering and toolmaking expertise as a standalone service, even when the resulting tooling will not be used within PIMMS’s own manufacturing facilities.
PIMMS also became the birthplace of several proprietary products and brands, which required their own commercial focus, strategic direction, and routes to market. They now operate as standalone brands under Stanton Global, PIMMS Group’s sister company, serving industries including fibre telecommunications, transport and load safety, mass-transfer applications, and pharmaceutical and cosmetic packaging.
Another significant milestone came in 2025 with the acquisition of Tego Plastics in Cape Town. The company now operates as PIMMS Group Cape Town, expanding the PIMMS’ manufacturing footprint and ability to serve customers nationally and globally.
Although Stephen founded PIMMS, the business was never built by one person alone. His wife, Veronique, supported the company behind the scenes for many years while establishing her own career as an attorney. As PIMMS grew, her legal, commercial and strategic experience became increasingly important.
In 2020, Veronique joined the Group full-time, bringing a different perspective across legal affairs, people, marketing, brand strategy and business development. Today, PIMMS Management Group (PMG) provides shared strategic and professional support across the Group’s companies. Its four-person Executive Committee comprises Stephen Stanley, Veronique Stanley, Group Commercial Director Quentin du Preez and Group Finance Officer Tanya du Preez.
Together, the EXCO team oversees the Group’s businesses, combining technical, legal, people, commercial and financial expertise to provide strategic direction and support their continued growth.
The day-to-day PIMMS manufacturing operation is led by Managing Director Walt Coetzee, supported by an experienced management team and employees across production, assembly, tooling, technical services, quality, distribution and the Group’s support functions.
PIMMS’s 25th birthday coincides with two other important milestones: the move into a new, bigger factory and the launch of a new corporate identity. The refreshed identity reflects the business PIMMS has become – modern, ambitious, and focused on responsible, sustainable growth. The new factory brings PIMMS’s expanding capabilities together, starting a new chapter for the business. At the centre of that chapter is the Group’s purpose, connecting manufacturing with something more meaningful. PIMMS cares for people by making Excellent products that protect reputations, support customers, create employment, strengthen industries, and improve its users’ lives.
Twenty-five years later, PIMMS remains grounded in the belief that built the company: good manufacturing begins with understanding people and the problems they need solved.
