SAPY Colours emerges from pandemic with flags flying high
Reinvesting and expanding production at KZN plant
SAPY, the colour, white, black and additive masterbatch manufacturer operating out of Hammarsdale in KZN, has emerged from the pandemic in a healthy position and is now reinvesting in order to reposition itself for further growth in both the masterbatch and multifilament PP yarn markets.
It has commissioned three new compounding lines at its plant so far this year and expanded the scale of the plant too.
SA Polypropylene Yarns (SAPY) has been manufacturing colour masterbatch since 1998, with these colours initially used inhouse in the company’s multifilament PP yarn extrusion plant – an application which requires high-dispersion ability and colour consistency from batch to batch. The efficiencies built up in the process laid the springboard for the ongoing expansion at SAPY in masterbatch manufacture for supply to the market.
During the Covid induced recession, SAPY had taken a measured approach to managing its business in order to control cost as much as possible. Being cautiously optimistic, based on the company’s positive growth during this difficult time, SAPY put a number of strategic improvements in motion.
As a result, SAPY has since embarked on a major revitalization of all its systems in tandem with the expansion of its compounding capacity, one of the first manifestations of which being its increased production of white masterbatch. The advantage of the new compounding equipment (the names of the manufacturers are not being revealed) is higher efficiency output whilst maintaining the quality the market has come to depend on. Additional significant investment is being made into replacement of equipment with high energy consumption vs output, including compressors. This is part of a major drive that fits in with SAPY’s ethos for efficiency and to maintain competitiveness in its market sectors going forward.
A new admin manager joined the company at the beginning of 2022, to drive the changing operational strategy which includes a focus on revamping their systems in a ‘paperless’ direction.
Quality approvals
SAPY’s systems are certified against international ISO standards – 9001:2015 (quality management systems) and ISO 22000:2018 (food safety management systems), the latter approval being from 2018. Several of its masterbatches with a recycled polymer carrier are also SATAS-approved for use in recycled polymer carrier bags. However, SAPY is itself not approved by SATAS (South African Technical Auditing Services authority).
The introduction of the new equipment and technology is enabling the company to continue to produce high consistency colour masterbatches that achieve exceptional dispersion.
The culture at SAPY, originated on its success in producing colour masterbatch for fine denier yarn applications, has steadily led to an increase in its abilities to produce higher standard colour masterbatch. Demand for these masterbatches has since spread over the last 25 years, beyond its yarn customers to manufacturers of packaging goods and films. Key staff have also been retained, including sales personnel Tracy Campbell and company 2IC and Colour Manager Dayalan Moodley, which has been fundamental to its expansion into these sectors.
