Cross Fire Management is facing an exciting future. As it continues to expand into Africa, with big contracts from prominent developers, and its activities in South Africa also showing no signs of slowing, its founder says that the plan has always been to become the very best.
Earlier this year, Bryanston-based Cross Fire Management celebrated its 25thanniversary. The company has been operating in the fire safety industry since its very first day after it was established by CEO John Cross and today the business specialises in the design, supply, fabrication, installation, servicing and maintenance of a large range of fire protection and prevention equipment.
Cross Fire Management is one of the country’s leading fire safety companies and operates all over South Africa and Southern Africa. With over 70 permanent employees, an established brand and decades of experience, this is a business that, despite the economic climate, is pretty hot right now.
But it hasn’t always been that way. In the very beginning, times were tough and carving out a share of the market was a real challenge for John Cross. Personal trials also added to the difficulty of starting a new venture in South Africa in the 90s but this tenacious entrepreneur was determined.
“We celebrated our 25thanniversary on the 1stof September. We started off working in a small office; just two of us, working out of an office with no windows and just one phone and one desk. We’ve seen steady growth over the last 20 years and the last two years have been pretty consistent with regards to our turnover. It started with us just doing maintenance work and revamps. In 1998, we got our first really big order from Carnival City Casino and from there things just grew and grew. We didn’t really want things to grow as quickly as they did but it was just natural evolvement,” Cross explains.
“In 1998, I was shot in a hijacking. They told me I would be paralysed for the rest of my life but it turned out that I am able to walk with difficulty, although I can’t get around sites like I used to. I came home one Thursday night and two guys put guns to my head and pulled me from my car.They shot at me 5 times, one of the bullets damaged my spinal column and it took me a year of rehabilitation to get back on my feet. I was 43 and being paralysed forever did not appeal to me.
“We pride ourselves on the service we provide. We didn’t want to become the biggest but we did want to be the best in the industry. Right now, we’re probably second or third biggest in South Africa. We have branches in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Ghana,” he adds.
AN AVOIDABLE COST
In modern times, fire is certainly a completely avoidable problem. With highly advanced technology and strict safety and security guidelines in place, companies should not have to worry about loss of revenue because of something that can quite easily be avoided.
Back in 2012, a fire at the Princess Crossing shopping centre in Roodepoort reportedly caused over R100 million damage. In March this year, firefighters and civilians were injured in an oil factory fire in Durban which went on to cause an oil spill in the Port of Durban. In January, a fire at a timber factory in Roodekop needed firefighters from six stations to bring it under control. Imagine the time effort and money that could have been saved in these examples if a first class fire protection system had been in place.
Cross Fire Management supply automatic sprinkler installations, hydrant and hose reel reticulation, medium and high velocity deluge water spray systems, dedicated fire water supply pump and tank installations, fire/smoke detection and evacuation systems, fire suppression gas installations, hand fire extinguishers and appliances, symbolic fire and escape signage, fire stopping and sealing and firefighting foam installations. Any one of these products could change the fortunes of a company during a fire scare.
“There have been a couple of small fires that our systems have dealt with but there haven’t been any major fires where we’ve worked. The big fires that have happened have been in warehouses that don’t have the correct fire protection,” says Cross.
COMPETITIVE INDUSTRY
Before the formation of Cross Fire Management, there was one major player in the SA fire prevention industry. When that company closed its doors, many smaller businesses were spawned creating a fiercely competitive environment.
“I’ve been in the industry since 1974. I started working for a UK company called Mather & Platt and they were very big with many divisions. They were eventually bought out by an Australian company and the South African division closed over 20 years ago. All the guys who had been with Mather & Platt began to start their own companies and from one major player in the industry, we ended up with a whole host of businesses.
“We regularly have new companies enter the industry and they cut their prices drastically to buy themselves a share of the market, creating a price war. It makes it difficult and this year we’ve seen three companies go under, another is now in business rescue and two more are really struggling. You could definitely call it a volatile market,” explains Cross.
For this reason, and because of a demand for quality service, Cross Fire Management expanded into Africa, performing especially well in Mozambique and Ghana. Last year, Christopher Gilmour, investment marketer and analyst of ABSA Wealth and Investment Management said: “The thrust into Africa is not just a nice-to-have, itis essential for future growth.”
“This is one of the reasons why we ventured into Africa and opened our branch in Ghana where we have completed three large shopping centres and have just picked up our fourth last month.
“We were approached by a professional team who asked us if we wanted to work in Ghana and we had been dabbling in Africa; in Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola but we had been going in and out, without an established presence. There’s not too many SA companies chasing the Ghanaian market and the local companies cannot compete with our quality,” details Cross.
NO DAMPENING GROWTH
Interestingly, in these times of economic uncertainly and pressure on commodity prices causing confidence in markets to wane, Cross Fire Management is still experiencing a relatively buoyant market.
“In September, we had a record sales month. In just one month, we picked up a third of our annual turnover in orders. It was absolutely massive.
“We’ve been very fortunate and we have a great client base that come to us and we get a lot of repeat work from certain developers,” says Cross.
This is remarkable news considering the state of the construction industry. We have all seen the news from the big construction firms that stock prices have been tumbling and we’ve seen evidence that a decline in mining investment and the almost non-existent roll-out of large state infrastructure projects has all but crippled some mid-sized firms. However, Cross remains positive and you can’t really blame him.
“People say that the construction industry in SA is on a downward trend but you just have to look around Gauteng or the greater Johannesburg region and you’ll see two massive shopping centres have gone up lately, there’s a huge development at Waterfall Park, there’s a 110,000 m2shopping centre going up, there’s high-rise buildings going up everywhere, there are four or five big office blocks going up in Sandton, and the Chinese are preparing a massive development in Modderfontein so I honestly believe there is a lot of work out there,” he says.
This belief is not unfounded as the company has recently picked up four big shopping centre contracts where Cross Fire’s ‘go-to’ products have been installed.
“Right now, the biggest project we have is the Ballito Shopping Centre near Durban and then there’s our project in Ghana,” explains Cross. “We’re also working on a shopping centre in Springs and we’ve nearly finished one in Century City. They are all having standard sprinkler installations, complying with ASIB standards. Shopping centres and office blocks are all pretty standard, the difficult work comes with warehouses that have computerised racking systems and refrigerated storage areas. Mines and power stations also have expensive, highly technical systems.”
Cross Fire Management is looking at expanding and diversifying its market and this type of broadening is partly down to the unfavourable economic climate. “No one knows what is happening with our economic situation,” says Cross. “We’re always trying to look at different markets.”
CROSS FIRE PEOPLE
The team at Cross Fire Management has been carefully pieced together over the past 25 years and is experienced and knowledgeable. However, when it comes to developing people and recruiting, Cross explains that it can be difficult.
“We train a lot; we do in house training, especially our draftsmen. To find a draftsman that is experienced is difficult as some companies are paying ridiculous sums for good draftsmen. We usually try to train draftsmen ourselves. It’s a real challenge to recruit labour to work on site. Attention to quality and pride in work seems to have gone out of the window. It really does make life difficult,” he says.
In the future, the strategy and direction of Cross Fire will be decided by the management team without Cross who intends to retire in the next couple of years.
“The operation of this company has been handed over to my MD, Catherine Stewart, and her fellow directors. I’m here now just to oversee the operations, offer advice, motivate the staff and check the financial side of the business.”
But even without its founder, Cross Fire Management will undoubtedly follow on its success path. The culture of quality and resolve that has been instilled over the past quarter century remains in place and the business will continue to save lives and protect property, across South Africa and the rest of the continent.
“We’ve got a good vibe in our company – it’s very different to any other fire protection company. We do a lot for our staff and we have a good team,” concludes Cross.