Lafarge, Flow’s PR and media training client and one of South Africa’s largest cement producers, made history this month by opening its first service centre in Orlando East, Soweto.
The Lafarge Service Centre offers home-builders full access to architects, contractors and financial consultants on site, while also stocking all building materials required to make the building process as seamless as possible.
Tshepiso Dumasi, general manager: cement at Lafarge South Africa, says the service centres are intended to bring the suburban building experience to currently under-served communities, and will contribute to infrastructure development.
The service centre will also foster enterprise development by offering Lafarge-accredited training to local entrepreneurs in the construction and brick-making sectors, thereby fulfilling Lafarge’s commitment to building better communities.
The concept of a construction service centre that acts as a one-stop shop fills a much-needed gap in the market as it’s aimed at the small homeowner looking for help with everything associated with a new building.
The centre is conveniently located in Orlando East, Gauteng, close to the former Orlando Stadium – now rebranded as the Lafarge Stadium.
The centre is geared to meet every need of a prospective homeowner, from draughtsmen to draw up building plans, to the exact building supplies required for the construction, the requisite municipal approval and provision of the finance required to pay for it all.
Targeted specifically at people who don’t have access to formal facilities, the Orlando Service Centre is the prototype store, with a further 12 such centres to be rolled out countrywide.
Requiring buy-in from a number of stakeholders, the centre represents a collaboration between Lafarge, the University of Johannesburg Centre for Small Business Development, the Orlando East Business Forum and Real People Finance.
