Peikko South Africa is part of the Peikko Group Corporation, a leading global supplier of slim floor structures and connection technology for precast and cast-in-situ applications. Situated in the South of Johannesburg, Peikko South Africa was established in 2018 to meet the growing demand for Peikko’s innovative solutions coupled with wide range of products and systems on the African Continent.

Peikko has sales offices in over 34 countries including Asia-Pacific, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and North America regions, with in-house manufacturing operations in ten countries.

This family-owned and managed company employs over 1 800 professionals and prides itself on offering innovative solutions that deliver faster, safer and more efficient ways to design and build.

Peikko’s Managing Director, Daniel Petrov, sat down with Media in Africa Group’s CEO, Marlene van Rooyen, to discuss their specific innovations.

MVR: Tell us about your product offering?
Daniel: Would You like to SPEED UP Construction Time? Or perhaps You would like to have MORE SPACE with less money? Or would you like to make buildings more sustainable? Peikko is the supplier of Slim Floor Structures, Wind Energy Applications and Connection Technology for Precast and Cast-in-situ to meet these requirements. Assisting in making the construction process, faster, more effective, and safer.

MVR: Which areas do you specialise?
Daniel: Peikko offer solutions across all sectors of the construction industry for pre-casters, builders, contractors, developers, flooring specialists, machine manufacturers, power plant designers, architects and structural designers.

MVR: How does your technology assist specifiers?
Daniel: We have dedicated software and tools designed specifically for specifiers and professional teams called the Peikko Designer, which assists them to select the optimal Peikko product for their given project and its application.

Using the different Peikko designer modules, professionals can select various features and benefit from the latest module updates. The user-friendly plug-and-play Peikko designer is available to any professional free of charge, without registration. The tool comes with local technical support to assist with any tech issues.

MVR: What specific innovations does Peikko bring to the industry?
Daniel: In the last few years, our solutions in terms of precast columns connected to foundations, or columns to columns using our bolted connections have delivered amazing results in terms of speeding up the construction and installation process. They also eliminate unwanted support structures around the columns, creating an almost “self-erecting opportunity” for the frame.

MVR: What are the biggest challenges with the current industry in your opinion?
Daniel: Project funding, approvals, and market cost sensitivity. These are not Covid driven and have been an issue for a long time on our local Construction Market. The way forward could be Design Optimisation. This is essential for project cost bottom line, thus will be vital in considering optimising the design without over specifying – keeping it lean and slim.

It is important for the specifier to do value engineering based on value money. It is unfair to offset new technology and then to compare it to previous and known methods of construction, because there isn’t much room for comparison. If one solution speeds up the process, gives you a better solution while ticking all the boxes is compared to traditional methods, it will not offer a true reflection of the impact.

MVR: What are the questions the specifier should be asking?
Daniel: Well, from an investor or developer point of view, the key question should be The Return on Investment? Is it the speed? Is it the speed coupled with budget sensitivity or both? And if it is both, then one needs to balance one against the other. Yes, it could take longer, but if you adopt new technology such as a Peikko solution that is significantly faster and better looking with the potential of saving a great deal of money against the interest, then it makes sense to use the modern or more innovative solution.

MVR: Other projects in the pipeline?
Daniel: Sustainability around residential project application is very exciting and we would like to turn our focus to Peikko’s wind energy offering, which is very strong in Northern Europe. We feel that it makes sense in South Africa’s Eastern and Western Cape regions. We are now actively looking for business opportunities in this space.

MVR: Where would you like to move to in future?
Daniel: There are enormous opportunities in South Africa. If one looks at some of Peikko’s successes and experience, such as the installation of precast concrete pipeline racks in Dubai, we think we have a great deal of innovation to offer the South African market. Give us call to see how we can assist you to tailor-make a solution for your project.

For more information, contact Peikko South Africa:
Tel: +27 83 608 5534
Website: www.peikko.co.za

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