Gerhard Victor, CEO of PG Bison, emphasised the company's commitment to strengthening the local furniture industry, reducing reliance on imports, and creating new opportunities for the forestry and furniture sectors across Africa and beyond. He stated, "This investment has created an additional 150 permanent jobs in the Gert Sibande District Municipality, as well as over 1,000 temporary jobs during the construction phase. Furthermore, with our increased local procurement of timber and other raw materials, we anticipate a positive ripple effect throughout the forestry and furniture value chain, benefiting the broader economy."
The state-of-the-art MDF Contiroll line represents a historic advancement for PG Bison, positioning the Mkhondo cluster as a globally competitive hub for wood-based panel production in Southern Africa. The cluster now features an MDF line, a particleboard line, three melamine-faced board upgrading lines, a resin plant, and two paper treatment lines. It is located close to key plantations. This new MDF line will add 780 cubic metres of production per day to the market, boosting the company's total installed MDF capacity to 1,180 cubic metres per day across its Boksburg and Mkhondo plants.
PG Bison is a division of KAP Limited (KAP), listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Gary Chaplin, CEO of KAP, expressed the company's strong support for PG Bison's investment in the new MDF line, emphasising that KAP's investments aim is to drive local economic growth and enhance global competitiveness. Chaplin noted, "This investment will build a platform for future growth throughout the forestry and furniture value chains."
In his address, Victor also expressed gratitude to Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation - David Mahlobo and acknowledged national and local government support. The participation of these officials highlights the success of the public-private partnership between PG Bison, the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic), and Eskom. This collaboration has been instrumental in supporting localisation and job creation initiatives within the forestry and furniture industry value chain.
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