Steel merchant Macsteel has launched the third of its independently owned Macsteel Express franchise partnerships, in Nelspruit, on June 1.

Macsteel launched the first of its two franchise partner concept outlets in February this year in Klerksdorp and Welkom, respectively.  

The Macsteel Express franchise concept will continue with Macsteel’s legacy of a customer-centric and solutions-oriented approach to all customer engagements.

The outlets will be open six days a week with in-store expertise and promises to deliver steel and steel-related hardware designed to meet the highest standards for all commercial and residential construction needs.  

Macsteel Express outlets will continue to hold the widest range of steel and steel-related hardware and remain focused on partnering with customers to offer and provide solutions for all commercial and residential construction needs, the company says.

CEO Mike Benfield says the company “recognised the need for transformation and understand that transformation today focuses on the need to generate new value [and] to unlock new opportunities, to drive new growth and to deliver new efficiencies for our clients”.

He explains that the economic climate has dictated the necessity for business transformation to ensure one remains competitive, and that “it’s required [people] to rethink how business creates value not only today but, in the future, and as such has necessitated us to think big”.

Benfield stresses that incremental improvement is not enough to win in today’s exponentially disrupted business environment, subsequently setting the premise of Macsteel requiring sustained growth in the face of near constant disruption, and sustained growth requires agile reinvention.

“It’s not enough to win today, we have to be able to continue to evolve in the future and ensure that Macsteel remains competitive and sustainable for another 116 years,” he concludes.

The franchising-partnering concept is a shift in Macsteel’s business model, driving consolidation and centralisation of functions within the business aimed at ensuring the sustainability of its services to customers in regions around the country.