Now in its 52nd year the Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA) is in a good place. Despite being entirely self-funded, the association continues to
Now in its 52nd year the Concrete Manufacturers Association (CMA) is in a good place. Despite being entirely self-funded, the association continues to grow, belying the constrained environment in which it operates; so much so that membership, which now includes 40 precast concrete producers, is at an all-time high.
“The withdrawal of cement industry support, a stuttering economy, and of course the Covid pandemic, has meant we have had to adapt our modus operandi to survive. Not only have we survived, but the steps we have taken means that membership continues to grow,” says CMA general manager, Henry Cockcroft,
“It’s very encouraging to see the CMA brand on an upward trajectory. It is reminiscent of the days when cement producer sponsorship meant that funds were freely available, but today’s membership growth is not inflated because of abundant funding, but is purely organic and sustainably based.
“A major contributing factor has been our Certification Services (CMA CS) arm. Besides providing a SANS certification and auditing service to precast concrete producers it has enabled us to kick start other revenue streams such as consulting on and assisting with the implementation of quality management systems.
“Another significant contributor has been our adoption of social media platforms; they have massively enhanced our ability to ‘talk’ to precast concrete specifiers and to enlighten a large pool of potential precast concrete users as to its advantages.
“It has also given our Awards for Excellence competition a far greater reach and relevance than it had during the from print-media era. Moreover, we no longer spend a small fortune on black-tie gala events to announce the winners; rather, by using social media platforms, our focus is the creation of ongoing awareness of all award entries from the day we receive them until well after the results are announced.
“And another big plus is that social media publicity is measurable. It enables us to define demographic environment with accuracy, pinpoint our focus market and measure our hit rate in delivering content that draws attention to precast concrete and its numerous benefits. We see this clearly through the calls we receive daily, from consulting engineers, architects and other professionals. Besides advising them on the technical properties and application of precast concrete products, it gives us the opportunity of promoting our members products, and bringing some of the precast concrete advantages they may not have known to their attention.
“The promotion of precast concrete always has been and continues to be the primary focus of the CMA. The industry has made enormous strides since the end of 2nd World War, extending far beyond the manufacture of bricks and blocks. The CMA logo stands for quality, honesty, professionalism and proper coding conduct, and member companies are obliged to subscribe to these values. However, membership is not open to all comers. Besides the criteria listed above prospective members companies must operate to recognised quality management systems.
“Our strongest membership base is in Gauteng, followed by the Western Cape and then the Eastern Cape and we have members as far afield as Namibia. This year’s AGM was held in Pretoria where the attendance was of over 50% of our membership base, our highest attendance ever,” concluded Cockcroft.
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