VICTORIA Falls Stock Exchange-listed West Property Holdings (WestProp) has acquired a US$1 million brick manufacturing facility to support its ambitious “one billion bricks” strategy, businessdigest can report.
WestProp's corporate strategy involves laying one billion bricks through the development of its various property projects by 2050.
To drive this growth, WestProp has invested US$1 million in the brick manufacturing facility, currently under construction in South Africa, according to chief executive officer Ken Sharpe.
Sharpe revealed this during an interview with businessdigest at the third edition of the four-day 2024 Ideas Festival in Nyanga last week.
“Within our own business, we are vertically integrated. So, we have actually purchased our first brick manufacturing plant. The brick plant (investment), it will come out in our results, but I can safely say it's above US$1 million dollars,” Sharpe said.
“This brick manufacturing machine is going to be producing tens of millions of bricks a year. So, we will be having a WestProp branded brick.”
He expects the facility to be operational by early 2025, with installations targeted for January and February. Initially, the plant’s output will be directed exclusively to projects within Harare.
“We don't even consider investing in other towns and cities. We don't want to overpromise and under-deliver,” Sharpe said.
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“So, the land that we own requires one billion bricks or US$5 billion to build out. Until we are at the stage where we know that we are performing above expectations and that we are meeting the goals and the deadlines that we have as an organisation, we will not extend ourselves out of Harare.”
In line with its vertically integrated strategy, WestProp has also begun producing window frames, aluminium doors, and other fittings internally
“We have the equipment that we are now using within the business that we own. We will keep looking at ways of value adding the chain to vertically integrate it within our own ecosystem,” Sharpe said.
The acquisition of the brick-making machine is timely, as WestProp prepares to break ground in the first quarter of 2025 on a five-star apartment hotel at its Millennium Heights development.
This project is one of several ongoing developments.
Additionally, the group is in the final stages of negotiations with South African partners regarding its highly-anticipated ‘The Mall of Zimbabwe’.
