Ten years ago, two former colleagues reunited around the idea of going into business together, and the birth of the company that today confidently regards itself as Durban’s number-one recycler of industrial steel drums came to life. Throughout this journey, Business Partners Limited was on hand to lend support when HPM Recycling needed it.
Karshen Moonsamy and his business partner Nadeem Amarsaib both worked for a drum reconditioning company in the early 2000s before going their separate ways and, in Karshen’s case, this meant exploring his own business ventures. In 2014, Nadeem made contact and suggested they get back into the drum industry as there was a clear gap in the market.
For five years the partners ran HPM Recycling in a building shared with another business and later secured more suitable premises in the Jacobs industrial area in Durban that they did not have to share. Business was good and growth consistent until Covid-19 brought the world to a halt – and introduced HPM Recycling to Business Partners Limited. “Our first Business Partners Ltd deal was through the Sukuma Fund,” recalls Karshen. “Thanks to that lifeline for SMEs we could keep going.”
Post-Covid HPM Recycling kept growing and the partners kept looking for the right premises to buy. “The type and size of property we needed was always too expensive and we could not afford the 40% deposit the banks wanted,” says Karshen. Towards the end of 2021, however, they found the perfect premises in Isipingo and negotiated a loan with Business Partners Ltd that turned the dream into reality. They moved into the premises in April 2022 – the same month in which disastrous floods hit KwaZulu-Natal. “We lost most of our equipment and trucks in that flooding. Fortunately, we had insurance and we could recover.”
Most recently, Technical Assistance funding from Business Partners Ltd has helped HPM Recycling to achieve ISO 9000 and ISO 14000 compliance – essential credentials in an industry that has become intensively regulated in recent years. Karshen regards the emphasis on environmental compliance as the biggest change in the recycling environment over the past two decades. He is proud of HPM Recycling’s membership of South African Industrial Container Reconditioners Association (SAICRA) and the environmental compliance award they received from the body recently. “We have a waste license certificate and our sites and processes are audited regularly. Compliance costs money, but it’s not negotiable.”
Karshen describes HPM Recycling as a reciprocal business in that its customers are often also its suppliers. “Through waste management companies we source the used packaging – steel drums and wooden pallets – from large businesses in the chemical industry and supply the reconditioned products back to them.”
Supply and demand can be a delicate balance to maintain, especially when major disruptions, such as the flooding of the SAPREF refinery, occur. Ongoing backlogs at the port of Durban have also had a severe impact on the business. “Right now, it’s about survival in Durban as the economy has shrunk,” says Karshen. “We are, however, hopeful that the changes at Transnet will make a difference. In fact, there have been some improvements in the pallet side of the business since January this year and that is always a sign that things are moving at the port.”
HPM Recycling currently reconditions 100 000 units each of drums and pallets and employs about 100 people. The partners have their sights set on new drum manufacturing, but for that, their business environment has to stabilise first so that they can regain the market they had before April 2022. Having gambled and won in the past, one has to believe that the odds are in the partners’ favour.
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