South African alcohol testing instruments and services provider ALCO-Safe is aiming to leverage increased demand for alcohol testing solutions to expand into other African mining markets, states ALCO-Safe MD Rhys Evans.

“Commodity prices are doing well and there’s a great case for investment in African mining. We’ve seen a strong rebound in alcohol testing amid the decline of Covid-19, so we’re providing more instruments and clients are starting to use our old testing instruments again. We have a lot of orders from the mining industry, which is ideal, as it is a large sector in Africa, and for ALCO-Safe.”

Evans adds that Southern Africa is currently the company’s largest market segment,

owing to it being easier and more cost effective to transport alcohol testing instruments from South Africa to clients in Southern Africa, and provide after-sales service support.

Further, the lack of complicated trade agreements, such as those ALCO-Safe has with companies in European countries, results in relatively free trade in Southern Africa.

“Moving our instruments is an expensive and time-consuming exercise, and that’s been our largest barrier to entry into the rest of the African market. The African Continental Free Trade Area, implemented this year, hasn’t had much of an impact for us. Instruments marked for recalibration still get held up and have taxes added when transported through border facilities.”

Expansion Efforts

To mitigate these challenges and expand into the rest of Africa, ALCO-Safe is trying to advance two strategies.

The first is to set up partnerships with clients and establish regional technical teams to conduct calibrations and repairs on instruments and assist with sales.

“Clients are always concerned with the after-sales service we provide, as our instruments need to be recalibrated every six to 12 months. If it takes a month or longer to get these instruments to the client, at a very high cost across the borders, it’s not a very attractive prospect.”

ALCO-Safe is in discussions with companies in Ghana, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique to set up these technical servicing teams.

This will help to service clients in countries where the company does not have distributing agents for its instruments.

The second strategy is to introduce the new, improved version of Alcontrol – Alcontrol Version 2 – to the African market.

Originally designed to use in hard-to-reach spaces not easily accessible by technicians, the new version of the unmanned breathalyser will be launched by the end of next month.

The breathalyser has been designed in a way that ensures that it is easy to install, set up and run. As it has Internet of Things capabilities – ALCO-Safe can check remotely if the device is online, or requires calibration or repairs, and send a replacement module to address any potential issues.

The Alcontrol Version 2 is modular, making it easier to remove and replace faulty modules, with a rear and front module.

“If either module needs replacing, we can just send a new module to replace the old one, as it’s a plug-and-play solution. The instrument then just needs to be calibrated, and it’s up and running again. We tried mitigating the challenges of moving instruments by introducing the second version, as it doesn’t require significant support or service – all can be done by the client’s on-site technicians.”

The instrument also has reporting capabilities to monitor multiple alcohol testing devices, and can connect through WiFi, local area networks or Bluetooth.

Evans adds that the capabilities of the Alcontrol Version 2 enable the company to possibly provide an integrated testing solution.

“In the past, breathalysers that have been supplied to mines relied on manual reporting. We will monitor how mines and our systems are communicating, particularly with mines’ employee tracking systems.

“The new breathalyser allows for identifying and creating a record of individuals, including when they have been tested, which integrates with the mines’ systems.”

Mining Indaba

Evans confirms that ALCO-Safe will attend the Investing in African Mining Indaba, to be held at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from May 9 to 12, and emphasises the importance of attendees being allowed to join in person.

“Attending in person and being able to do physical demonstrations and make stronger connections will definitely help us. In the past, our strongest clients have always been face-to-face orientated, so for us it’s a chance to rebuild and re-establish many of these relationships.”

Pointing out the remote nature of many African mines, he emphasises the Indaba is an ideal opportunity for operators of these mines to gather at a convenient location and the opportunities this provides for local companies such as ALCO-Safe.

“Our goal locally is to re-establish our connections with existing customers and get customers comfortable with the new procedures needed to use our instruments safely.

“In the long term, we want to inform clients about our new instruments and make them aware of how we’re able to integrate their existing systems and provide digital solutions with unmanned instruments and automatic reporting,” he concludes.