Tania at Marius Cloete Moulds

About the author

Tania Melnyczuk is a project specialist at Marius Cloete Moulds. She’s been working with Marius for nearly three decades.

New moulds for a new direction at Bay Paving in Richards Bay

by | 17 May 2024

Bay Paving in Richards Bay is a manufacturer of both wet-cast and dry-press concrete products. Tania Melnyczuk spoke to owner Storm Oosthuizen about his first purchase of moulds from Marius Cloete Moulds.

About Bay Paving

I’m currently running the business that my dad started. I joined the business about six years ago. I just took over from my dad about maybe six months ago. My dad is a bit old school, so he was running it like, old fashioned and stuff. And then I thought, try to bring a bit of new age, just simplify the system and get it a bit more streamlined, that kind of thing.

New moulds for a new direction

I asked how it came about that Storm decided to contact Marius Cloete Moulds. Storm explained how his thinking tied in with modernising the business, and how he started looking for mould suppliers online, and noticed the difference in Marius’ approach. But it wasn’t until he saw actual products cast with such moulds that he decided to make contact.  

I’ve noticed all the businesses around here use the same moulds, the same product that they’re producing. So I thought, try to bring something a bit different, something that has a bit of an edge, you know? I was looking on the Internet for different suppliers of moulds, and I came across you guys quite a while ago, but then I never really got in touch with you guys. I thought it was very custom. I mean, it’s a good thing, because I was looking for something that had a bit more of a… how can I say… like, targeted towards a more upper-classy sort of luxury item, as opposed to just a basic thing. So that’s what I liked about your products. I saw some guys in George who used your moulds. I was, like, wow, that’s really beautiful. So I definitely thought I had to get in touch.

First contact with Marius

Storm told me about his first contact with Marius.

He’s super, super helpful. He’s super informative, and he’s not like most people that just want to sell your product. He wants to help you grow your business, which to me was like, well, OK, I want to work with this guy. He’s actually cares about the customer and the customer’s business, you know? I mean, his logic is right, to say us doing well is him doing well, because we’re going to buy more moulds from you guys. And so it works both ways. But he was super, super helpful. He helped me with other things, despite even the moulds, like getting the right oils, getting the right process, and he’s just open to being helpful. So he was very clear about everything.

Choosing the moulds

Some of the documents and technical information from Marius Cloete Moulds work best when there’s a talk-through. Storm confirmed this:

When he sent me the first documents, I was like, I don’t understand this. But then eventually, when we got to talking about it and he made it clear, like, what other shape groups work.

“Did the shape group concept play a role in what you decided in the end?” I asked. (Most of the moulds from Marius Cloete Moulds belong to modular shape groups.)

Yeah, definitely, what he explained to me with the shape groups benefitting us and the customer who buys from us. Basically, their installation is going to be a lot simpler, less cutting and all of that. And the way it fits just makes sense. It definitely did play a role in my choice.

Delivery of the moulds

Next, I asked about the packaging and the delivery of the moulds. Here’s how our conversation went:

The delivery was… well, it was a bit of a miscommunication. So the delivery ended up going to somewhere in Joburg as opposed to Richard’s Bay.

I didn’t know about this before the interview, so I expected some consternation here. But Storm continued:

No, but it was still so really quick, in spite of actually going to a completely different province.

It was packaged really, really nicely. It came in like a… I don’t know, like a crate. Like a completely complete crate. And it was really solid. So I had no concern that anything would be damaged. I think it’s nice when you get a package from a company that you can see they took the extra bit of effort to put it in a nice package and deliver it nice. It just makes you feel a lot more like you made a good choice, you know?

The new products at Bay Paving

Storm said that the products he makes from his new moulds have several advantages for his customers.

It makes it easier to explain to a customer how they can save their time and money.

What I’ve seen for myself—and I did a bit of a layout—that you can really just put the product anywhere and it works right. You can put it in any design, any shape, and it just fits, and it looks beautiful no matter what.

If some of our batches are different, slightly different colours, it makes it look intentional. That your product isn’t like maybe one uniform exact colour, you’re always going to get slight shades that differ, but it actually looks really pretty, especially with the fact that they’re all different shapes. So that, to me, is a win.

One of the things I’ve noticed about our products made with Marius’ moulds–because I’ve got a display outside our office here of all of the stuff we make, and I’ve obviously got more of the products made from these moulds–it’s definitely, like, a lot more customers get sort of drawn towards that product. And I’m not sure exactly why, but I think it’s just the finish and… I don’t know, it’s more professional looking.

Working with Marius

In closing, I asked Storm for his overall impression of working with Marius.

Overall impression is super helpful. He’s intellectually… how can I say? He knows a lot about the–I’m gonna say the business. He’s got a lot of information to share. Super insightful, and he just always seems like he’s always keen to help. So he’s a very, very pleasant guy to talk to.

If you’d like to buy paving made with Marius Cloete Moulds from Bay Paving, contact Storm Oosthuizen at 072 793 6804 or visit 106 Alumina Allee St, Alton, Richards Bay.

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