Know Your hfa Fabricator ALBERT MOORE (Pty) Ltd

“A Mysterious Thing”

When Albert Moore, the founder of the company which bears his name, set up shop at Bellville, Cape in 1945 to mould one-piece sinks, “Stainless steel was a mysterious thing and our manufacturing process required all kinds of weird treatments”.

For more than 30 years Albert Moore (both company and man) have remained wedded to stainless steel, and have specialised in the fabrication of stainless steel products to the exclusion of all other materials.

30 years ago the major problems facing Albert Moore were the lack of physical technology and training in South Africa, and the lack of skilled personnel.  As new techniques, particularly in welding and cutting were perfected, so the company put them to good use.  When skilled personnel were needed, these were found from those markets more experienced in stainless steel fabrication (notably in Europe).  (Mr. C.S. “Bert” Fiander, now Technical Director of the Almaks – Airtec Stainless Steel Division (Abercom Group), and current Chairman of the Heavy Fabricators Association was one specialist brought to South Africa under contract to Albert Moore as long ago as 1948).  Today, the material is no longer “A mysterious thing”, and the company has progressed to the fabrication of equipment far more sophisticated than the domestic sink.  But the company remains essentially the vehicle of Albert Moore himself: pioneer, innovator and specialist in stainless steel.

From the Domestic Sink to the Uranium Plant.

South Africa’s economy since 1945 has been one of rapid growth, and during the past 30 years, secondary industry generally has developed to replace previously imported goods and satisfy local market requirements, first with simple consumer goods but increasingly with the more complex requirements of the industrial and scientific sectors.  And such is the size of the South African economy, and so geographically spread, that many fabricators have grown with a portfolio of products spread across several market demand sectors, because the economies of scale in production do not allow specialisation in any one product field.

Albert Moore’s growth in South Africa reflects this general experience, but with a major constancy: all horizontal development has been into new market demand areas in which stainless steel is the material of fabrication.  And despite a breadth of product range, Albert Moore has become a well known name and specialist with experience in different markets with different products.

• In general and domestic products Albert Moore has long been synonymous with sinks, basins and urinals.
• In the food processing and bulk catering sectors, Albert Moore has long supplied pressure cooking pots and industrial atmospheric cooking vessels. And more recently has developed large food trolleys for dispensing food to mine and other industrial labour forces on site.
• In the medical field, Albert Moore equipment is to be found in virtually all hospitals, most specifically with surgical instrument washers, sterilizers and autoclaves (of which the company is one of the leading manufacturers both for medical and industrial use).
• In more general fields, the company fabricates abattoir equipment, refrigerated milk tanks: and became well known for the part that is played in the cladding panels fabricated in stainless steel for the Ritz Plaza Hotel at Sea Point, Cape Town.

Albert Moore’s versatility and expertise resulted in their award, against fierce American Competition, for a contract to supply stainless steel equipment for South Africa’s first uranium enrichment plant at Daggafontein.  A long way from the days when “we decided to make kitchen sinks because we needed a product that would sell”.