HAYSSAM FAKHRY Managing Director of Interplast

Although agriculture accounts for most of Ghana’s economic activity and provides employment for 80% of its people, a considerable slice of GDP is contributed by the country’s small but energetic industrial sector.
Interplast is a company whose success has vaulted over national boundaries to become Africa’s leading producer of ducts, tubing and pipes made of polyvinyl chloride. “This is a primary product all over the continent,” says the company’s managing director, Dr Hayssam Fakhry “because you need it to get water in and out of homes.”
When he took over the company in the early 1980s, he made a huge investment in the latest equipment and technology, branched into larger sizes and a broader product range, all offering guaranteed long term stability and resistance and easy maintenance.

Recently, Interplast has expanded further and set up a profiles division that will soon be offering PVC products on the local market. “It’s the same technology, it’s extrusion, and that’s what we know how to do.”
And when the all-out approach paid off in the home market, Dr Fakhry lost no time in deciding to go regional, a prospect with enough long-term potential to outweigh the expense of having to partially retool to manufacture to metric-gauged specifications, as well as the British system used in Ghana.
As a result, Dr Fakhry notes, “We have been able to capture a huge chunk of the West African market. Price and quality are what people are looking for, of course, but our excellent service has a lot to do with it, too.”
Success has brought not only profits, but also justifiable pride. “People come to Africa and they have the wrong idea, they think everything is not done properly, the quality is not right, and I want to show them they are all just wrong.”

To drive the point home, he has set himself the goal of seeing that Interplast’s full range of PVC and HDPE (High Density Polyethylene) products meet all the requirements for ISO certification. Beyond that he says he’s “looking closely to see to what extent we are competitive and if so, I want to take my product to the United States. We have a duty-free accord with Washington, and we have a very good product, so it all comes down to price.”