Kresta Laurel: 25 Years and Still Counting
Adekoya Boladale
At 55, Nigeria remains a work in progress but definitely not so for certain critical sectors of the economy. Instructively, a nation could develop faster if the right attention is focused on those sectors which had served as veritable economic drivers to most advanced nations of the world. A nation’s economic development and its prosperity could not be said to be assured if it fails to advance technologically. Since the inception of the rail transportation systems, technology has driven economic growth and prosperity of the world and there has been much competition in research and development.
The world of technology could be highly complex and risky though. Only a few can dare and take the necessary risks especially as everything engineering is about precision,and those who dare must fully commit to delivering excellently. One of such risk taker, even under such a heavily unpredictable Nigeria economic environment is Kresta Laurel Limited.
Founded some 25 years ago, the company has been able to make impact in a field hitherto dominated by foreign companies,growing local competence in the process and ultimately earning the country accolades and recognition even in the international community.
With 25 years put into excellent service delivery and world class innovations, Kresta Laurel has attained the enviable height as the number one firm in Nigeria’s lift industry. An attestation to this stride was the classification of the company by the international standard organization ISO 9000, making it the only company in Nigeria with such classification.
But that’s not all, recently in far away Germany, the company was listed and awarded as one of the best three engineering companies for international best practices during a World Distributors’ Conference amongst 75 notable engineering countries worldwide. This is surely instructive and signals that the company operates under aset of core values which fully comply with global best practices.
Kresta Laurel, does business in the tricky field of Electro-mechanical Engineering andvertical and horizontal transport systems with specialization in the distribution and installation of KONE Elevators and Escalators, including automatic building doors manufacturers. Apart from that, this uncommon risk taker became the Authorised Sales and Technical Agent in Nigeria forDEMAG (A brand of Terex) Cranes and components as well as COXGOMYL Building Maintenance Units, SILVERLININGS Data Centres and AEC Industrial UPS.
Talking on how the company had thrived over the years, the Managing Director, Engineer Dideolu Falobi offered that the company’s operations were premised on”Quality products, re-invention and renovation, Service Excellence, and Integrity in delivery”. According to him, “Kresta Laurel Limited is not only the authorised distributor in Nigeria for elevators and escalators as manufactured by KONE Elevators of Finland,but also generators manufactured by Power Source Generators of UK, cleaning cradles and building maintenance systems as manufactured by MANNTECH GmbH of Germany and overhead travelling cranes and hoists as manufactured by DEMAG Cranes & Components GmbH of Germany, aircraft hangar doors, industrial doors and façade as manufactured by BUTZBACH GmbH Hangar Doors of Germany, welding machines as manufactured by FRONIUS International GmbH of Austria and industrial uninterruptible power supply as manufactured by AEC, Italy”. All these no doubt are highly technical business enterprises, but which have contributed in no small way to bringing Nigeria unto a gradually cascading and shrinking world map.
Engineer Dideolu further stated that the company’s scope of operations include: Consultancy, Technical Inspection, Sales, Delivery, Installation, Commissioning, Warranty, Maintenance, Repairs, Sales of Spare Parts, Training of Operators, Training on Equipment use and Management and Equipment Management.
Some of its project references in Nigeria include: Shell and United Bank for Africa (UBA) headquarters in Marina, Lagos, CBN headquarters, Abuja, Bank of Industry offices in Lagos and Abuja, Julius Berger headquarters, Abuja, Novotel Hotel Port-Harcourt, Ibom Tropicana, Uyo, SilverbirdGalleria, Abuja, Cocoa House, Ibadan, Punch Newspapers, Magboro, Rainbow City Project, Port-Harcourt (34 elevators), Union Bank headquarters, Lagos (7 elevators), Enugu State Secretariat (16 elevators).
While speaking on the company’s staying power over the last 25 years, the founding Chairman, Engineer Gbenga Daniel said: “when we conceptualized this company, we were actually bench marking ourselves against international standards because of the competition in that field which as you are aware is a highly specialized field. We just had to sound international which is the number one reason, then we talk about Kresta Laurel, you know that you want to achieve Laurel, so, it is like a statement of intention that in this chosen field I want to achieve and attain Laurel which probably can be interpreted to mean the best or the highest attainment in anything you touch”.
He said further, “the biggest problem in Nigeria’s construction company is that everybody want to cut corners so, if you want to build a house, you don’t get Nigerian bricklayers who can arrange blocks in a straight line but you (have to) source for Togolese bricklayer instead. If at the lowest level of construction which is the singular industry that can turn around any economy and create multiplying effect, you don’t even have(workers), and it is not because we don’t have the capacity but because they don’t derive satisfaction from their job and they don’t go out of their way to make progress,then you know we are in real problem”.
Speaking further on local contents involved in Kresta Laurel’s operations and domestication policy, Engr Daniel said, “Firstly, the components that you use to make a lift is not different from the components that you use to make a car to a large extent, so we must not deceive ourselves by not accepting the fact that the absence of an iron and steel industry in Nigeria, just as it has impeded the growth of the automobile industries would have impeded on any growth of any other engineering company like ours but I believe what is completely different is that those cars come in to a large extent, completely built which means that you just import a car, pay your duties and start riding, it is quite not so for elevators popularly called lifts. Elevators come in, to the minutest of components; nothing is put together because no single building is the same with another building which means that a lot of local engineering have to come into play when you bring those components together.”
“You will now have to sit down and assemble it and engineer it to fit a specific building. (For instance), Kresta Laurel building, where we are today is going on only seven floors and what we require to do a seven floor building with the capacity of about 8 passengers, running at about 1.5 meters per second is completely different to what is required for a building like that of the Union bank building that we are putting together on the island now which is rolling about 20 floors and some of the lifts are running at about 5meters per second, that is close to the speed of gravity.”
“So, those are the issues and to a large extent what we have been able to achieve over the years is to create a bunch of Nigerian engineers who can stand on their own anywhere in Nigeria and say that they are elevator engineers and put it together. That is one of the things we are been able to achieve at Kresta Laurel.”
Talking further on sourcing components locally, Engr. Daniel posited: “There are some there components we get locally but between you and I it is not that local; like the eyebeam that we get locally but the fact of the matter is that the process of getting the beam locally is with a large quantum offoreign input so, we can’t be proud to really say that it is local, yes, we got it locally but indirectly it is not local. But in terms of man power, I believe we have done very well, I am sufficiently sure that this is the company where you can find the largest number of experienced experts in the elevator industry in this country.”
Kresta Laurel has become a household name in the Nigeria’s engineering world as the company now boast of being responsible for nearly 95% of all elevator contracts in the country largely due to its high level of professionalism.
Driven by its objective to drive its vision of becoming a company aimed at providing first class products and services with technical competence comparable with the best anywhere in the world, Kresta Laurel, in 2005, embarked on complete overhaul of the board structure leading to the appointment of Engr. Dideolu Falobi as the Managing Director and the appointment of more competent Senior Managers. There was also a complete overhaul of the technical structure leading to the recruitment of more expatriates and Nigerian engineers and technicians with relevant training and experience.
The management has also embarked on massive training and retraining for the past ten years. A technical partnership agreement was entered into with LIFT MODUS Company of Croatia – the biggest KONE distributor company in Europe – with the aim of supplying technical expatriate staff on short-term basis for specific projects duration (ad hoc), as well as on a long-term contract basis as well as training and retraining both locally and overseas.
In the words of the Managing Director, the crack team of engineers paraded by the company comprises a mix of experienced, qualified, well-trained and HSE-compliant Nigerians and expatriates. With the growing spread of the company in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and other technical outlets in Kaduna, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Uyo and Enugu (in view), it has as one of its policy, the aims of reaching customers within 30 minutes on call in Lagos and Abuja metropolis and within one hour in any other location where there are more than 10 units of equipment installed.
Adekoya Boladale writes from Lagos, Nigeria via @adekoyaboladale@gmail.com