Saiccor - The First 50 Years 5.8 MB - Sappi

The First Fifty Years
In mid-1960 building commenced of the first 200 four-bedroomed houses in
Magabeni to house Saiccor employees
Saiccor started building the first 200 four-bedroomed houses in Magabeni
in mid-1960� By January 1961 the first 50 houses were occupied�
Gino della Martina had a team building houses in Magabeni (and
now and again in Saiccor Village) almost until his retirement in 1987�
By this time it became clear that there were major problems with
company housing� Although a nominal rent was levied by the
company for the houses to enable the occupants to save for a home
of their own, this was seldom done, and when individuals retired
and had to leave their houses, they mostly had no home to go to�
From that time (1987) Saiccor built no more houses and started selling
all those it did own�
Despite the flood, production in 1959 increased by 11 per cent from
1958 to 169 t/d, while profits increased by 7,5 per cent to R2,1 million�
Profits during the Courtaulds/IDC era need to be viewed with some
circumspection, as the selling price of the pulp was in fact a transfer
price that was significantly lower than the market price� This enabled
the Courtaulds’ viscose and film plants to receive a low cost raw
material, which in the long term probably allowed them to become
less competitive than they ought to have been, but in the short term
they were pleased� IDC’s objectives were to create industry (and as a
consequence employment) hence they were not concerned that
Saiccor’s profits were lower than they could have been, providing
production kept on increasing, which it did, thereby increasing the
number of people employed (mainly in the forests, where by 1988
some 10 000 people were employed)�
Thus both partners were very happy with what was happening at
Saiccor� Production and profits increased steadily through the years
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