It’s time for Action … and enjoying it - Bruce Frewen with the Action Plastics management team, FM Desrae Smart and production manager Max Sibambo. Both Desrae and Max have been with the Sebenza blow moulding company for extended periods, Desrae since the company was established in 1994 and Max since 2000. This continuity is helping keep the momentum going at Action
Formerly operations director at RAP Products, Frewen has been involved in the packaging sector for 21 years, having continued with RAP after the company was bought by Beige group in 2008.
The decision to rather sell to the JSE-listed Beige has led the new Action man on a circumventous course. RAP was merged with Crystal Pack, also purchased by Beige, and moved to Klipriver south of Johannesburg. That operation did not gather momentum and Beige was acquired by Lion Match. The merged RAP-Crystal operation was subsequently moved to Alrode in the south-east of the city. Frewen left in mid-2013 and joined Bottle Printers to develop their new glass coating business.
In late 2015 in a chance meeting with Ashley King of Action, King advised that he wanted to follow other interests and asked Frewen if he wanted to join the company. Another pivotal moment, but Frewen wasn’t to be denied this time. The seven years since the previous opportunity had been challenging, and he didn’t hesitate.
Frewen joined Action Plastics in Feb 2015 and a sale of the business was concluded a few months later. Unlike the volume of documents involved in the RAP sale, a single page was all that was required for King and Frewen to agree.
Started by Ashley King and Chris Mahon 1994, Action has carved out a niche for itself in the small to medium-size container market, servicing a range of mainly Gauteng customers in the cosmetic, chemical and food segments. A former Bekum technician, King took great care to keep the production running smoothly, and the results are there to show. He and co-founder Chris Mahon steadily built the company to the point where it ran a cross-section of HDPE and PVC products. At the outset Action used a Land Rover and trailer for deliveries or invited customers to collect. Remarkably, the company prospered under these somewhat unusual conditions. It did, however, subsequently begin to operate on a more conventional basis.
The partners at one stage decided to spread their wings and open a number of sales depots along the coast. The coastal experience was not a success for King, but it was for Mahon … and he duly sold his share to King and retired to Kei Mouth in 2007.
King continued with Action’s growth and to complement the extrusion blow moulding component of the business, started injection moulding of closures and importing lotion pumps, triggers and mist sprays.
King remained on for a few months to assist with the changeover, and it appears the momentum has continued uninterrupted.
Somewhat older and certainly wiser, Frewen has kept all systems at the Sebenza company intact. Action operates from 2000m² premises, running a range of extrusion blow moulding machines and injection moulders, as well as small single-stage PET machines.