Newman PPE Warehouse
Our Story - The Phoenix Project
Botshelo Safety as a 100% black-owned independent PPE Distributor and Services Provider, the company joined the Sibanye-Stillwater Enterprise Supplier Development in 2021, initially starting off as a small-scale transactional procurement supplier until it was awarded the PPE Supplier and Services Agreement for the Marikana Operations.
As part of the Enterprise Supplier Development, Environmental, Social and Governance and Social Labour Plan Fulfilment, the company was afforded an opportunity to occupy Newman Shaft as designated PPE Contractor Site Establishment and Operations area to drive further PPE Convenience, Reduce Delivery Lead Time to Onsite Stores and create convenient access to PPE to Surface Operations with a day to day delivery to Engineering Workshops.
The Newman Shaft Conversion Project began April 2022 and completion in December 2022. The Project started with the demolition and conversion of the old Shaft’s Change House into a Central Distribution Warehouse to service Marikana Operations. The Safety and ESD Initiative, nick-named, The Phoenix Project with reference to the Mine’s Footprint Reduction Plan of which Newman Shaft was meant to go on demolition, however alternative plans were made to save some of the facilities on the Shaft for Conversion into PPE Main Warehouse and Support Offices, which has afforded the Facility to leave up to its name – “Newman”.
Embodying the spirit of renewal, revival and repurposing, the Newman Shaft met with its new purpose and meaning in fulfilling a role critical and important role as a Key Point to ensuring the Daily Operational Safety and PPE Requirements of over 20 000 Sibanye-Stillwater Marikana Operations Employees and Contractors. From a near demolition-to-dust to revival and renovation to a Centre of Excellence, the facility has not only continued to live up to its name – Newman, it has also epitomised attributes of a Phoenix through its renewal to a facility serving a valuable purpose in the Safety of the Mine’s Operations and its employees.
Our Background - Cradle of Safety
The company was founded in July 2020, a Mining Host Community owned company with the Vision of becoming a Leader in the Supplier and Services of Personal Protective Equipment across industries and the SADC region, recognising the gap of taking a consultative selling approach to PPE while ensuring the highest PPE Quality is provided to customer at the most market competitive prices. Our Mission is to ensure productivity and safety of all personnel who PPE is a mandatory part of their safety in fulfilling their day to day duties at work.
We pride ourselves in putting the safety of our clients at the heart and centre of why we do what we do and what inspires to be the best at what we do. Our customer-centric and empathetic approach ensures that we comprehensively understand the operational requirements, safety standards and PPE suitability of each individual to ensure that our clients staff compliment complies with all safety obligations of their operations.
We continually work closely with our clients to better understand their Safety and PPE requirements, while affording our Manufactures even clearer understanding of our clients Safety demands to ensure that we bridge the gap between required standards and manufactured specifications through customer-insights and feedback platforms we have put in place for our customers through our VMI System.
Our Future - The Unfinished Story…
The future of Safety Equipment is now more than ever driven by Innovation and Technology, in AI-Driven VMI Applications, Integrated Digital Supply Chain Systems and Quality Production Materials. At the core of these value-anchors sits End-User Experience, Protection and Productivity. With ethically sourced and environmentally conscious manufacturing fabrics and materials, from biodegradable melt-blown and spun-bond materials, phthalate-free PVC, Organic Cotton to sustainable lower impact fabrics.
Our strategic intent is to become the most Customer-Centric and ESG-centric PPE Supplier, continually improving our market positioning to be a trusted and reliable SLP Fulfilment Partner and ESG Compliance Partner to our clients within the Mining, Minerals Processing, Manufacturing, Food and Beverage, Construction, Petrochemicals and other Industries.
Our growth and expansion Go-To-Market Strategy is our guiding lens into other Key Industries and Markets within South Africa, and more so our incremental growth of clients from neighbouring countries within the South African Development Community and beyond.
As part of supporting improved safety equipment quality while ensuring costs optimisation for our clients, we undertake thorough demand planning, stock availability and transparency across the entire PPE Value-Chain from PPE Manufactures to our Clients Onsite Stores.
Our commitment to supporting local industrialisation initiatives and creating employment for women and youth in communities where our clients operations are based is achieved by working closely with their Enterprise Supplier Development hubs and Stakeholders Managers to identify high potential growth manufacturers to source from and support their capacitation and expansion initiatives.
We continue to take a pro-active sourcing efforts to expand our network of local manufacturers and black-owned small-scale manufacturers of Personal Protective Equipment for high-volume, standardised, mission critical industrial workwear and protective equipment as part of our business continuity and sustainability initiatives.
Our mission of “Excellence In Safety” is our guiding compass and continuous improvement commitment which is manifesting itself in different dynamics allowing us to be more than just a PPE Distributor and more of a Value-Adding Safety Equipment Partner to our clients and the communities in which we operate and draw our labour force from.
Newman Before
Newman Now
2020
Established in Rustenburg, North-West, as a BBBEE Level 1 majority black-woman-owned company.
2021
The company secured its first Credit account with North Safety and Javlin ICC. Our first customers were Rail2Rail (Sub of Mathupa Capital), Colossal Concrete Products and Bidvest Buffalo Tapes, Georosa Africa, Street Safety Rayro Industrial, Torotech Solution and Tiger Brands.
2022
Secured first mining and industrial supply contract with Sibanye-Stillwaters MarikanaOperations; built strategic partnerships with PPE OEMs – Neptun Boot, BBF Safety, Zodiac Manufacturing, Javlin Industrial Clothing, Uvex Safety, Dromex, Stitchwise, Evrigard, Firebreak, Rondo Industro and Host Community Manufactures – Kelefile Workwear and Sisi Phinda PVC Pouches.
2023
Developed Symphony VMI, an AI-driven Vendor Managed Inventory system with analytics and real-time tracking. Built on SAP Business One ERP on Microsoft Azure and augmented with Simplified POS and Billing Management Interface for seamless issuing off PPE, frictionless Billing and Invoicing and API Interfacing into SAP Ariba where necessary for Purchase Orders, Tax Invoice Submissions and GRV’ing for Accounts Payable.
2024
Enhanced our Symphony VMI with client SAP Business One ERP systems (SAP, Azure); and continuous improvement and enhancement for simpler and intuitive Point of Sale and Billing Management Desk-Top User Interfaces to simplify Issuing Clerks Day to day issuing, improve customer feedback and insights and ensure efficient Issuing of PPE to client employees.
2025
Diversifying into Food and Beverages, Quarries and Aggregates, construction and manufacturing markets; targeting 20% yearly new customer acquisition growth. Expanding our Go-To-Market Strategy and outreach to build bigger market coverage and supply a wider base of customers.
Completing the base Civil Works and Site Establishment for the FFP2 Mask Manufacturing Pilot Facility at Sibanye-Stillwater Marikana Operations – Newman PPE Warehouse. The Mask Manufacturing Pilot Facility is anticipated to go into full production from May 2026
