BACKGROUND.
Mandhir Construction Ltd was founded in 1988 by the late Mr. Dhirajlal M. Ajmera and Mr. Manish D. Ajmera and for the past three decades, they have been providing their clients with reliable solutions to their most complex challenges. They have over 30 years of experience in Building civil engineering construction, with their expertise spanning the entire construction industry’s spectrum.
Mandhir Construction Ltd is a family business, with Mr. Ajmera taking over from his founding pioneers.
SPECIALTIES.
They are a main contractor company whose main specialties are concrete works, heavy foundations, silo bases, and high-finish palatial houses. The company has an NCA level 1 accreditation by the National Construction Authority in Kenya.
RECENT PROJECTS.
- 3rd Park Hospital in Parklands, Nairobi
- Some work at M. P. Shah Hospital
- Some work at Lion Eyecare Hospital
- Palatial residential home in Nyari Estate
- Apartment in Ruaka
- Major renovations for a 15-year-old apartment, which they constructed
SUGGESTIONS FOR ACHIEVING BUSINESS GROWTH.
Mr. Manish accredits access to finances with low-interest rates as one of the keys to business growth. He states that current financial institutions are asking for a 100% back-to-back guarantee which is too high in the country and costly for their operations.
He also notes that having a genuine operational license is key to business growth, highlighting the need to streamline construction authorities to curb the increase in fake unlicensed operators.
UNIQUE SELLING POINT.
Giving services to the client’s satisfaction is their utmost goal in the company and this has helped them land successful contracts on construction works across the industry. He also notes that giving no compromise to their work has helped them earn the trust of their clients and handle mega projects across the years.
QUALITY CONTROL.
To ensure good quality of work, Mr. Manish states that the company has strict and rigorous concrete testing prior to starting any project. They also send all the materials to be used to their laboratories for quality testing before starting any project.
Mr. Manish also states that the company has strict training for their staff on the ground for all the different materials and levels of concrete, which differ from site to site and are based on different locations across the country. This helps to equip the staff with good and adequate technical knowledge before embarking on any project to ensure it runs smoothly and efficiently.
He also adds that over the years, the company upgrades its techniques and technology to be current with the global market that is suitable to their company (since not all is affordable and cost-effective for the company’s operations) to enhance efficiency in their operations and maintain quality control on all the project sites.
LONG-TERM STRATEGIC VISION.
Mr. Manish indicates that the long-term strategic vision of the company is to practically educate the young generation by getting them off social platforms and online and equipping them with practical technical know-how since construction cannot be done online.
He also notes that he loves to have a disciplined staff who will be effective and efficient in their work and service and push the company forward. Setting regulations to control misconduct in the company is of paramount importance to the company to ensure it runs long.
FUTURE PROSPECTS.
Mr. Manish envisions the company training better-qualified engineers, architects, and staff and bringing the practice of honesty to the construction industry so that they can well satisfy their clients. He also wishes to streamline professionalism in the company and the entire construction industry to set standards that others can emulate through his company and make the construction industry honest and fairly competitive.
CHALLENGES.
He notes that the biggest challenge they are currently facing is price fluctuations of the different construction material inputs in the market. It makes it very difficult to give the right quotations to their clients, and some clients don’t understand the justification of the quotations sometimes this poses the risk of losing clients or taking losses when they bid for contracts and prices change upwards.
He also notes that there is a limitation in the workforce, with the absence of many specialized workers who will give a specific type of finish to a service. Sometimes other clients will want a specific finish with the standard rates and this will not be viable since the company will lose out.
INNOVATION.
The company has recently worked on a kitchen project using aluminum and glass, which makes it good for the clients in terms of running and maintenance since it is highly durable.
He also adds that the company has used mosaic glass in another project specially designed for the client and had been imported from outside the country.
OUTLOOK FOR THE KENYAN CONSTRUCTION MARKET 5-10 YEARS.
Mr. Manish foresees a big leap in the construction industry in terms of infrastructure development, taking on bigger companies like the Chinese investment firms owing to the many projects that will come up.
He sees the foreign companies being a threat to the old local companies and wishes for the government projects to prioritize the local contractors and also help the local upcoming companies to grow.
He also foresees many foreign nationals coming to settle in Kenya and wishes the government to streamline the policies controlling this to promote the consumption power for infrastructure, development, and investment, hence boosting the operations of the construction companies in the country.
PERCEIVED OPPORTUNITIES.
Mr. Manish acknowledges the boom of the internet age as a potential for the construction industry. More people are well educated and are doing so online hence creating a good workforce that is more intelligible. He also states that many people now have access to the internet or have visited many other foreign countries. Having seen the kind of developments that are abroad, many will come to invest here in the country wanting the same kind of infrastructure, thereby offering good opportunities for the construction companies in the country to offer their services and expertise.
CONTRIBUTION.
The company, according to Mr. Manish, has been offering training to people who have been coming to work in the company over the decades they have been in operation. This has equipped many with technical skills and they intend to keep doing so to create a competent and skilled labor force in the construction industry.
Many undergraduates are also trained and get more skills on the ground, all at the expense of the company, not considering any costs the company incurs.
Mr. Manish is also part of a philanthropic group called Change Social Group which does heart operations for newborns and young children. They have a team of doctors from London who comes and conducts the operations at M. P. Shah Hospital, and also conduct training for the local doctors in the field of heart surgery. He hopes that in the near future, many local doctors will be well-trained thus removing the need to hire doctors from abroad to perform the operations.
The philanthropic organization also hosts camps in collaboration with Lion Eye care Hospital and is free of charge. The organization also has a home where they host children with cerebral palsy and have full-time therapists who take care of these children, and they also conduct surgeries for these kids to help improve their lives.
The company is also involved in school feeding programs in remote areas in Makueni by providing porridge to the school-going children, about 1500 students, and also providing cooking equipment to these schools. Besides food, they also provide the children with shoes, clothing, and stationery. They also offer money to these remote schools to build more classrooms and repair the existing infrastructure.
The company is also tasked with helping people in remote areas by constructing small dams for them to harvest runoff water during rainy seasons to help them with their animals and crop farming.
The company is also running a women empowerment program and also supports the local technical polytechnics to help them equip young people in remote areas with good and modern skills in different fields. This has helped these young people become competent and even able to competitively work in Nairobi and other bigger urban centers.