IMIESA Cover Story Aug / Sept 2025 | Read full edition here
[Full text from article] Much Asphalt, South Africa’s largest asphalt manufacturer, is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2025 with a renewed focus on ensuring quality across the asphalt chain from production to placement.
Quality has been the watchword for Much Asphalt’s products since its first plant began operating in 1965 and continues today across its 19 asphalt plants in South Africa, Namibia and Mozambique, each with its own quality control laboratory. The company supplies a comprehensive range of generic and customised products to clients in the formal and informal sectors.
Quality from inception to placement
But the quality of an asphalt product is as much about how it is placed on the road as it is about how it leaves the weighbridge. This has to do with client relationships, which range from long-term supply agreements – some of them dating back half a century – to best practice education for SMMEs and new entrants into the asphalt paving sector.
The company’s focus on excellence in the asphalt sector, and the guidance it provides for its smaller customers, were factors contributing to the acquisition of the Much group by Old Mutual Private Equity and Sphere Investments from AECI in early 2025.
The R1.05 billion deal was based on Much Asphalt’s meaningful contribution to South Africa’s road infrastructure, described by Sphere Investments Director Mohammed Sabi as essential due to its pivotal role in enabling economic development, connecting South Africans and empowering previously disadvantaged communities.
Eddie Jansen van Vuuren, Marketing and New Business Development Manager at Much Asphalt, confirms that this sentiment aligns with the company’s efforts to ensure that its products are respected by the contractors who use them, to the ultimate long-term benefit and safety of road users.
“It’s a case of quality, from selecting the materials to produce the asphalt, to placing the asphalt on the road in the best possible manner.”
On the input side, Much Asphalt is a firm believer in the use of recycled asphalt and alternative aggregate sources to avoid the use of non-renewable aggregates taken from the earth. Much Asphalt is a recognised industry leader in the development of new and improved products that help to improve the safety and durability, as well as decreasing the long-term cost, of maintaining South Africa’s road network.
While the quality of these products is what defines the company, how they are used is central to the Much Asphalt philosophy.
Best practice training
Almost 20 years ago the Much Asphalt leadership decided steps needed to be taken to establish a uniform, industry-wide standard for high quality hand-laid hot mix asphalt. This followed an influx of individuals and SMMEs into the industry to undertake small scale asphalt placement jobs.
Municipalities needed maintenance and repair works carried out and sub-contractors were engaged by big construction firms to fill gaps.
As a response, Much Asphalt launched its Best Practice Workshops in 2006 for individuals, small to medium size contractors, entrepreneurs and local and provincial government departments wishing to educate their own staff or their contractors. The training involves technical and practical instruction on how to apply Much Asphalt products by hand to achieve the best possible outcomes.
In tandem with the training, Much Asphalt produced a Best Practice Handbook to provide guidance on the selection, use and application of its products.
The handbook assists supervisors and foremen working with established contractors, as well as newly established and emerging contractors, with state-of-the-art knowledge of those products and processes that have been proven in practice to produce durable, cost-effective asphalt surfaces with a high standard of finish.
Free access to expertise
Much Asphalt’s handbook draws on the technological know-how and extensive experience of leaders in the field of hand-laid hot mix asphalt and helps clients to understand what specification is being worked to and what may be expected from the finished product in terms of appearance, performance and cost.
The key to adding real value to the industry is that the workshops have always been provided free of charge.
Many hundreds of individuals from all over South Africa have attended the workshops. Among others, courses have been held in Mangaung (Bloemfontein), eMalahleni (Witbank), Gauteng, Cape Town, Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth), East London, Durban, Port Shepstone, George, Benoni and Polokwane among others. Certificates are awarded to all delegates.
“We would like to ensure that all contractors deliver durable and cost-effective asphalt surfaces to their clients,” says Jansen van Vuuren.
“At the end of the day, Much Asphalt and the contractor who is placing our product have a joint responsibility for its quality. This is the thinking behind our ‘Together We Can’ principle.”
Municipal focus
He adds that the current focus is on training to assist in the maintenance and repair of municipal roads, in particular.
“In the immediate future, we will offer our courses to SMMEs that buy their products from Much Asphalt and work on projects for municipalities, as well as contractors using our asphalt for municipal contracts.”
In a recent example, Much Asphalt’s Polokwane plant hosted its first Best Practice Workshop on Hand-Laid Asphalt.
Five construction companies serving the local authorities, BCB Solutions, Shonisani Rambau Construction, Chauke Business Enterprise, Manengena Construction & Maintenance, and Botlhabatsatsi Group, sent a total of 40 employees for training.
The workshop included a presentation using the Best Practice Hand-Laid Asphalt Guide, a tour of the plant, and practical site demonstrations of pothole patching and repairs using both hot and cold mix applications.
