Interview with Anthony Duffy, Managing Director at Harlequin International Ghana (HIT)
Could you give us a historical background of Harlequin International Ghana (HIT)?
HIT was formed in 1998 as a hydraulics business by Barry Williams. He built that business up to be a substantial player in the hydraulics segment here in Ghana, then he branched out into high-end engineering. In 2018, it was bought by Frederick Hesse-Tetteh and his brother Daniel Hesse-Tetteh, and that deal was concluded in 2020. HIT is completely owned by the Tetteh brothers. They are now over the past two or three years since they took full control trying to develop the company into a fully fledged all round engineering services company, providing services to the oil industry and the mining sector, as well as other sectors within the industrial environment, including the agricultural industry, food industry and marine industry. Those are the different kinds of industries that we do service in Ghana. We also service the mining industry in other countries such as Burkina Faso, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea and Sierra Leone. So work is sent to us, we perform what needs to be done to the piece of equipment sent to us, or the parts sent to us, and then we ship it back to them.
Could you tell us in details the scope of business currently with HIT?
A vast part of our business is fabrication and steel fabrication, either for the mining sector, oil and gas, marine sector, general engineering and hydraulics. Hydraulics is the repair of hydraulic cylinders for the mining equipment and for the crane business here in Ghana. We deal with other hydraulics as well, generally cylinder repair and brush plaiting of the chrome and things like that. There are about three main areas of our business: hydraulics, engineering and fabrication. However, we are moving into the electrical business as well, rewinding motors and general repair of electric motors. We will then be moving on into other areas of the electrical business, including switch gear and so forth.
So you get work from different industries.
Correct. We are a service company. In the agricultural business, if a farmer has got a problem with his plow, we will fix it or make the part for him if it is not available here in Ghana. For some of the process plants that get problems within the plant (maybe they need gear boxes looked at or their shafts are worn out), we remanufacture components and then send them back to them. Obviously they can get their piece of equipment back up and running as quick as possible. We do a lot of big jobs in a lot of the bigger industries, but we also do very small jobs as well.
Can you mention some of the bigger jobs that you have been involved in?
Recently, we took a contract with Ashanti Gold Fields to refurbish their entire gold plant at Bibiani. It was a very complex project and the team at HIT executed it fantastically. We had to completely strip a gold process plant of significant size and one of the biggest in Ghana. We stripped it down completely, sent all the major components back to the workshop. That included gear boxes, electric motors, drives, vibrating screens, conveyor systems, conveyor gear boxes, engines and hydraulic power packs, which gives you the diversity of what we did. We refurbished all of them. We had a very tight timeline in this. We had nine months to complete the whole scope of works. While all this equipment was being taken back to the workshop to be done, we then had to refurbish the plant. There was a lot of fabrication work, sandblasting, repainting, and doing the electricals on the plant. They all had to be renewed, rewired, and new control systems had to be put in. Skater systems had to be set up, new software had to be applied for the gold mills. We went into production on the 19th of July, which was on schedule for Ashanti Gold, so we brought it in on time and on budget. That plant is currently working in Bibiani and producing a lot of gold for Ghana.
What is your competitive advantage and what makes HIT stand out?
Our competitive advantage is our people. If somebody gives us something to do, we take a look at it and say, yes, we can do that. We then do it, and deliver the goods to our customer. That is our competitive advantage.
What is your general assessment of this sector?
The sector is particularly competitive in Ghana, especially the mining sector, and the oil and gas sector. Ghana is not a new market. It is quite a mature market in this area, and we have to be on top of our game. So anyone who wants to enter this market must be ready for the competition because it is here and it is ready to go.
Could you tell us more about the electrical sector?
First of all, a mature market means that there are lots of competitors in this market, it is not only one company or one person doing what we do. There are other companies out there like HIT. With regards to the electrical sector, there are quite a number of companies out here doing electrical work. All we wish is to do it better than them and offer our client the assurance that when they get something from us the product that they get back is as good as it could possibly be. If it was manufactured or remanufactured here, it would be as good as anything you get from South Africa or America or Europe. So there are other people in the market doing what we do, but we just want to do it better.
Electrically, the projects are many, but generally we are going to focus on electric motors, rewinding of electric motors and bringing them back from the dead. Electric motors got a life. As you know, the power in Ghana is not as stable as it should be, and it does cause an awful lot of problems for electric equipment and particularly electric motors. There is work out there and we hope to tap into that work, bring that work in, and offer our customers a superior experience when it comes to getting your electric motor done. Also, anything above medium size electric motors are not currently serviced in Ghana, and we want to be one of the first in that sector to do electric motors above the medium ranged motors that are currently done here.
What would be different from the old model?
Currently, if you wanted to service an electric motor and you need to have it certified, tested and balanced, you would probably send it to South Africa. The best turnaround we would get on that would be four to five months. If we can achieve all of this in Ghana, your turnaround is going to be about a month. It will be a huge benefit to the customer in downtime and obviously a benefit to the country because you do not have to pay to send something overseas and pay in foreign currency to get it repaired where you can get it repaired in Ghana.
Is HIT in partnership with other companies?
We do have partners here in Ghana and we also have partners that we do business with overseas. We have got partnerships with companies in South Africa for the electrical business like Martin and Coots. They are one of the largest electrical service providers in South Africa, particularly specializing in high voltage electric motors. We are building partnerships across Africa with various entities and customers so that we can build a business.
Will you be opening up to investors coming into the company?
HIT will remain a family-owned company as long as I can see it. But it is partnerships more than investors that interest us. They will bring investment into the partnership, but HIT will be leading the charge with whatever we move into.
Is there a corporate social responsibility that is undertaken by HIT to help support the environment?
We do have corporate social responsibility and we have people dealing with that around our factory. We do look after the people around our factories, and we are involved in many aspects, like if the local leaders there need some assistance with whatever it is at the time, we are always there to lend them assistance. We are also taking on young people out of school, out of the university and give them their first taste of work with a real large company. We try wherever we can to help the local community and young people coming through.
What do you want to achieve with HIT in the next five years?
Within the next five years, I hope that we would be up to be one of the best geared up service centers for electric motors in Ghana and possibly West Africa.
What pushes you to be part of this industry?
I enjoy my work, I enjoy what I do and I enjoy challenges. I do not do all this on my own, all I do is give direction. It is the people within the company that are doing all the real hard work. I am very lucky to have an excellent team of people who believe in what they are doing.
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