Meet Daniel Petterson, Hima Cement’s new General Manager

In May this year, David Njoroge, the amiable General Manager at Hima Cement, since 2006, quit the job to join IPS Kenya Ltd as General Manager Projects. Njoroge’s 7 years at Hima Cement, have seen the creation of a much stronger industry leader, capable of feeding much of the demand by the fast growing construction industry. Daniel Petterson, his replacement, is an equally capable leader  at least from his CV. In this interview with The CEO Magazine`s Patrick Kagenda, he shares his vision and plan to keep Hima at the top.

 Who is Daniel Petersson

Daniel Petterson is an Ibovicky which means I am half Swedish and half Nigerian. I grew up in Stockholm, Sweden but my father was an Ibo man from Nigeria. I joined the Lafarge group in 2006 and at that time I was focusing on Africa in terms of strategy and development. Even this new technology that we inaugurated a few years back, I was working on it behind the scenes from Paris in France.

After that I went to the DRC for about two years and then over the last few years, I was in South Africa, where I ran one of the basic units for Lafarge for over two years. In South Africa, Lafarge runs 5 different business units and I ran one of them. I am married to a South African lady and we have one daughter. My professional life in Africa is mainly cement related. So this pretty much sums me up.

How do you compare the Hima cement plant with the other plants you have worked at?

 I think each plant is unique. Each plant has its own challenges and strengths and I think if you talk about the Hima plant, obviously, one of the challenges is the reserves. Hima has a very complex quarry situation which is a challenge for the plant. Another challenge that we have here is that we import quite a lot of the supplies for this plant. Huge spare parts, etc, all have to come from very far which makes it very costly. So the costs are high. We have just sorted out one of the biggest problems we had, that of emissions which is now a tick in the box. So those are some of the challenges that we have.

And what are your strengths?

 The biggest strength is that we have a pool of very talented people here. So we have got already something to build on here. Also the plant is very strategically based to sell its products not only in Uganda but also some of the export markets where we are present like Rwanda and the Eastern DRC.

Having worked in more organized work environments like France and South Africa; how is the Uganda working environment?

Its only three weeks since I took office…(laughs). I think it’s a little bit too early to say, but all I can say is that I am really happy with my team. They are some really good people and we are busy building momentum because I have to take the business to the next level. I think in general, over the next 5 years, Uganda will see a lot of opportunities in the construction sector so I think it is up to us to make sure that we are well placed to capitalize on those opportunities. I think there is going to be a bit of an infrastructure boom because everybody is waiting for the oil etc and when this time comes we are going to be ready. We have a lot of work to do to ensure that we are ready for the go and we can meet the requirements of the market.

There is a problem of counterfeit cement on the market, how are you going to overcome this menace? 

We work very closely with our customers and our quality assurance goes via our customers to the end market. I can’t talk about specifics on counterfeiting because that is something new to me. If it happens then, we have to think about what we can do, but I think the main thing for us is to ensure that our partners in the market and our selves are serving the market in the way that we want it to be served with good quality service and good quality products etc.

In the past local cement manufacturers, led by Hima have asked for government protection against imported cement. In this age and era, should we still be talking about protection especially for big groups like Lafarge?  

Yeah, this I think is an important point. Hima is a local company, we invested here and we are producing here, we are employing people here, we are working with the communities here, we are a type of company that should be supported also in the market place because there is no need to import when we can produce locally. I urge every Ugandan to support local manufacturing not only in cement but in any way possible because it is important to have a strong manufacturing base in the country and to have that, people need to support the manufacturing that does exist.

Dangote cement of Nigeria is building a plant in Southern Tanzania and one of its target markets is Uganda. How are you prepared for the competition?

 I think competition is good because it keeps you on your toes. Without competition, it is easy to become complacent. We shall see when the Dangote plant is up and running, however we will be ready for it and Hima will still be here. We are working everyday to improve our competitiveness through reducing our costs, through working closely with the communities, and as an example we are now burning about 50% of alternative fuels in this plant which means we have reduced our heavy fuel dependence significantly and that drives down our costs. We have to keep on working on continued improvement and in that way we will make sure that we will be ready for any competition either coming from within Uganda or from elsewhere.

What new thing are you bringing to Hima because you are a New GM coming with a new working style and new innovations?

I don’t know if it’s new but I have got a couple of philosophies. One thing is we spend so much of our energy in the work place. I intend to do my part in ensuring that Hima is a great place for everybody who is related to it. I believe in straight forwardness, I believe in openness and I believe in fairness. Those are some of the values that I intend to drive to make sure that we are a great company, that Hima is well curved in some areas and is a great institution here in Uganda and we need to be great.