CFO South Africa recently caught up with Afrimat CFO Pieter de Wit to find out more about his plans for 2025 following the completion of his tenure as integration officer in the acquisition of Lafarge South Africa.
Pieter de Wit, is the CFO at Afrimat, a leading mid-tier mining and materials company. Prior to the CFO role, he was responsible for the integration of recently acquired Lafarge South Africa (LSA) into the broader business.
Pieter says the integration of LSA was ‘complex’ because it was not only an integration, but also a turnaround of a loss-making business.
“There were various challenges, which include areas such as branding changes, operational improvements, catch-up maintenance, payroll structure alignment, ERP system and other IT implementation changes, [including] marketing and logistical changes, communications challenges, sustainability changes and the Afrimat culture roll-out,” he explains.
“All these items were project managed by a dedicated project team [and] as CFO I had to deal with various complexities and ambiguities, which provided excellent preparation for the integration process,” he adds. “The analytical and action-oriented environment of the finance function was also good preparation.”
In 2025 Pieter’s professional focus area, among many other priorities, is to make sure that the final items of the integration are completed.
“These items are the changes in the ERP system and relocation of the administrative offices. Furthermore, we need to ensure that the full potential of this new business is unlocked and that the debt incurred to acquire this business is paid off as soon as possible”.
Having recently moved back into his position as CFO, Pieter also plans to focus on the performance of the rest of the Afrimat business. But this will not come at the expense of his personal life.
“On a personal front, my focus areas are to maintain a work-life balance, spend quality time with my family and [pursue my] photography hobby.”
