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Welcome to Minimaal en Mooi | A little about the owner, history, and what the future holds.
My name is Ronén, which might be difficult to pronounce, so I usually shorten it to Ron.
I am the owner and founder of Minimaal en Mooi Houtwerke.
We are a family-owned and run business based in Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, South Africa, we specialize in custom woodworking and small-batch production for resellers, retailers, and direct-to-consumers.
This is our story of how we began and where we are headed.
At an early age I was inspired by my grandfather (Tjaart Herbst) to work with my hands and do what I love, he lived to the ripe old age of 90 and he did what he loved till the bitter end.
His big strong hands not once losing their power or roughness, and his heart was never empty or without love for his family, he was someone who you could easily get along with, look up to, and admire.
He was not by any means wealthy but he had such a wealth of knowledge, which he shared in bucket loads with whoever cared to listen.
I remember vividly how he taught me how to weld (at age 5) in his workshop, how to drill into steel without ruining the drill or the drill bit, and how patience and attention to detail can really change something from ordinary to practical and beautiful.
Not that much of what he built was beautiful by any stretch of the imagination, but rather beautiful in its simplicity and practicality.
The techniques he used, the practical problem-solving, and the ethical use of materials shaped my way of thinking permanently.
Today, I still use this way of thinking in all that we do and all that my company stands for.
We strive to use & purchase ethically sourced materials from factories and bigger businesses that don't have use for off-cuts or funny pieces of wood.
I always gravitate to using wood with character, if it's got a knot in it, I show it off, I don't particularly like cracks so you won't find many or any in my work, but the character in bucket loads, that's for sure.
By making use of these otherwise waste materials we stop lots of them from going into landfills, how wasteful would that be? Just because something doesn't comply with their specifications they throw it away!
We specifically developed our lines of products to make use of this otherwise wasteful part of our industry, however, sometimes when we outstrip the supply we do also buy in premium quality hardwoods, to help make up the difference.
We make use of more than 97%+ of the wood that we source in, the rest is usually only sawdust or other types of waste material that cant be used, this we sell to local mechanic shops to clean up messes and oil spills in their workshops in a more eco-friendly way.
This is accomplished by planning out each and every job and not buying more than we need or making errors in the production phase.
We work to very tight tolerances and hand-pick each piece of wood for its specific purpose, if we have offcuts we make sure to first use them before buying in more.
In September 2021, I decided that I had had enough with the rat race, I was going to follow in his big footsteps, and do what I love passionately, I bravely stepped into this field with the attitude of build it and they will come.
Now more than a year on, I am glad to say, Thanks for all the support and sales, we are profitable and steadily growing!
In the next year, we will be primarily focusing on sustaining our growth, by innovating new products for a wider market and we will be looking to grow our reseller list, to further our reach, as well as auditing all of our processes and systems to be able to better serve our clients, fulfilling orders faster and with fewer errors, creating a seamless buying process and excellent aftersales service.
Follow our Journey
It can only get interesting from here