Dane Doubell

I have always felt a calling to help others. I believe that a person leaves their mark on society through all the small acts of kindness and help throughout a lifetime. I feel like I might be able to accomplish my own contribution through this business of helping others to make bricks so they can build a life for themselves and others.

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I attended Grey Junior and Grey High School in Port Elizabeth, my birthplace. I enjoyed a successful school career and held many leadership positions (Prefect, Junior City Council Mayor, Cadet Student Officer, Academic colours, Service colours, etc.)

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I chased a high school sweetheart to Cape Town, where I enrolled at the University of Cape Town. In second year, I became the Deputy Head Student for Leo Marquard Hall and after four years, graduated with a degree of Business Science Computer Science.

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In 2005, my father passed away after a brief battle with cancer. I had to abandon my pursuit of a Masters degree in computer science along with the Google bursary aligned. I had no second thoughts about it - I was ready to take responsibility and uphold the trust that decades of customers had built up with the family business.

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In 2007, I implemented ISO9001 to bring the factory standards of practice in alignment with worldwide systems quality. This accreditation was performed by Dekra initially, but later switched over to South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) for a more locally branded certification body.

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Over subsequent years, I recreated all machinery parts digitally and created revisions for higher precision and quality using CAD, laser-cutting, plasma cutting, CNC machining etc. My emphasis was to take my father's philosophies in engineering principles and create a scalable production facility to accommodate both a diverse range of product specifications (varying brick sizes worldwide) as well as an expandable manufacturing output with a low rejection rate. I had considered Six Sigma, but never formally implemented it.

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In 2014, I was sponsored to join Rotary by PDG Trevor Long, who mentored me to take on roles within our Rotary Club of Algoa Bay. I have held various board positions and been actively involved in service, which has afforded me two Paul Harris awards for my work since then. I have attended two international conferences and will take on a district level role in the 2022-2023 year.

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In 2018 I enrolled for a masters degree at Nelson Mandela University. I refined a topic in artificial intelligence and evolutionary computing, in the field of robotics under the department of computer science. Unfortunately, when the pandemic began, I had to choose between completing my degree or saving the business that was facing an impossible challenge. In 2020, I chose to put all my effort into making sure the factory pulled through the tough times; and so we did.

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I hope you can find some confidence doing business with us, knowing that we have been here over 40 years and will strive to be here at least 40 more.