History

On the 1st of May 1985, amid much economic uncertainty in South Africa, Paul Ackermann and Manfried Dietstein opened the doors of Calculus Products (Pty) Ltd.

The timing was perfect – coinciding with a time when foreign industrial components and parts became scarcer and harder to source.

Manufacturing came naturally to the duo, having honed their skills at Barlow Group’s Paarl plant. They were responsible for manufacturing an entire range of Caterpillar earth moving equipment’s cabins, radiators and other components.

Another noteworthy accomplishment came when 35 Oshkosh trucks rolled off the production line, made up of a staggering 66% locally produced parts – a feat never again equaled in this country.

When the time finally arrived for Paul and Manfried to go on their own, they brought their skill and passion along with them. Calculus was born – a small engineering firm that could manufacture components to infinite accuracy. This proved to be a success as orders came flooding in from all sectors.

Soon a manufacturing facility for electrical wiring harnesses was opened and orders came pouring in from earthmoving equipment manufacturers and the defense industry.

After only one year we purchased our first computerised machine, a first for the Western Cape and one of only a handful in the country at the time.

By 1988 we opened a new, larger factory at our current premises in Wellington. A few years later our second facility, the Stikland factory, came into operation.

Our Stikland factory became our facility dedicated to aluminium composite material (ACM) products found at, among others, service stations and banks around the country.

Today our products can be found proudly proclaiming the names of banks and service stations, inside distillation equipment, on earthmoving equipment, battleships and even at research stations as far a field as Antarctica.