eBusiness Weekly
Fradreck Gorwe
Halsted Builders Express is one among many famous and successful Zimbabwean companies contributing significantly to the country’s fortunes and outlook yet have remained off the stock exchange list.
The family business has a protracted history going back to the pre-1900 era.
The first Halsted trading business was opened in Bulawayo in 1897 by Major Charles Halsted under the name Halsted and Webb.
In 1899, when the Anglo Boer war broke out, Halsted closed the Bulawayo business and spent the next three years fighting with the British forces.
When the war ended in 1902, Halsted opened a business in South Africa as an agent for the Kimberley mining firms. This company, Halsted and Company, was handed over to his two sons, Paul and Robert upon his retirement in the 1920s.
In the late 1920s, Robert moved to Bulawayo and set up another agency business, leaving Paul to run the Johannesburg business.
In October 1949, Paul and Robert together with a nephew Eugene, opened Halsted Brothers Limited in Bulawayo.
The Company reportedly specialised in mining and building supplies and other hardware. It had only six employees then.
Paul’s son, Fee Halsted, penned a book: “We are because of others”, in which he glorified the magnificence of the African spirit of Ubuntu, the reason he established the Ardmore Ceramic Art on the foothills of the Drakensburg Mountains of South Africa. The son testified how the country Zimbabwe was a better investment destination for his father to strike a fortune.
Said Fee: “In those days Zimbabwe was a country with so much potential. It was a net exporter of food and had thriving tobacco, mining and tourism industries. People came from all over the world to see the Victoria Falls and enjoy the beauty and magnificence of the country. Dad was quick to pick up opportunities.”
In 1964, Halsteds Brothers opened its first branch in Harare (then Salisbury) along Wynne Street. The Harare Workington branch ensued in the early seventies.
In 1972, another branch was opened in Mutare (then Umtali). This was followed in 1974 by the acquisition of Slomans in Kwekwe.
The timber division, which currently constitute a vital percentage of the company’s operations, was developed in 1994. Trading in Masvingo started in 2000.
Re-branding to the present Halsted Builders Express followed the opening of the Msasa branch in2014.
The re-branding exercise was in tandem with the move to convert all trade stores to retail shops and with it came the new tag line, “Serious about quality”.
In 2018, two branches were opened in Borrowdale and Marondera. The Simon Mazorodze branch was the last to be opened in 2019. Employees have since rose to about 800 people.
The family business now prides itself of several branches nationwide among them; Msasa, Harare Drive, Workington, Borrowdale, Mazorodze, Bulawayo, Kwekwe, Masvingo, Mutare and Marondera branches.
Paul and Robert Halsteds are still the names behind the company’s growth.
