ABOUT US

History and Background

Edward Saunders founded Gypsum Products in 1929 to produce Rhinoboard, by hand, for the South African Market. The name was later changed to Gypsum Industries Ltd with the holding company being BPB Industries PLC of the United Kingdom. In 1977, GIL, acquired a majority shareholding in Donn Products SA (Pty) Ltd. In 1997 BPB PLC acquired a 100% share in Gypsum Industries and the name was again changed to BPB Gypsum Rhinoboard division.

Gypsum is an abundant, naturally occurring mineral that is usually mined from the ground. The chemical composition of Gypsum is hydrous calcium sulphate (CaSO4.2H2O) and it is amazing to realise that the plume of steam from a gypsum plant is water that was captured by the Gypsum when dinosaurs still roamed the Earth. The precipitation of minerals and the evaporation of inland seas around 140- 150 million years ago formed gypsum. This ability to retain moisture is one of the factors that give Gypsum products excellent fire proofing properties. Gypsum plasters as we know them today have been found in the Egyptian pyramids dating back to 2000 BC.

Donn Products (Pty) Ltd was established in 1969, and has, during the past thirty years, gained a reputation for manufacturing products to the highest quality standards. Our ability to maintain these standards has been a key element in Donn achieving spectacular growth during the past ten years. This process of constant improvement, with the active participation and investment by Donn's two shareholders, BPB (British PlasterBoard) plc, and USG (United States Gypsum) has resulted in Donn being presented with numerous awards including the prestigious State President's award for export achievement in 1992. Most recently, Donn Products was the first company to be awarded the SABS product mark on access floors.

The BPB, Donn group continue to strive together to offer you the customer the best available solutions to your building requirements at the best possible price. This is one of the reasons why we fully comply to, and hold both the ISO 9002 and ISO14001 quality systems certificates.