Can we be the only brand in our category?

Possibly. Each agreement covers one category so a brand is never one of six names on a list, and exclusivity in a category is earned on delivered jobs rather than bought up front.

We distribute, we do not manufacture. Is that a problem?

No. What matters to the panel is stock it can get to site, honest lead times and a warranty with a local name behind it. A distributor that holds those is often the better partner.

We are an overseas brand. Can we still partner?

Yes, with a local party who holds stock and honours the warranty here, and with the NRCS Letter of Authority in place for any product under a compulsory specification. Without those, a specifier cannot put the product in a quote.

Our category is already taken. Should we still get in touch?

Yes. Categories are wide, and a second brand at a different price point or for a different kind of job is often welcome. If there is no room now, we keep the conversation open for when there is.

How quickly will we hear back?

Within two working days of sending the brand and the category, with what the panel is specifying in that category now and where your range fits.

For suppliers and manufacturers

Get specified by the contractors who install it.

Become a supply partner→See this morning’s demand for what you make

Already supplying the panel: Castle Diamond, WEKA, CDM, Apple Granite, Marmo, Ronal Bathrooms and Gorilla. See the open categories

The depot, running

In through the gate, back onto the bay, doors up, doors down, out again. Every load that leaves a depot like this one is going to a site. The panel decides whose.

Your market, this morning.

Every open tender on the national eTender portal that buys a construction material or trade, read by our engine every morning and sorted into twelve material families. Pick what you make. This is the demand the panel is pricing against, before any of it reaches a distributor.

258

open tenders buying materials or trades

read 05 Nov 2026

of them in Gauteng

389

public buyers on the awards record

R123,1 bn

awarded across the twelve families

since Jan 2024

What do you make?

Plumbing, water and sanitation

uPVC pressure and sewer pipe, HDPE pipe and fittings, galvanised and stainless pipe, steel pipe and fabricated fittings (bulk water), couplings, repair clamps, valves (gate, butterfly, non-return, air), water meters (domestic and bulk), meter boxes, geysers and heat pumps, solar water heaters, sanitaryware (WC pans, and more.

open right now

10 in Gauteng

678

tenders on the record

since Jan 2024

R13,9 bn

awarded value

69 awards read

Jul

busiest month for new tenders

then Jun, Aug

Who buys it most

ESKOM112 tenders
Johannesburg Water51 tenders
Transnet SOC Ltd38 tenders
Public Works29 tenders
Water and Sanitation26 tenders

Stock and price lists want to be ready before Jul, when this family’s tenders peak.

Closing next

Make something in plumbing, water and sanitation? Tell us what, and we come back within two working days with what the panel is specifying in it now.

Put your range in front of the panel →

Source: the construction desk. Open tenders are today’s; the record, awards and buyers come from the award releases read since Jan 2024. The full materials lane →

The hardest audience to buy.

Infrastructure decision-makers do not answer cold outreach and they do not specify off a campaign. They buy on recommendation, inside relationships that already exist. You can spend a year building those, or you can partner with the layer that holds them.

Reach

Site teams and specifiers do not read adverts. They ask whoever they trust.

Timing

A specification is settled early and quietly, usually before anyone is selling.

Distance

Distributors sit between you and the site, and the relationship is theirs.

On the supply side

Already supplying the panel.

These brands sit behind the contractors on the panel today, one category each. When a job needs what they make, theirs is the product in the quote.

01In place

Tools and core drilling

Penetrations for pipework and cable, cutting back, chasing and coring on live buildings, every week.

Castle Diamond
Diamond blades and bits, co-branded with the panel
WEKA Pure Power Tools
Core drilling motors and power tools
CDM Core Drilling Machines
Core drilling rigs and stands

02In place

Stone, and the machines that cut it

Vanity tops, kitchen counters, cladding and thresholds on residential and commercial fit-outs.

Apple Granite Traders
Granite and natural stone
Marmo Elettromeccanica
Stone cutting and processing machinery

03In place

Sanitaryware

Bathroom refurbishments, new-build fit-outs and like-for-like replacements on maintenance call-outs.

Ronal Bathrooms SA
Ronal Bathrooms SA
Sanitaryware and bathroom fittings

04In place

Site chemicals

Cleaning cured concrete and mortar off tools, mixers, formwork and finished surfaces.

Gorilla Concrete Remover
Concrete and mortar remover

Open to meetings

The panel buys in these too, and has no partner yet.

If you make, import or distribute in one of these categories, we would like to meet. An hour, nothing to sign, and you leave knowing what the panel has been quoting in your category.

Book a meeting→

The platform

What partnering
actually gets you.

Partner with us, partner with the panel

One agreement puts you behind every contractor in the network at once, instead of selling to each of them separately and starting again with the next one who wins work.

Matched to the job, not the mailing list

When a package needs what you make, you are the name that comes up. A solar brand surfaces on solar work, a cladding brand on envelope packages. Category first, then availability, then price.

Seen where the decision is made

Presence on site, in credentials and across the initiative itself, in front of the people specifying rather than the people procuring. That is a different audience and it is reached differently.

Distribution and the connections around it

Routes to market, installers, merchants and the specifiers who write you into a drawing. We open the connections we already have rather than handing you a list to work through.

How a partnership runs.

From the first meeting to the first review, in five steps. Most of it is conversation; the paperwork is one agreement, for one category.

Step 01

A meeting first

An hour, in person or on a call, with nothing to sign. We bring what the panel has been quoting and installing in your category; you bring the range, the price list and the people who would look after us.

Step 02

Find the fit

Which products suit the jobs the panel actually wins, which ones do not, and whether the stock and lead times hold up in Gauteng. If the fit is not there, we say so in that meeting rather than six months later.

Step 03

One category, written down

A supply agreement for that category, with the terms agreed before the first job. No listing fee and nothing paid to be presented. Brands that want their name on site as well can agree co-branding on top, as Castle Diamond has.

Step 04

Onto the panel's jobs

Your data sheets and trade prices go to the contractors who quote in your category. When a package needs what you make, your product is the one written into the quote, and the contractor knows who to call for stock.

Step 05

Back round the table

After the first jobs we sit down again with what was quoted, what was installed and anything that came back. That is where a category is widened or narrowed, and where exclusivity is earned.

What to have ready.

The panel only puts its name to a product it can defend on site and at handover. Have these in hand and the first conversation is about jobs, not paperwork.

The product, on paper

A current data sheet and installation guide for each product you want specified. A specifier writes from the sheet; if it is two versions old, so is the specification.

Proof of the standard

The SANS test report or SABS mark behind each claim. Where a product sits under a compulsory specification, the NRCS Letter of Authority for that model: without it the product cannot lawfully be sold, and a site that installs it inherits the problem.

Agrément, for anything non-standard

A building system that is not covered by a SANS standard, a new cladding or a new structural system, needs an Agrément South Africa certificate before most specifiers will put their name to it.

Price, lead time and stock in Gauteng

A trade price list, honest lead times and where the stock sits. The panel prices jobs this week; a product that is six weeks out of Durban loses to one on a shelf in Midrand.

Warranty, and who honours it here

The warranty terms and the local party who stands behind them. A client asks at handover, and the answer has to be a name and a number, not a head office overseas.

For public work

Central Supplier Database registration, a tax compliance status and a B-BBEE certificate or sworn affidavit. Public buyers check all three before an award, and a lapsed one can cost the bid.

Compulsory specifications that catch building products

NRCS Letter of Authority needed before sale

CementVC 9085
Electric storage water heaters (geysers)VC 9006
LuminairesVC 9012
Electric cables (flexible cords and certain LV cables)VC 8006 / VC 8075
Plugs, socket outlets, adaptorsVC 8008
Circuit breakers and earth-leakageVC 8036
Electrical appliances (including power tools and air-conditioners)VC 8055
Safety footwearVC 9002
Plumbing components (taps, mixers, valves: via the JASWIC / SANS 10252 route rather than a VC)

From the materials lane, where each family lists the specifications that apply to it: materials.

Access, on terms written down.

Arabella does not sell shelf space. A brand comes onto the platform because the panel specifies, buys or installs what it makes.

No listing fee

There is no charge to be presented to the panel and its clients. The arrangement is commercial: supply terms to the panel, agreed per product category and put in writing before the first job.

One category at a time

Each arrangement covers one category, stone, sanitaryware, tools, electrical, so a brand is never one of six names on a list. Exclusivity in a category is possible; it is earned on delivered jobs, not bought.

Two working days

Send the brand and the category through the site and we come back within two working days with what the panel is specifying now and where the fit is.

Read the detail

Questions

Asked in every first meeting.

Manufacturers, importers and distributors whose products the panel specifies, buys or installs: building materials, sanitaryware, stone, tools, electrical, plumbing, and the plant and machinery that go with them.