Bestbier Sawmills - Bloemfontein

How it all started

The Bestbier Sawmill was a concept thought of by Mr Bestbier which he began developing and building as a small scale hobby-business. Herman van Schalkwyk, having an eye for identifying business possibilities, quickly saw the potential of this concept and soon took over the hobby-business. In January 2006 DP Marais joined in and with the combination of Herman’s business skills and DP’s mechanical engineering experience the business was sure to bloom. Bestbier Sawmills initially started off in the small town of Trompsburg in the southern Free State province of South Africa, better known as a sheep farming region.

From hobby-business to international competitor

Bestbier continually grew, adding new products to its tally, and soon became not only the  

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leading local manufacturer of portable sawmills but also an international player, competing with the very best companies from across the world. After five successful years in Trompsburg it was decided by the two partners to move the business to Bloemfontein as this would undoubtly contribute to the continuous growing potential of Bestbier, bringing with it a vast availability of skilled labour, material suppliers within reach and a whole lot more.

Bestbier today

Today Bestbier is still owned and managed by Herman and DP and has more than 300 sawmill units in South Africa alone with many exports to countries like Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Angola, Zambia, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Siberia and Canada. Bestbier runs two divisions; Sawmilling, with products like the
swing-blade sawmills, circular arbour resaws and double log edgers, and Agri; with products like the popular pull-graders and custom built cultivators and tillers. Bestbier is constantly researching, designing and developing new products and some of these are scheduled to be released in 2012.