Bestbier Sawmills
Maintenance in Bloemfontein

Bestbier is a South African manufacturer of portable tilt blade/ circular swing blade sawmills, Namibia and Canada.Bestbier is situated in Bloemfontein, Angola,  Democratic Republic of Congo, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, from as far as Cape Town to Nylstroom in Limpopo and have exported products to Mozambique, cultivators and graders for road construction and maintenance.  Bestbier provides products to an extensive client base, tillers, double log edgers, as well as arbour resaws, also known as primary breakdown sawmills, South Africa.

Herman is the founder and a managing member at Bestbier. Being primarily a farmer, he has extensive experience in the farming sector. He later completed his degree in Law (LLB) at the University of South Africa. He is also responsible for sales and product enquiries. DP completed his National Diploma in Mechanical Engineering at the Central University of Technology in Bloemfontein. As a mechanical engineer for a large Kroonstad-based mine equipment manufacturer he gained valuable experience in engineering, manufacturing and management. Now with almost two decades’ experience to his credit DP is capable of designing and developing just about any kind of equipment the end user may need. He is a managing member at Bestbier and responsible for production, which includes product research, design, development and manufacture, and also sales and product enquiries. Fulfilling a post for a year in a Kroonstad-based company which builds mining equipment: handled the debtors dept and assisted with tenders. He brings with him more than 24 years’ experience in manufacturing and has completed many courses over the course of time. Rassie is also responsible for delivering Bestbier’s products and providing on-site training to clients. 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. Bestbier continually grew, adding new products to its tally, and soon became not only the 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. 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.