This is the question we are asked most often before someone buys a machine: “When will this plant pay for itself?” We would like to give you an exact number, but the honest answer is that it partly depends on you.
Here is what we see among our customers. A plant built around an 8-block machine usually runs comfortably with a team of twelve. Plants that are run in an orderly way, turn out sound blocks and have found their buyers in advance usually get their investment back in about a year on average. But this is an average, not a promise. Local demand, cement and sand prices, labour costs and how quickly you find your first customers can shorten or lengthen that time. For someone starting from scratch without being known, the first months go mostly into getting established.
What is really interesting is that two customers who bought the same machine can end up in completely different places a few years later. Over the years we have seen that the difference is not in the machine but in the person running it.
The customer who grows is usually the one who produces solid blocks and calculates costs well. They know what one block costs them. They count cement, electricity, labour and broken blocks, and set their price accordingly. They follow their business closely and keep their customers satisfied, so their customers do not leave them.
The customer who fails is often not the one who produces badly, but the one who uses the money earned in the wrong way. Instead of putting the first profits back into the business, they spend them elsewhere. Then there is no money left for maintenance, raw materials cannot be paid for in cash, and when the season comes there is no stock.
Among our customers there are many who started with a small partnership and, within a few years, expanded their plant and bought a second machine. They all have the same three things in common: following their business closely, producing quality blocks and keeping their customers satisfied. It is not luck, it is discipline.