Founded in 2007
Microchem was established by Raymond Hartley in 2007 when he bought the Woolworths in-house laboratory. In 2009 Microchem acquired Consulting Microbiological Laboratory (Pty) Ltd (CML) situated in Benoni Gauteng and changed the name to Microchem, Gauteng Branch. CML was a well known microbiological laboratory, the acquisition allows for greater opportunities to service Microchem’s Gauteng clients who require microbiological services. Initially Microchem focused on routine microbiological and nutritional analyses. However, clients increasingly looked to Microchem to enhance the offering in terms of range and sophistication of tests.
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TECHNOLOGY
Continuously investing in the latest technology
To meet your analytical requirements our modern facilities include centrally situated laboratories with adequate sample reception, analyses and storage. Our state of the art technology includes GC, GC-MS, GS-MS Triple Quadrupole, ICP-OES, HPLC, LC-MSMS, Triple Quadrupole LC-MS, real time PCR, Tempo, Vidas and LIMS. These instruments have greatly broadened the range of analyses, and enable us to test for substantially lower levels of detection, and allow for the analysis of whole new classes of compounds.
Meet our Team
Raymond Hartley is the Managing Director and Founding member of Microchem Lab Services. Microchem was established in 2007 when he bought the Woolworths in-house laboratory together with his business partner Dominic Sides. In 2009 Microchem bought Consulting Microbiological Laboratory (CML) situated in Benoni. Further depos were established in the Kariega and Tzaneen, to service clients in the fruit producing industry in these areas. Initially Microchem focused on routine microbiological and chemical analyses. With time, Microchem expanded its scope of testing as clients required more sophisticated and lower levels of detections and range of analyses.
Charl Bekker is the Financial Manager for the Microchem Group and is based at our head office in Cape Town, supporting the day-to-day finance, Human Resources, Sales, and business management of our two laboratory facilities situated in Cape Town and Benoni.
Charl is responsible for data analytics, financial reporting and is proficient in product costing as well as new systems rollout with a focus on automisation.
Charl is responsible for data analytics, financial reporting and is proficient in product costing as well as new systems rollout with a focus on automisation.
Hannes Esterhuizen is the Operations Manager and is based at our head office in Cape Town. He specialises in nutritional analysis of food products, data analytics, and reporting, and has experience in database management and systems integration. After starting his career in 2009 as a chemistry analyst, Hannes progressed to head up the chemistry laboratory and served as quality manager of the business.
Ilse Liedemann is our Head of Microbiology Services she specialises in molecular detection of pathogens. She heads up the Microbiology Research and Development to investigate relevant initiatives to support client requirements and market demands. The Microbiology laboratories support the food industry to verify food and food processing quality criteria and ensure consumer safety with pathogen testing.
Luaan Louw is the Quality Assurance Manager responsible for operations, quality control, compliance, risk management for Microchem and is based at the Cape Town head office. Luaan completed an internship at ARC Nietvoorbij, Stellenbosch and then joined Microchem as the Microbiology R&D analyst.
Anastasia Stemmers is our Microbiology Lab Manager for our Cape Town branch. Anastasia specialising in the molecular detection of extremophiles. Her expertise lies in quality assurance and microbiology. The Microbiology laboratories support the food industry to verify food and food processing quality criteria and ensure consumer safety with pathogen testing.
Rogan Van Kerpel is the Pesticides Laboratory Manager responsible for leading a team of trained highly skilled analysts, within the Cape Town Head Office as well as two sample depots based in Tzaneen and Kariega, which make use of the latest technology and instrumentation available to ensure accurate and precise results are released to the pesticides market. Rogan strives, along with his team, to deliver an efficient, timely, and customer-centric service to our client base and he also has a dedicated interest in the Research and Development of various new and optimized methodologies and extension of scope within Microchem.
Ryno van Eck is the Financial Manager for the Microchem Group and is based at our head office in Cape Town, supporting the day-to-day Finance and Human Resources of our two laboratory facilities situated in Cape Town, Benoni and our depos. He is responsible for financial reporting, the full Human Resource function and new system rollouts with a focus on automation integration with clients’ systems.
Stephen Newborn is the Head of Pesticide Services and responsible for leading a versatile team of highly skilled analysts and is based at the Cape Town Head Office. He also oversees two remote offices based in Tzaneen and Port Elizabeth. Stephen strives, along with his team, to deliver an efficient, timely, and customer-centric service to our agricultural client base. Stephen has extensive experience on LC-MSMS and GC-MS instrumentation and in Multi-Residue Pesticide Analysis. From his previous sales and customer relationship experience, Stephen has a dedicated interest in this field and strives to offer the best possible service to our clients.
