Discount Steel CC was founded by William Battershill and incorporated as a close corporation on 1 May 1985. The company supplied steel through two divisions into KwaZulu-Natal (KZN stockists)and the rest of South Africa (bulk trading)

On 1 August 2003 two new companies were created to serve these different markets, in the KwaZulu-Natal area, Discount Steel KZN (Pty) Limited ("Discount Steel KZN") and in the rest of South Africa, Discount Steel Trading (Pty) Limited ("Discount Steel Trading"). On 28 September 2001 Discount Steel CC changed its name to BSI (SA) (Pty) Limited and at the same time converted to a private company. BSI which is currently the holding company of the group converted

to a public company on 14 September 2007. In 1989 the group started its property division through Red Chip Investment (Pty) Limited ("Red Chip") which was extended further with the acquisition of Doddleprops 6 (Pty) Limited ("Doddleprops 6") purchase of the Zambian and Congo agencies with effect from 1 April 2007.

On 1 April 2007 the group began the restructure process to convert all subsidiaries and associated companies within the BSI group into wholly owned subsidiaries. In this process the minority shareholders within the subsidiary companies were converted into shareholders within the holding company, BSI. The restructure also included purchasing the two Discount Steel agencies that were not previously held by the holding company. Through the restructure BSI became the holding company of Garrison Steel, Discount Steel KZN, Discount Steel Africa, Discount Steel Zambia and Doddleprops 6.

Today the group has seven operations focusing on being stockists, processors, traders and exporters of steel products in South Africa, Zambia and the DRC, with warehousing and offices covering in excess of 15 000 square meters.