Capital Equipment News April 2018

PROFILE

Gary Bell, outgoing chief executive of Bell Equipment.

Ahead of Gary Bell’s official retirement as chief executive of Bell Equipment, Munesu Shoko caught up with him at bauma CONEXPO AFRICA to discuss a range of subjects, including new partners, his take on new technologies, new and future ADT developments, as well as the state of the market. The force behind the Bell empire

Munesu Shoko [MS]: In June 2017, it was announced that you were to step down as the chief executive (CE) of the group, with then group COO and executive director, Leon Goosen appointed as CE designate. What are the latest developments in that regard? Gary Bell [GB]: I am stepping down from the CE position in June this year. After a year-long transitional period, Leon Goosen will take over as CE, effective June 1 this year. However, I am not completely lost to the business as I will be taking up a new position as the non-executive chairperson of the board. The new position will probably allow me to spend more time with customers, freeing up time for me to understand their businesses better.

MS: Key highlights of your exhibit at this year’s bauma CONEXPO AFRICA are your new partners. What does Kobelco bring to the Bell stable as your new excavator partner? GB: We followed Kobelco for some time. We needed a partner that could give us a bigger excavator range to match our large truck range. Most of the excavator suppliers at our disposal at the time had smaller sizes, between 10 and 40 t. We needed bigger sized, mining excavators such as the SK850LC, which is an ideal loading tool for our large trucks. That was important to us. After having a good look at the Kobel- co organisation, we were also impressed by the high-quality nature of the product,

and that aligns with our core values, as proven by all the other product lines in our stable. We also had great feedback from some of our Bell dealers in North America, who represent Kobelco in their territories. We had excellent reports on the performance and quality of the product. We were comfortable to partner Kobelco and working with them has been a good experience to date. MS: You mentioned the bigger range, but I also see that Kobelco gives you that much- needed footprint into the compact excavator market, which is expected to grow in years to come. What are your thoughts? GB: I agree that the compact excavator may

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