Capital Equipment News August 2017

Babcock recently invested R100 million in an ultramodern sales, parts and service dealership in Middelburg, Mpumalanga.

Servicing is a very important aspect of equipment lifecycle. A well-maintained piece of equipment means less downtime, higher productivity and lower costs for the equipment owner. Based on the continued understanding of these fundamental principles, several OEMs and their local dealers have recently invested substantial amounts of money into their local support structures. Babcock, the exclusive southern African dealer for Volvo Construction Equipment; Wirtgen South Africa, a subsidiary of the Wirtgen Group; Burgers Equipment & Spares, LiuGong’s dealer for South Africa and Namibia; the Volvo Group Southern Africa; as well as Caterpillar and its southern Africa dealer, Barloworld, are some of the companies that have recently ploughed astronomic investments into new local facilities that significantly improve their capabilities to support their customers. As a service-centric company that continues to invest in improving its service delivery, Babcock recently made a mammoth R100 million investment in an ultramodern sales, parts and service dealership in Middelburg, Mpumalanga. This is to offer improved regional support and service across Babcock’s construction and mining equipment customers operating in the coalfields of Mpumalanga, according to Ben Buys, technical director at Babcock’s Equipment division. Meanwhile, the Wirtgen Group also

recently invested in excess of R50 million into a new facility for its Wirtgen South Africa subsidiary in Pomona, Gauteng. At the time of the official launch, Heinrich Schulenburg, MD of Wirtgen SA, reiterated that the investment gives the company the much needed infrastructure to support its southern African customers. “We now have a facility that suits the needs of this market and gives us the opportunity to address those demands in a professional and competitive way,” said Schulenburg. Burgers Equipment & Spares’ recent move to a larger, own facility in Pomona, Gauteng, is part of its overall strategy to elevate customer service through off-the- shelf spare parts availability, according to Nico Thompson, branch manager of the company’s recently opened Rustenburg branch. Burgers Equipment & Spares’ Pomona facility is further complemented by a recent footprint expansion with new branches in Cape Town, Rustenburg and Polokwane. Meanwhile, theVolvoGroupSouthernAfrica also inaugurated an upgraded R60 million integrated regional parts distribution centre in Boksburg, Johannesburg, South Africa in recent years. The 13 000 m² facility, formerly a 4 500 m² warehouse, now serves Volvo’s African markets south of the equator, including the whole of southern Africa, excluding Angola, as well as countries such as Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Elsewhere, BarloworldEquipment recently announced an agreement with its principal, Caterpillar, to establish a Barloworld Equipment Cat retail parts operation in the newly-built Caterpillar Parts Distribution Centre in Kempton Park near Johannesburg. Barloworld Equipment, the official dealer of Caterpillar products and services in 11 southern African countries, will consolidate over-the-counter aftermarket parts activities from Linbro Park and Isando into the new location. The pioneering collaboration is said to be a demonstration of Caterpillar’s and Barloworld Equipment’s combined commitment to provide unmatched aftermarket service to customers in the region. Trusted to deliver According to Buys, aftermarket is conceivably the most important part of Babcock’s business. “We believe that we have to earn the right to sell the machine by offering a high standard of support, hence our ‘trusted to deliver’ strapline,” says Buys. Babcock was crowned Volvo CE’s Dealer of the Year 2016 in Region EMEA Hub South (Continental Africa and Middle East & Turkey). The accolade is reflective of Babcock’s capabilities as a force to be reckoned with among Volvo CE’s global dealers. The award is based on 2016 achievements in market share growth; parts sales growth; and Customer Support