Capital Equipment News December 2021

COMMERCIAL VEHICLES

Maretha Gerber says the company’s positive reaction to the pandemic at the start of the year was a key factor in achieving a stellar sales performance in 2021.

start of the year was a key factor in achieving a stellar sales performance in 2021. “As the wise say, ‘it’s not about how we fall but how we get back up again’. After a tough 2020, we regrouped as a team and said, how do we react to these tough market conditions? We knew from the onset that our team was the backbone of our business, and despite the tough business conditions at the time, we retained all our employees because we expected the market to rebound at some point, given South Africa’s overreliance on trucks to move goods,” she says. “We also forward-ordered significant stock which, at the time, was a bit risky, but we were confident that, although customers were somehow choosing to sweat their assets, they would at some point need to replace them. It was a bold decision at the time, but it has paid off, especially given the current disruptions in the supply chain and the global shortage of stock among all the OEMs,” adds Gerber. From a model perspective, Gerber tells Capital Equipment News that the Actros has been at the forefront of the sales revolution this year. While it has always been the company’s best performing truck, Gerber says the company’s focus on offering solutions to the different sectors of the market, not only the traditional long haul, but construction and distribu- tion as well, has been a key sales driver for the Actros. The same approach has been adopted on the FUSO side of the business, where solutions are being offered across all segments of the market, including light, medium and heavy duty trucks. We have managed to plug all the gaps wherever a need or new trend was identified,” concludes Gerber. b

CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS DECEMBER 2021 14