Capital Equipment News January 2023

CRUSHING & SCREENING

Wirtgen South Africa recently held its dealer conference at its Johannesburg headquarters, bringing together several OEMs within the group and dealers from the region.

Southern Africa OEM s take on 2023

Following a seven-year hiatus, Wirtgen South Africa recently held its dealer conference at its Johannesburg headquarters, bringing together several OEMs within the group and dealers from the region, including Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana.

H aving last congregated with its dealers a few years ago, Wirt gen Group South Africa held its annual dealer conference at the end of November 2022. Following the appointment of new regional dealers in recent years, the conference was largely aimed at bringing the new distributors up to speed with the Wirtgen Group strategy and processes, explained Heinrich Schulenburg, MD of Wirtgen Group SA. With all group OEMs represented – including Wirtgen, Hamm, Kleemann, Ciber Benninghoven and Vögele – the conference was also a perfect platform for dealers to learn more about the new product and technological developments from the various brands. “In recent years, we have appointed new dealers and the conference allowed us to introduce them to our processes and new focus. The new approach to our

platform for knowledge sharing. “We often get caught up in hectic schedules and day-to-day running of our businesses, without spending enough time to reinforce our knowledge of the product. It was great spending time with product experts from the various factories, learning more about the range, the specifications and the opportunities available to deploy the various products,” says Brendan Reilly, MD of Industrial Exchange Group. Named the Dealer of the Year at the conference, Machinery Exchange is enjoying a buoyant market in Zimbabwe, driven by the government’s ongoing infrastructure development programme, which is anchored by the development of the 600-km Beit Bridge-Harare Road. Here, several Wirtgen products are busy at work, including but not limited to recyclers, asphalt pavers and crushers and screens. “We sold several firsts on that project, such as the first Kleemann crushers and

business will help them identify additional markets to exploit, thus providing them with tools to generate additional turnover and profits,” says Schulenburg. Waylon Kukard, sales manager at Wirtgen Group SA, says one of the key focus areas was to educate dealers about the wide market reach and opportunities offered by the complementary ranges within the Wirtgen Group. “After our interactive three-day conference, our dealers now understand that Wirtgen is a lot bigger than just one or two products that we are traditionally known for. They are starting to realise that there are more growth opportunities available when you focus on the whole product portfolio – all the way from road construction to surface mining, and everything in between,” says Kukard. Machines across the border For Machinery Exchange, the Zimbabwean dealer, the conference was an important

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