Capital Equipment News June 2019

recent years, and our strategy and vision need to be aligned accordingly. Another key focus area in the short term is to drive a customer-centric approach to the business. That includes migrating from a general sales approach to a key account manager approach. We regard our key accounts as a ‘marriage’ between the customer and Metso. The next focus area is looking at operational efficiency, as well as our presence/footprint on the continent. We are looking at creating an optimum footprint across the market area to be able to service our customers and products. QA: In the long term, we want the Africa market area to be the leader within the Metso group when it comes to customer centricity and innovation. It is a major focus for us because we want to grow together with our customers. We will only see true value when we are able to grow with our customers. We are already on the right track. To give an idea, we recently received feedback from one of our global counterparts saying that during a recent review of our Life Cycle Services contracts (LCS), the Africa market area was the leader across the Metso Group in terms of positive customer feedback. Knowing our customers and their businesses is our key priority. We have spent a lot of time reorganising ourselves to further improve and become more professional. In a nutshell, in the long term we aim for growth in numbers and growth of our customers. MS: What has changed structurally with the implementation of this strategy? QA: Fundamentally, over the past 18 months we have been redeveloping the organisation. I was part of the team that started this whole process under the previous vice-president. In terms of the structure, we haven’t changed it because it is working. We are starting to see results and they are manifesting in customer satisfaction. We have been impressed by the marked improvement in customer satisfaction between 2017 and 2018. Obviously there is still a lot of work to be done, but we have seen a lot of improvement. While the organisation hasn’t changed structurally, we have definitely boosted our presence, particularly when it comes to indirect or strategic partner channels. This is something we have spent time on in the past 12 months – developing strategic MS: What are some of your key targets in the long term?

partners in countries like Zambia, DRC, Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Morocco, among others. MS: Tell me more about your dealer development programme. QA: We have developed an extensive dealer and agent network over the past year, which now allows us to be closer to the customer. Dealer development has been primarily on the aggregates side of the business and agents on the mining side. In total, we have added three dealers to our network in West Africa over the past six months. They are already existing dealers of other brands in the region, mainly supplying yellow metal equipment, which is a big plus because we are able to tap into their existing customer base. Together they are our largest to date in terms of order volume. However, individually, Pilot Crushtec International remains our biggest dealer in the aggregates sector when it comes to order volumes across Africa. The aggregates business has grown in recent years to constitute 40% of our business in Africa, while mining accounts for the remaining 60%. As we further seek to develop our aggregates business on the continent, in October we will be launching some new products which will primarily service the needs of the aggregates market. In 2018, we also introduced a mid- tier, Chinese made crusher range called Sharoui, which comes at a considerably lower price than our premium offering and speaks directly to the needs of the aggregates market. This, however, is not available for South Africa as we feel that it is largely a premium-driven market, together with Central Africa. The products will be launched in West and North Africa, which are still largely mid-tier markets, especially when it comes to the aggregates industry. QA: We have set ourselves very ambitious growth targets between 2019 and 2022. We have set a three-year growth target with double digit year-on-year growth, both on orders and net sales. We are currently going through a phase of execution. In 2019 I have tasked the team with focusing on making sure that whatever objectives we have put in place, we deliver on them. Last year was about getting the concepts right and we have done that. We have done the strategy and reorganisation and for the next two years it’s about execution and the third year will be about stabilising. b MS: What is your outlook of the business?

It is for this reason that we have appointed regional leads for different sales areas who are essentially people from those countries with extensive experience in those regions. It’s about drawing on that experience to be able to deliver the value to the customer and navigate the landscapes that we operate in. MS: How important is making Africa an independent market area within Metso? QA: Africa was separated from the Middle East because we want to have more focus on Africa. The whole approach is also driven by growth – both in sales and market share. To achieve this growth, it also means that we have to grow our presence across Africa. MS: What are some of your short-term key focus areas in your new role? QA: The first objective that the senior leadership of Africa and myself have is creating a shared vision and strategy that we can communicate across the market area. Things have changed dramatically within the industry across the region in

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