Construction World July 2018

COVER STORY

SCANIA: THE CUSTOMER’S SUCCESS IS OUR SUCCESS

T CE, held in May, is South Africa’s only multidisciplinary built envi- ronment show. It hosted 8 000 professionals from 44 countries and proved the ideal platform for Scania South Africa to exhibit some of its offerings for the built environment. “In a dual stand your brand tends to get lost,” says Theuns Naude, Segment Manager for the Construction, Public and Special Segment at Scania South Africa. He adds that Scania’s presence at the TCE has been beneficial as, by the second day of the expo, they had received various queries from as far afield as Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. “Like at our successful stand at bauma CONEXPO AFRICA in March, it has been quality visitors.” Customer success is the measure of success Scania South Africa relaunched its range of construction vehicles to the South African market as recently as 2015 and has, in three years, seen unprecedented growth in sales numbers, more than doubling At the African Construction & Totally Concrete Expo (TCE) in 2016, Scania South Africa partnered with bodybuilder Reimer on a joint stand, while in 2017 it partnered with Liebherr. In 2018 Scania decided to have its own stand to enable the brand to be the champion. This is symbolic of the growth of the Scania range of construction vehicles, now firmly entrenched in the South African construction world.

the number of vehicles sold year-on- year, in the process growing its market share in this segment. “Scania’s key strategic focus is still very much on construction as we know that the growth in our total market share will be in this segment,” says Naude. He says the reason for this growth is because Scania has been contributing something new to the market with its Solutions Based Offering. “Although sales numbers are a measure of success, Scania measures success based on customer satisfaction. If our offering can add value to the customers and make them more profitable, efficient and cost-efficient, then we are successful,” he says. Scania’s construction range At the TCE, Scania exhibited the 6 m 3 TFM mixer and the Scania 12 m 3 tipper. Scania’s range of construction vehicles currently consists of 15 construction models. These vehicles include tippers, mixers, hook lifts, skip-loaders, heavy hauliers, brick carriers and logistic vehicles for moving goods to and from building sites. Naude says there are plans to add a smaller version of a brick carrier – a 6 x 4, as this is more manoeuvrable for deliveries to estates. This flexibility is representative of the Scania approach, says Naude. “The only way to ensure the customer’s success is to offer Solution Based Offerings. We have to get to know the cus- tomer’s business: where the vehicle will operate will determine the right specification, and this will in turn optimise the vehicle for the specific application.” A ‘one size fits all approach’ does not exist for Scania. “This will most likely create waste: the vehicle or body may be under-specced (or over-specced) in relation to the job it is doing, or the incorrect service and support package may be in place.” This may lead to unscheduled downtime, increasing repair and

In 2018 Scania had its own stand to enable the brand to be the champion. This is symbolic of the growth of the Scania range of construction vehicles.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD JULY 2018