Mechanical Technology February 2015

⎪ Special report ⎪

SA’s mobile HVAC specialist celebrates 30 years Booyco Engineering celebrates 30 years in business this February. Founded as a specialist provider of HVAC solutions to the military sector, the company is currently transforming into a globally recognised OEM for the railway sector. Jeremy Pougnet, CEO, outlines his future vision.

S pecialist mobile air-conditioning unit manufacturer and supplier, Booyco Engineering, celebrates its 30 th anniversary in February 2015. The company is set to double its staff complement over the next 18 months and expand its Meadowdale, Johannesburg assembly facility in antici- pation of a slew of contracts related to major procurement announcements from Transnet and the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (PRASA). Such is the anticipated flow of work from this long-term locomotive and commuter train programme that Booyco Engineering will have a solid order book for the next four years. This marks the lat- est stage in the transformation of Booyco Engineering, from a specialist military sector supplier to a force to be reckoned with in the global railway sector as well. “It has been my ambition at Booyco Engineering that we become a significant supplier of original equipment in global

markets,” Pougnet says. “We are well on our way to achieving this. It is clear that Booyco Engineering is regarded at a high level by the top rolling stock builders in the world. This is good for Booyco Engineering and for South Africa as a whole.” Pougnet says some impressive statis- tics have emerged with respect to Booyco Engineering’s climate control systems from the railway sector, indicating very low numbers of failures per million kilometres, which is the international yardstick of reliability for this sector. “By world standards we are obtaining good results, and the global railway fraternity is sitting up and taking notice.” In terms of Transnet’s procurement drive to replace ageing rolling stock, in conjunction with PRASA’s procurement drive on the passenger rail side, Booyco Engineering has had to embrace “a sud- den and dramatic increase in competition in our traditional market or risk losing

Jeremy Pougnet, CEO of Booyco Engineering, which celebrates its 30 th anniversary during February 2015. out on some massive opportunities. I do believe that these contracts are of the magnitude that we are unlikely to see in South Africa again anytime soon, especially given the fact that locomo- tives and coaches have a life expectancy of between 30 to 40 years,” Pougnet comments. “The upside of the increased competi- tion is that it forces us to be on our toes at all times.” In order to be both efficient and competitive, Pougnet reveals that Booyco Engineering is upgrading its assembly facility in Meadowdale, Johannesburg. “What I am particularly excited about is that we have had a fresh look at our manufacturing philosophy.

Booyco Engineering is implementing a new factory layout and installing new equipment to enable the company to take advantage of Transnet’s and PRASA’s procurement drives.

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Mechanical Technology — February 2015