Country’s largest distributor of mobile crushing and screening equipment honours its customers
Carnival City was a fitting backdrop for ELB Equipment’s recent celebration of success after winning the Powerscreen Global Dealer of the Year Award bringing together customers and staff in a glitzy show of appreciation.
The event also marked 30 years as the sole supplier of Powerscreen mobile crushing and screening equipment in Southern Africa and indicated the scale of the relationship between the two companies. Speaking at the event ELB Equipment CEO, Desmond van Heerden, said the partnership has always been based on trust and close cooperation on technical matters, as well as building on solid customer relationships in order to win the local market’s trust and investment.
This was reinforced by Imran Kazi, Powerscreen regional sales manager for the Middle East and Africa, who added that Global Dealer of the Year award was on overall performance of the dealership and its ability to understand and anticipate customer requirements rather than just on sales volumes.
“The award recognised ELB’s ability to collaborate with customers and interpret their needs while also being able to plan ahead and keep their’ equipment operating reliably in the field. It is also a reflection of the entire dealership from sales and technical support to parts and customer service staff who work together to make a formidable team.”
ELB mining divisional director Wakefield Harding added that although the award has ELB Equipment’s name on, it really belongs to everyone from sales, service, technical and parts to finance, logistics, administration and the marketing teams.
Significant growth
“Our focus on aftermarket support has been a significant part of our growth strategy in recent years and our company staff complement has increased by more than 50% since 2020 including 47 employees in our national parts division and a further 19 in our aftermarket division to keep bolstering our support strategy.
“We also operate more than 80 support vehicles across the national footprint and have 14 outlets in South Africa. More recently we have also invested in additional equipment to improve our speed to market including a 25-ton mobile crane and a 55-ton rough-terrain crane to support plant erection and other customer requirements where needed.
“We have also been concentrating on parts availability where we have instructed regional parts departments to stock inventories aligned with the equipment operating in their respective areas with our objective to reduce waiting time for critical components to further reduce machine downtime,” Van Heerden explained.
He further shared that the investment is being backed by strong business growth with the company’s annual revenue increasing by more than 180% since 2020, a staff complement of over 300 people and the next major investment already under way with the company having acquired new premises in Jet Park next to the N12 highway. This investment of more than R200 million is expected to meet the company’s future needs and is expected to be ready by mid-2027 following extensive preparations and renovations.
Kazi expanded that the partnership had survived changing and sometimes difficult trading conditions and is keeping pace with evolving technology and recognising the current ELB management team for maintaining its momentum.
“Looking ahead we see changing customer requirements as a major driver of equipment development and in the Southern African context customers are increasingly focused on operating costs, fuel efficiency and sustainability. As a result we are developing equipment incorporating electric and hybrid technologies as well as EV solutions with new products expected to enter the market over the next two to three years.”
Harding concluded that the achievement was a milestone, but not the finish line. After 30 years the partnership between ELB Equipment and Powerscreen is entering its next phase with a substantially larger ELB organisation and an increasing focus on customer’s needs for equipment uptime and operating efficiency.
Powerscreen equipment on show
