Barloworld Equipment continues to ensure success, share expertise and innovate solutions in order to achieve exceptional performance.
INTRODUCTION
With more than 100 years of experience in Africa, and backed by a JSE-listed parent company in the form of Barloworld Limited, Barloworld Equipment South Africa continues to deliver quality construction and mining equipment to the country – and wider region’s – earthmoving sector.
The R62 billion entity with secondary listings on both London’s and Namibia’s Stock Exchanges has – over these 100-plus years – leveraged its ethos of ensuring success, sharing expertise and providing innovative solutions to culminate in an equipment offering that delivers the lowest total owning and operating cost over its lifecycles.
Ultimately, the result is “equipment that’s engineered for success…backed by informed, empowered and passionate people”.
The Company continues: “We’re doing it as the sole dealer for Cat® earthmoving machines and related mining and construction equipment in Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia, as well as the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Katanga province in a joint venture with Bartrac.
“We’re doing it by ensuring that our applications and training experts spend their time where it counts most – in the field, where we can help your employees with the expert knowledge they need to get the most out of your machines.
“We’re doing it through our commitment to social, environmental and economic sustainability: by striving to minimise the environmental impact of our economic activities by investing in water and electricity metering systems at all our facilities, and measuring fuel, water and electricity intensity across our southern African operational footprint.
“And we’re doing it by driving customer satisfaction: by ensuring that you always feel appreciated, understood and valued by our team; by holding to the highest standards in every aspect of our business to make sure that you’re secure in the knowledge that you’re dealing with the most reliable, accessible and safety-conscious Company in South Africa; and by making your entire experience as effortless as possible.”
MORE THAN MACHINES
In order to achieve this, the business is split into two succinct arms of equipment provision and support services, with the former serving as its bread and butter trademark still in the region.
“When it comes to providing the industry standard in mining, construction and agricultural machinery, Barloworld leads the way,” the Company affirms on its website. “Barloworld Equipment [also] delivers a range of Cat® Attachments, giving you the versatility and flexibility you need to tackle any job effectively.
“These long-lasting, hard-wearing tools enhance the productivity and utility of your Cat® machines, equipping them for a wide range of tasks and operating requirements, and delivering total system solutions.”
Making up Barloworld’s equipment portfolio is an ever-expanding devotion to diversification and turnkey provision, with no stone left unturned; either metaphorically or physically. These include; articulated trucks, asphalt pavers, backhoe loaders, cold planers, compact track and multi terrain loaders, compactors, dozers, draglines, drills, electric rope shovels, excavators, feller bunchers, forest machines, forwarders, harvesters, hydraulic mining shovels, knuckleboom loaders, motor graders, off-highway trucks, pipelayers, road reclaimers, skid steer loaders, skidders, telehandlers, track loaders, underground – hard rock, underground – longwall, wheel dozers, wheel excavators, wheel loaders, and wheel tractor-scrapers.
Ensuring that all client requirements are catered for, Barloworld Equipment also offers used equipment to the same quality and reliability specifications, as well as rental equipment.
“The flexibility, performance and productivity you’re looking for are just a click away,” Barloworld emphasises online. “At Barloworld Equipment, we’ll work with you to design a solution to help you grow your business while managing risk and controlling costs; and all at highly competitive rates.
“Our fleet of rental machines are connected to EMSolutions. This allows us to continually monitor them and ensure they remain in peak condition to keep your business moving.”
THE FULL PACKAGE
EMSolutions is just one of many support services that the Company can boast to complement its machines, once again proving itself as an industry expert, adviser and consultant as well as a distributor and facilitator.
“No-one knows better than Cat® how difficult it is to survive in today’s current economic climate. We know you’re doing your level best to cut costs, streamline your operations and make every cent count, which is why we’ve introduced our Level Best EMSolutions, with five levels to choose from so that you get the support you need to be super-productive without paying for services you don’t need,” the Company explains.
The five levels cover access, information, advice, support and management, and epitomise the kind of on-hand, collaborative interaction that it tries to have with each and every customer. And to achieve such saturation, its behind-the-scenes devotion to continuous improvement and R&D are addressed via its Barloworld Rebuild Centre and its S.O.S Laboratory.
The former is located in Boksburg and is the largest of its kind among its global dealer network having been built specifically for Cat® engine, hydraulic and drive train rebuilds.
“You can buy remanufactured parts for engines, transmissions, torque converters, differentials, wheel stations and hydraulic components at competitive rates, meaning you stay operational, extend machine life and reduce repair costs,” the Company adds. “The Caterpillar S.O.S laboratory [also] in Boksburg, undertakes wear analysis and interprets oil samples from machines in the field. The S.O.S programme is not a solution to machine problems, but a tool for detecting problems early [and] gives Barloworld Equipment customers access to the Global Caterpillar S.O.S network, including critical equipment management information such as wear tables indicating maximum allowable metal wear limits in the various Cat components.”
AC HONED TUBE
Much in the same way that Barloworld Equipment South Africa serves as a contributor to its customers’ success stories, the Company too has a plethora of partners and suppliers that it leans upon in order to meet its goals. One such valuable partner is AC Honed Tube who – since 1978 – has evolved to now be one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of honed and unhoned tubing and chrome shafting in Africa. With more than 2,000 tonnes of tubing and shafting stored in-house, its scope and operational excellence lends itself perfectly to a world-class business relationship such as the one shared with Barloworld Equipment.
Completing the full package is Barloworld Equipment’s technology service offering, which enables sustainable business by helping clients to discover data-driven performance with Cat CONNECT, “a suite of technological solutions for any industry, or Cat MineStar, our cutting-edge packages designed to help you manage your mining operation”.
A PARTNER WITH POWER
As such a reputable name in Southern Africa, the responsibility to conduct itself with wider social and environmental implications in mind has not been lost on Barloworld Equipment. To this end, the Company announced its broad-based black economic empowerment transaction in 2008 as a signal of intent to provide a sustainable service beyond just its machines.
“The transaction included shareholdings for employees, community service groups, an education trust and strategic black partners. This translated into an effective 29 percent empowerment of Barloworld’s South African operations,” the Company recalls. “The allocation of shares to South African employees has the important spin-off of improved staff retention and loyalty, with corresponding benefits for customers.”
Empowerment is the key word applied to Barloworld’s code of conduct, within both its CSR efforts and its core industry functions; or even in cases where the two overlap through such challenges as power shortages, energy solutions and eco-friendliness.
“At Barloworld Power we understand how costly unexpected electricity outages can be,” the Company exclaims. “With power failures affecting productivity in every industry, it is essential to have a reliable back-up energy solution.
“Barloworld Power offers you a range of environmentally-friendly energy products and services to keep you at full capacity.”
These products and services comprise generators, engines, parts, service and rental options, with the range exclusively conducive to keeping its clients’ businesses running smoothly.
THE FUTURE STARTS TODAY
“The Barloworld Equipment story began in 1902, when Major Ernest ‘Billy’ Barlow formed Thos. Barlow & Sons in Durban, South Africa. Since then, we’ve grown to become part of a multinational brand distribution Company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, and are the sole dealer for Cat® machines in Southern Africa,” the business reflects on its website.
This evolution has consisted of rebrandings, expansions, acquisitions, footprint growth and joint ventures, but throughout it all, the core values have remained consistent; with the Barloworld Equipment employees placed front and centre when it comes to success attribution.“Our employees are our greatest asset and the key to our success – and yours. That’s the reason we make sure that they always feel appreciated… [and] secure… [and] that working for us is effortless by inspiring them to do their best and providing a rewarding culture which encourages them to strive for more.
“As part of our world, we ask that they conduct themselves in accordance with our values: values that drive our relationships with each other and with our customers, and that ultimately ensure our success.”
Barloworld Equipment South Africa can consequently assign its success to five integral pillars by which the Company gauges itself; in regards to its client communications, its employee commitments, and its influence on the wider industry and region’s economic progression.
The first of these pillars is integrity and the power of honesty, which is complemented by enhanced levels of teamwork – the power of working together, and excellence; “the power of intense focus”.
Then comes commitment and the power of responsibility whereby Barloworld makes it its business to learn everything it can about its brands in order to be a source of knowledge for its customers.
And finally, the Company addresses the power of endurance, otherwise labelled as ‘sustainability’.
“As the sole dealer for Cat® earthmoving equipment, it should come as no surprise that safety is our number one priority and that a culture of safety permeates every aspect and area of our business,” the Company concludes.
