Electro Inductive Industries has demonstrated a commitment to supplying its customers with quality products, while striving to continuously improve its processes thanks to a wealth of experience in the industry.
BALANCED, SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
Electro Inductive Industries (EII) is a company built upon principle, focusing mainly on providing the market with a quality product, priced competitively and delivered on time to the customer.
Over time Electro Inductive Industries has kept its focus on these principles, basing its continuous improvement strategies around meeting these objectives and this has inevitably contributed towards the overall success at EII over the years.
“Initially Electro Inductive Industries was established on the proviso of working as a transformer repair and refurbishment business,” begins Syndney Mabalayo, Chief Executive Officer at EII. “The Company was established in 1999 when we predominantly refurbished transformers for Eskom as a starting point, before evolving into a full-scale transformer manufacturer for pole-mounted transformers, distribution transformers and miniature substations.”
The Company is part of a joint ownership with Eisomark Pty (Ltd) and the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and has strived to establish itself in the industry through providing an instrumental service to the local market; setting itself apart as the only majority black owned and managed company in South Africa’s transformer manufacturing sector.
ANTICIPATING CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
Over the years the majority of product improvements for the Company have involved being completely on top of the anticipated customer requirements, then setting out steps to meet those requirements.
“We have found that in this regard a major requirement of our customers is the need to reduce electrical losses that are attributed to transformers,” explains Mabalayo. “We quickly discovered that this was representing a significant revenue leak for our customers, and this has led us to become one of the leading manufacturers of low-loss transformers.”
Second to creating these low-loss transformers, perhaps the most significant industry trend that the Company is monitoring is the move away from mineral oil insulated transformers to a natural vegetable oil.
Mabalayo adds: “To that end, we have invested significant sums of research & development funding in order to discover the options available for our customers; helping us to stay completely abreast of the industry developments.”
IN-HOUSE TRAINING
At present the operations at Electro Inductive Industries are predominantly based throughout South Africa, still supplying electrical utilities to its original customer Eskom. This is as well as supplying various municipalities, private sectors and contractors in the country.
“With thanks to our account management, we are working to identify and target new potential customers both within and beyond our borders,” continues Mabalayo. “Perhaps from a more geographical point of view, our strategy has been geared towards achieving new growth outside of South African borders and to this end we have been able to identify potential partners with a better understanding of their markets.”
When it comes to tackling new markets, the customer strategy for the Company is to create an intimacy that means it is close enough to provide them with exceptional service. Therefore the aforementioned account management is geared towards that process, ensuring that even in places that the Company doesn’t have a physical presence, it can still perfectly understand the environment.
When it comes to identifying the right people to lead the Company onwards, its approach to hiring identifies those that will make it a world-class transformer manufacturer with specifically outstanding customer service.
“We have worked hard to ensure a productive work environment that promotes innovation, further training and an excellent working environment,” affirms Mabalayo. “We provide our people with an environment that will allow them to both grow and prosper.”
In order to achieve this environment the Company is providing exceptional in-house training for the young engineers, with structured training programmes and a mentor assigned to each of them.
Mabalayo continues: “We recognise the importance of developing our own talent pool and through this programme we are able to identify potential new recruits that we can further develop and turn into world-class engineers.”
INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES
In order to become the world-class transformer manufacturing company that it is recognised as today, EII has worked on significant research & development projects with thanks to global partners that have a cemented leading position in the field of transformer design and manufacture.
“To that end we have been lucky enough to partner with Siemens in order to set up a new factory that we now jointly operate with the company,” continues Mabalayo. “With thanks to our partnership with Siemens, we are now making significant improvements with the latest equipment in order to successfully equip our new factory with state-of-the-art technology to make us even more competitive.”
The aforementioned new factory will enable the Company to manufacture and power transformers, while also investing heavily in modernising the technology within its current facilities to ensure that EII stays ahead of the industry curve.
“Alongside the investment in new equipment and facilities, we are also making efforts to strengthen our administrative processes,” explains Mabalayo. “In doing that we are better able to serve our customers, enabling us to successfully achieve our customer focused strategy.”
DIFFERENTIATING FOCUS
Stemming from its customer-centric approach to operations within the industry, EII has undertaken many projects to involve itself heavily in corporate social responsibility. A great recent example is its involvement in assisting schools in the Western Cape with much-needed resources, such as school furniture, computers and other various learning materials.
“As well as our work with schools, we have also created a supplier development programme which targets small and micro-enterprises,” states Mabalayo. “We are able to assist them with grants, equipment and most importantly business expertise.”
The care that it puts into projects and achieving the best for customers is a huge differentiating factor for EII, placing a lot of focus on understanding the value that customers seek and ensuring that it is unwaveringly geared towards meeting and exceeding expectations.
“Moving forward our long-term vision is to become the leading transformer manufacturer on the continent and we hope that in the next five years, we will see great benefits from our recent investment in facility upgrades,” concludes Mabalayo. “Maintaining our focus on hiring the right people and training them to a high level of skill will continue to make us a leader in the field for many years to come.”
