Capital Equipment News March 2018

across the world for our machinery needs. We constantly look at ways to innovate together with them for us to be able to offer world-class innovation at an affordable price. MS: Where do you source your machinery? RvR: The business started when I decided to fly to China in April 2010, where I identified various factories which could supply us with quality but affordable gear. We have since cast our net wider and we now source our product from India, Turkey, Italy, Austria and Germany as well. We have just used bauma CONEXPO AFRICA to sign agreements with new Indian and Austrian suppliers, which is why I love exhibitions of this nature. The wide network of suppliers allows us to source the very best of products. China is very good for certain products, while India is also better in some product areas. The same applies for Turkey, Italy, Germany and Austria, they all have their strong points. It’s very important for us to make sure that we have the right product for each market segment. MS: How broad is your product range? RvR: We started with purely brick-making machinery and brick production pallets. We then expanded to offer the complete solution of the brick-making process, all the way from crushing plants, aggregate batchers, concrete mixers, block and paver-making machines, lintel and hollow core slab machines, kerb making machines, roof tile machines, concrete pipe machines, to standard and all-terrain forklifts, readymix concrete plants, brick production pallets and self-loading concrete mixers. We later saw that there was also an opportunity to supply all the auxiliary equipment around it. We saw a need to offer well-priced yellow metal equipment such as the wheel loaders, backhoe loaders and excavators. To become a true one-stop shop, we also decided to supply all the consumables around the brick-making process. We also supply all the admixtures, colouring oxide for roof tiles, pallet wax oil, PC wire and strand, as well as concrete reinforcing. If you look at a typical brick factory’s needs, the only things that we don’t supply are sand, stone, water and cement. MS: You were able to identify opportunity and bridged a crucial gap in the market. What sort of growth have you seen as a business?

RvR: The company has grown 8 000% from 2010 and it has now become a substantial player in the brick-making machinery supply chain in southern Africa. Eight years later since our inception, we now export into 12 countries in SADC. The only country we are yet to supply is Angola, but we are confident that our first machines will roll into the country soon as we have already had a lot of enquiries. Our biggest export destinations are Zimbabwe, Malawi, DRC, Mozambique and Zambia, as well as Lesotho and Swaziland. MS: From an affordability point of view, how do you compare with the so-called premium offerings? RvR: Our pricing, on average, is 50% of some premium suppliers’ cost, but for the same machine output. There is a huge price difference and it is part of the reasons for our 100% year-on-year growth since we started. We feel that the market was waiting for a value product of this nature. This type of growth is only achievable when you offer something the market needs. MS: You also have advanced plans to expand the current product offering. Tell me more about that. RvR: Part of our strategy is to add a new product every year. We are busy developing our mining business. We are in talks with some BBBEE private equity partners to further develop the mining business. We are hopeful that we will be able to conclude this during the course of this year. From a product point of view, we already have the small loaders in our stable and are looking at offering larger wheel loaders, excavators and crushing plants, as well as drilling and blasting gear for the mining sector. As per our business model, we want to offer a complete mining package, all the way from drilling and blasting through to excavators, crushing plants, wheel loaders and possibly mining trucks. MS : As you grow your product range, obviously there is need to offer support. What plans do you have to boost your aftermarket capability? RvR: We have such a big focus on our aftermarket support capabilities. As we expand our market, we are busy setting up a dealer base throughout southern Africa. We also have many service agents in place. We are in the process of recruiting someone with a strong aftermarket support background as our dealer manager. We will be setting up a sales and service network throughout the SADC region as this is part of our growth strategy. b

• Revaro started in 2000. • The company has grown 8 000% since its inception • Its product, on average, costs 50% less than most of the premium offerings • The company plans to venture into the mining equipment market QUICK TAKE

institution funded by the Department of Labour. To give you an idea, when companies need to embark on a mass retrenchment in South Africa, they need to give a six-month notice period to the Department of Labour. The department then appoints Productivity SA to offer consultancy services to rescue struggling businesses through a possible turnaround strategy to avoid job losses. So, I was one of the consultants offering these services on behalf of Productivity SA. My last turnaround project in 2009 was for a brick manufacturing company. As part of the solution I suggested a geographic and product diversification to give the business a breath of fresh air. To be able to diversify its product range, obviously the company needed new machinery. I then went into the market and contacted several local engineering companies that manufacture brick-making machinery. It is from that point that I realised that the pricing was the biggest hurdle, especially for start-ups. opportunity to bridge the pricing gap in the market. In an environment where we want to create new businesses, with the government focused so much on small and medium enterprises (SMMEs), I was of the view that the cost of machinery in the market made it difficult for most SMMEs to get into this sort of business. The pricing was out of their reach. I then decided to investigate the international market to look for machinery that we could supply to local start-ups at affordable prices. That is what Revaro is all about today. Our slogan is ‘affordable innovation’. We deal with more than 50 factories MS: And that’s when you saw the opportunity to offer ‘affordable innovation’? RvR: From that project, I saw the

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