African Fusion March 2015

Renttech SA adopts Air Liquide welding gases

A n extensive national footprint, the largest fleet of rental welding equipment, and the largest Harris Gas equipment distributor in Southern Africa were compelling reasons why Air Liquide chose Renttech South Africa to distribute its range of welding gases in South Africa. For Renttech, this agreementmeans a substantially enhanced customer of- fering for its welding customers. “Along with our other international brands in welding equipment, our agreementwith Air Liquide nowbrings a full welding and cutting solution for our customers,” says

but also our full range of existing gases and gasmixtures, which formpart of our technical range,” he adds. Johan Bester, welding product manager at Renttech explains that Air Liquide has rolled out a training pro- gramme for all Renttech sales staff to equip them with the requisite knowl- edge of the welding gases in terms of their properties and applications. “Our staff members throughout the country are currently being trainedby Air Liquide in the use, application and safe handling of these shielding gases. This is not only to equip Renttech with sound technical

knowledge of industrial gases, but to gear our branches up for the efficient delivery and collection of the gases by our customers,” says Bester. “We are very pleased to be able to provide our customers with a more comprehensive, one-stop solution for their welding requirements through our partnership with Air Liquide; while providing Air Liquide with the opportunity to leverage our growing national footprint to introduce its new shielding gas range to awidermarket,” van Zyl concludes. www.renttechsa.co.za

Gerrit van Zyl, managing direc- tor of Renttech South Africa. “Our solid background and capabilities in the welding and rental industry, I believe, are a perfect complement for Air Liquide’s expertise in shielding gases for welding.” He continues: “Renttech is dedicated to providing our customers with the right equip- ment solutions for their par- ticular needs, based on the latest technologies coupled with up-to-the-minute product knowledge. Air Liquide’s range of ARCAL TM New Generation shielding gases fits ‘hand-in- glove’ into our strategy of in- troducing high-performance, value-added solutions to our customers.” The range comprises four ‘simplified’ two-part gas mixes: Arcal Prime, Arcal Chrome, Arcal Speed and Arcal Force, which, combinedare designed to cover 80% of all gas shielded weld- ing applications, including gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), and flux cored arc welding (FCAW) processes. “At Air Liquide we identi- fied the need to simplify our shielding gas offering without compromising on quality, per- formance or reliability,” says Chris Phillips, sales andmarket- ing director at Air Liquide. “We are pleased to be able to offer, through Renttech’s expertise in sales and distribution, not only our ‘new generation’ high performance shielding gases,

ESAB strengthens position with BBBEE deal E SAB has concluded an empowerment deal with Xeon Holdings (Pty) Ltd, of which Xeon Gas and Welding is a division, making Xeon the first BBBEE Level 1 contributor in the industry in terms of the new scorecard to be introduced in April 2015. Countrymanager andmar-

keting director for ESAB Region Africa, KimBrightwell, says the agreement between ESAB and Xeon would see Xeon become the official importer and dis- tributor of all ESABwelding and cutting products into South Africa. “Consequently with ESAB products being supplied in South Africa by a Level 1 BBBEE contributor, all our other dis- tributors and customers will be able to claimempowerment supplier points on the new scorecard,” Brightwell adds.

Xeon Holdings Group CEO, Chris Eibl; and country manager and marketing director for ESAB Region Africa, Kim Brightwell.

While ESAB has ceased to operate in its previous form in southern and east Africa, measures have been implemented to ensure that the company will continue to support its products with the necessary service and process support, where required. The majority of personnel, including ESAB Africa managing director, Chris Eibl, have moved over to Xeon. Eibl will become the Xeon Holdings Group CEO, and customers and distributors will be working with the same personnel from the former ESAB Africa operation. The ESAB Demonstration Centre and Service Repair facility will also be relocated to Xeon’s Pomona premises. Customers will experience the same level of support from the technical team that will continue to be employed by ESAB and the expanded service team employed by Xeon. Specialist technical, process and marketing support for sub-Saharan Africa will be supplied through a new ESAB Regional office based in Johannesburg, managed by Brightwell. “In essence it will be business as usual,” says Brightwell. “Our customers will still receive the products and quality support to which they are accustomed with the added advantage of BBBEE Level 1 contributor status,” he adds. ESAB has a well-established, successful relationship with both Xeon Gas and Welding and Xeon Logistics, another division of Xeon Holdings. Xeon Gas & Welding have had a distribution agreement since 2013, and Xeon Logistics has warehoused and distributed ESAB products for the past four years. Xeon has excellent supply logistics capability, with warehousing and freight forwarding facili- ties in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Durban. www.esab.co.za

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March 2015

AFRICAN FUSION