Capital Equipment News

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CAPITAL EQUIPMENT NEWS AUGUST 2015 28
The manufacturing sector is showing a
decline of 28 % for the current quarter
and Willie van Zyl, managing member
of Busco Marketing, is not surprised.
“In addition to the problems associated with
load-shedding – combined with more-frequent
unscheduled power interruptions – we can no
longer afford to have our production line stand-
ing idle during power outages,” he explains.
“Local bus manufacturers are running on
extremely low margins at the moment. In
fact, we are seeing smaller profit margins at
this time than we were in 1974. With this in
mind, Busco has always ensured it runs on
a tightly-monitored system to reduce opera-
tional cost as far as possible. But even with
a lean budget such as ours, if our produc-
tion line stands idle it costs the company up-
wards of R30 000 per hour. For this reason
we made a decision to purchase a Scania
SG280 genset,” he points out.
For a company that has a management
team of six people, a small administrative
team, and production of roughly 70 staff this
cost, which cannot be recuperated as it is
based on time lost, is devastating.
Busco Marketing has been operating for 19
years with members of the management
team having been involved in the sector
prior to establishing the company. It works
closely with several bus chassis manufac-
turers to address the need for uniquely de-
signed and developed bus bodywork to meet
the standards of the ever changing needs
of bus operators and their passengers.
WHEN TIME IS MONEY
you need power at hand
Photos and article: Richard Jansen van Vuuren
The Scania SG280 genset installed at
Busco’s manufacturing facility.
Buses take shape inside the production facility.
As a direct customer of Eskom, who can no longer guarantee an uninterrupted supply of electricity, a bus-manufacturer
whose entire operation is reliant on it has made a decision to put power back under its own control.