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AFRICAN FUSION
August 2015
Speciality gas distribution
“
C
osmo Industrial and Air Prod-
ucts have had a longstanding
supply relationship,” says Air
Products’ Jorg Scholz, the company’s
distributor business manager for Pack-
aged Gases. “Accredited distributors
such as Cosmo Industrial offer a one-
stop-shop concept for welding supply
solutions to the market, which includes
weldingmachines, consumables, safety
equipment and industrial and specialty
gases. Key to their success, are their
high levels of business acumen, service
and technical welding expertise, which
makes Cosmo Industrial one of Air
Products’ most successful distributors.
Gas sales have grown annually for the
past 10 years and Cosmo is now one of
the top 10 Air Products South Africa gas
distributors,” he adds.
As well as its two key partnerships
with Lincoln Electric on the welding
equipment and consumables side and
with Air Products for the full range
of industrial gases – shielding gases
(MagMix and Coogar range), acetylene,
oxygen, nitrogen and argon – Cosmo
Industrial also stocks a full range of the
followingproduct categories: PPE; lifting
and rigging equipment; hydraulic tools,
fasteners; hand tools; power tools &
accessories; LP Gas equipment and ac-
cessories; pneumatic tools; generators;
abrasives, and general hardware.
“Welding constitutes about 45% of
our business, with direct over-the-coun-
ter sales from our store contributing
about 25% of that total. The remaining
75% is throughdirect interactionwith lo-
cal industrial clients,” explains Jacques
Uys, Cosmo Industrial’s sales manager.
The company also offers a welding
machine rental service, an equipment
repair facility and is in the process of fi-
nalising its Cosmo
Training Academy
in Silverton, Pre-
toria.
Having suffi-
cient gaseous product and cylinders to
support our distributors’ growth is of
utmost importance: “It is very important
for us to have the controls in place to
monitor cylinder holdings at distributors
and their client sites,” says Scholz. This
helps to ensure the sustainability of the
distributor’s future. “Air Products contin-
uously invests in infrastructure to sup-
port its distributor network – in terms of
plant, trucks, cylinders and value-added
offerings. Our distributors differentiate
themselves through exceptional service
standards to industry, sowe believe that
we have to offer the same high levels of
service to our distributors. We have a
distributor network throughout South
Africa and the relationships we build
are very important. Distributors are our
‘eyes and ears’ on the ground. They feed
backmarketing intelligence tous, andas
a team we can then develop strategies
about how we can grow sales in the
market,” he continues.
“All our distributors can be assured
that they will always be supported in
retaining volumes and growing their
markets. We offer innovative solutions
to our distributors, supporting them
withdifferentmodes of supply, advertis-
ing, organising open days and we run
a national distributor conferences to
bring all our distributors together. This
provides an opportunity for distributors
to meet, share information and grow
together as a team,” Scholz tells
African
Fusion
.
Speaking from Cosmo Industrial’s
point of view, Uys says: “The partner-
Cosmo Industrial has been an accredited indus-
trial and specialty gas distributor for Air Prod-
ucts South Africa for the Tshwane and greater
Pretoria area since 1996. In 2009, Cosmomoved
to their new state-of-the-art facility, which
incorporates a purpose-built gas distribution
facility for Air Products’ packaged gases.
African
Fusion
pays Cosmo a visit.
Photographed at Cosmo’s Training Academy are, from left: Air
Products’ Jorg Scholz with Cosmo Industrial’s Jacques Uys, Petrus
Pretorius and training manager, Leazle van Rooi.
Gas distribution relationship
focuses on growth
ship adds a lot of value to our customers
and to their businesses. Cosmo and its
partners bring brand equity to industrial
workplaces. Whena sales representative
from Cosmo goes to a customer, the cli-
ent knows immediately that he is talking
to an Air Products, Lincoln and industry
specialist.Weoffer qualitybrands, so the
Cosmo name has weight with custom-
ers, whichmeans a lot. It makes it easier
for our sales teams to go out and grow
our market share,” he adds.
Air Products supplies industrial gas
products directly to select clients and
also via distributors to end-users. “Our
distributors typically target the small-to-
medium welding market and, through
the partnership, we provide their sales
staff with training on the unique selling
points of each of our products. We also
provide technical information and tools
to help determine the appropriate gas
for any specific applications, such as
our gas selection application called Gas
Selector, which is made available to all
distributors,” says Scholz.
“We at Air Products South Africa
work closely with distributors to un-
derstand the market. Then we develop
solutions andbringproducts to the table
that will help fabricators improve their
processes, quality and achieve more
cost-effective results, so that their busi-
nesses can succeed and grow.
Utilising the ‘hub and spoke prin-
ciple’, Air Products delivers bulk loads
to distributors who in turn re-distribute
the product in smaller quantities to the
end-users in their allocated geographic