African Fusion August 2015

Speciality gas distribution

Gas distribution relationship focuses on growth

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.

“ 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-

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.

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-

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

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August 2015

AFRICAN FUSION