Company Announcement - The relocation of Atlas Copco South Africa’s Cape Town branch to larger, purpose-built premises at number 10 Manhattan Street, Airport Industria on 17th July 2015, combines under one roof the previously separately-housed business areas of Compressor Technique and Construction Technique’s Road Construction Equipment for improved efficiencies and customer service through shared synergies.

The Cape Town branch, originally established to represent Atlas Copco and Dynapac Equipment, attended to new equipment sales and aftermarket support of customers in the Western Cape. It consisted of two separate sites with trading premises for the Compressor Technique business based in Montague Gardens and the RCE business located in Stikland which later moved to Blackheath in Q4 2009.

“The positive growth experienced by both operations over the past few years necessitated a larger premises,” state Neville Marthinussen and Wayne Jacobs, respective Atlas Copco Business Line Managers for Construction Technique, Dynapac RCE and Compressor Technique Service Division. “It made sound business sense to purpose-build a facility that meets the requirements of both operations and that will allow for future growth. Sharing one premises also reduces operational costs for the two businesses.”

According to Marthinussen, the Cape Town branch has always been a new equipment sales business for the complete Dynapac range of hand held equipment, plate compactors, pedestrian rollers, sit-on soil and asphalt compact rollers, asphalt pavers and milling machines, including service and repair for the complete range. “For RCE the larger premises now provides capacity for new equipment stock as well as comprehensive parts stock for all services and maintenance requirements for the complete current equipment fleet. We are also well equipped with all special tooling required, access to worldwide electronic information support, skilled and trained technicians and sales staff for equipment and parts combined with the highest level of product knowledge to fulfil any product support, service, maintenance, and/or warranty repair required in the workshops and/or on site and in the field.”

According to Jacobs, the Atlas Copco branch is in line with the Atlas Copco philosophy of positioning its operations close to customers to ensure rapid response and optimum service levels for the provision of sustainable productivity solutions. “The sales and service of the entire Compressor Technique product portfolio which includes two product division and one aftermarket sales persons, four service technicians and a branch manager, is housed in the new 3000msq facility which includes a 240msq and 520msq office and workshop area respectively.”

The RCE footprint covers the Western, Northern and Eastern Cape and is responsible for servicing the construction industry as a whole with particular focus on road construction, including parastatals, local and national government departments of transport, as well as the rental and plant hire industry, agriculture and the department of wildlife. Compressor Technique focuses on Manufacturing and Food and Beverage in the Western and Northern Cape.

Jacobs and Marthinussen agree that training is an essential part of the Cape Town branch’s future success. “We must keep abreast of the latest technologies to ensure the sustainable provision of world-class quality product solutions mirrored by after-sales service support.” The branch enjoys the full support of the Atlas Copco organisations in Johannesburg and Belgium.
A minimum of 45 hours annual training is compulsory for each branch employee and international technical and product training courses are scheduled in South Africa as well as at the global manufacturing facilities.

Looking to the future, Marthinussen says that the markets in general continue to plateau with only the Eastern Cape showing slight positive growth. He expects this to increase significantly with the northern EC road rebuild already starting to take off and the imminent N2 EC rebuild and Western Cape N1/N2 re-alignment and rebuild which is due 2016/2017.