Owing to its well-established relationship with its loyal distribution partners and distribution network in Southern Africa, a large range of about 5 200 individual line items of hand tools from professional tools manufacturer Jonnesway are being used in Southern Africa, says Carel Venter, the national sales manager of Gondolier the importer of Jonnesway Professional Tools.

“Gondolier have the rights to distribute Jonnesway tools in the entire sub-Saharan Africa region, and we have partnered with our distribution partner Bearings International (BI) to focus on the industrial, agricultural and manufacturing markets,” he says.

Gondolier specialises in supplying customised tool kits from Jonnesway to original-equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to ensure that the correct selection and right quality of tools are being used in the market. He points out that, internationally, Jonnesway works closely with car brands and other OEMs to ensure that when new tools are required in the market, the company strives to deliver them. These customised solutions are also available through BI.

Further, to ensure that the Southern Africa market always has a supply of tools, Bearings International (BI) carry sufficient stock throughout the country. Venter states that this helps  to ensure that any spares or replacement tools that are required can be easily sourced countrywide through the BI network.

BI product and engineering business unit head Ross Trevelyan points out that, because the company has a partnership with Gondolier, there are several Jonnesway tool experts at its branches nationally.

“This helps our customers to easily get the right selection of  tools for the task when equipment or bearings are being installed. We also provide technical support for customers,” he says.

Trevelyan mentions that BI also distributes industrial power tools supplied by power tools manufacturer Makhita. BI supplies tools, equipment and bearings mainly to South Africa and Namibia.

The back-up service provided by Jonnesway includes a lifetime warranty on all of the tools. Owing to the strict testing of all the tools supplied by Jonnesway, all Jonnesway tools meet strict international standards, many exceeding the requirements as set by DIN and the European and American bureaus of standards, Venter adds.

Continuing Developments

Jonnesway hails from the tool capital of the world, Taiwan, and every newly developed tool undergoes strict quality testing at the company’s research and development centre, in Taiwan.

“The tools get tested in extreme low and high temperatures to ensure that the tools can withstand all environments, he states.

Further, the tools are subjected to chemical tests to ensure that dangerous or corrosive chemicals that can be encountered in the engineering environment do not damage them.

Venter concludes that the latest tool sets that are being tested by Jonnesway in Taiwan focus on the tool requirements for electric vehicles, with “the main difference being that these tools need to be heavily insulated.”