John Deere opens R150m Jhb parts warehouse

4th April 2013

By: Idéle Esterhuizen

  

Font size: - +

Agricultural machinery company John Deere Sub Sahara Africa has officially opened its R150-million state-of-the-art parts warehouse at Plumbago Business Park, in Johannesburg, which MD Len Brand said was “arguably the largest and most sophisticated parts warehouse in Africa”.

The 20 000 m2 warehouse, which employs 33 full-time staff members, stocks 76 000 different part numbers and receives replenishment stock through sea- and airfreight daily. Dealers have access to an emergency number, which enables them to order emergency stock 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Brand said the warehouse was required, as John Deere South Africa was given an extended mandate in 2008 to service countries in Central, West and East Africa, including Mauritius, Madagascar and Reunion. The facility would serve 61 John Deere dealers in South Africa and 49 on the rest of the continent.

“We are currently only using 55% to 60% of the warehouse capacity, so we have room to expand as demand grows. We also have an additional 6 500 m2 of land, which can be added to the warehouse, taking it to well over 26 000 m2,” he indicated.

John Deere would also house parts for the new products that formed part of its recently expanded range.

Further, the company expected marked electricity savings to be derived from the sophisticated ecofriendly lighting system it installed at the warehouse. Using movement sensors, the system switching lights on in zones where activity is detected, or conversely, switches lights off where no activity is detected.

Brand added that the company had also launched an office in Kenya, with another one in Ghana due to be opened by the end of the year. The offices were tasked to effectively support the newly established dealer network in these areas.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

Comments

The content you are trying to access is only available to subscribers.

If you are already a subscriber, you can Login Here.

If you are not a subscriber, you can subscribe now, by selecting one of the below options.

For more information or assistance, please contact us at subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za.

Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):

Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format

Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):

All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.

Already a subscriber?

Forgotten your password?

MAGAZINE & ONLINE

SUBSCRIBE

RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA

SUBSCRIBE

CORPORATE PACKAGES

CLICK FOR A QUOTATION