Germany-based global specialist lubricants company Fuchs acquired mining and heavy equipment lubricants company Lubritene and food and animal feeds manufacturing lubricants company Lubrasa earlier this month to expand into the Southern African and industrial markets, says Fuchs South Africa MD Johan Hyman.
Fuchs has a large range of specifically designed fit-for-purpose lubricants for all new or aged components used in the industrial, heavy- equipment and automotive industries. It will also use the acquisitions to gain new customers, expand the specialist services it offers to customers and afford the local subsidiaries export opportunities for their products.
Lubritene has significant experience in providing in-field oil testing and direct client support services for the mining plant and heavy-equipment industries. Its service model will be offered across the Fuchs group and will be augmented by the well-known scientific oil-testing capabilities of Fuchs.
Lubrasa, previously named Lubrax, has a well-known range of products, which will enable Fuchs to enter and expand in the food manufacturing market, as well as continue to support Lubrasa’s existing large industrial client base.
This acquisition will also enable the Fuchs group to enter new markets worldwide and provide export opportunities for the local subsidiaries. Several of the group’s 31 manufacturing plants worldwide will manufacture and distribute the newly acquired well-known and established products, which will benefit from Fuchs’ technology, innovation and specialisation, says Fuchs Germany director Alf Untersteller.
The branding on the lubricant products will remain the same, but the packaging will include the Fuchs logo.
Further, the employees of the new companies are dedicated, pragmatic and customer-focused, and the companies’ cultures fit closely with Fuchs’ culture, he emphasises.
“Customer feedback to date is that they welcome the acquisitions because it provides them with a very large range of specialist lubricants for all types of equipment, supported by committed people whom they have worked with before. This cultural fit will also enable us to provide the new companies’ products to industries in Southern Africa and abroad,” he says.
The acquisitions, coupled with Fuchs’ investments in increasing its production capacity, have resulted in the company being able to provide specialist services specifically for the mining sector, as well as more synergies between the use of speciality lubricants to improve the performance of customer equipment, says Hyman.
“The applications include opencast mining operations and heavy equipment, such as bucket shovels, draglines and stationary mills, used in the hard-rock mining sector.”