Focused on being a direct service supplier to local customers, German forklift manufacturer Jungheinrich has officially relaunched its South African offices, based in Edenvale, Gauteng.

Speaking at the launch this month, Jungheinrich board member Dr Lars Brzoska said that the company was previously a small operation in South Africa and that it had decided to expand its services exponentially.

“We decided to focus on own direct sales because we found that partners and dealers usually did not have the financial power to invest in projects and rental fleets adequately,” he said.

He also noted that the company took over assets and employees from its former partner, BME, and brought the assets and employees into the new establishment.

Customer Base

“We have also invested a lot throughout the country to bring quality and efficiency to our South African customer base,” said Brzoska, adding that winning the trust of its customers and potential customers in South Africa was a significant challenge facing the company.

“We want our customers to know that we are here to stay,” he said.

Meanwhile, Brzoska highlighted several trends that were driving the industry.

“Globally, customers are shifting from using internal combustion (IC) trucks to electric trucks and manufacturers have to follow suit. This is putting pressure not only on the IC sector, but also on the electrical sector,” he pointed out.

He added that suppliers would need to diversify and deliver outstanding performance to survive this new trend.

Brzoska also highlighted that many manufacturers were leap-frogging from the IC sector to the lithium-ion counterbalance truck market.

“We will deliver our first lithium-ion counterbalance truck with a 48 V [engine] at German trade fair Cemat this year,” he said.

Costwise, he said, the IC truck was cheaper in terms of initial investment costs, but, in the long run, electric trucks were more efficient and economical.

“In 2015, statistics showed that 63% of people in South Africa still used IC trucks, while the rest are electric.”

Brzoska also highlighted digitalisation as another major trend that Jungheinrich had seen developing in this sector, along with software like warehouse management systems and software interfaces.