Bell Equipment Media Release
Date: 17 October 2012
Embargo: For immediate release

Bell Equipment, the country's leading heavy equipment manufacturer, has put its full weight behind the Proudly South African Buy Local campaign becoming the newest member of the organisation.
According to Proudly South African, "buying Proudly South African, both consumers and businesses are making a personal contribution to nation-building. Consumers get an assurance of quality because only quality products carry the Proudly South African mark, while members of the campaign are furthermore committed to an uplifting ethos and socially responsible business practices which are reflected in the membership criteria. In this manner the campaign represents and stimulates the creation of a virtuous circle which benefits all."

Bell Group Chief Executive, Gary Bell says the company is excited to join the campaign. "Bell Equipment is proud of its South African heritage and is a strong advocate of the 'buy local' campaign; as such we are constantly looking at ways to increase our global competitiveness through harnessing the high level of skills in our country and develop local suppliers and incorporate their components into our machines."

He adds: "Bell has been in business here for over 55 years and throughout this time we have been strategically focussed on local manufacture so as to add value to our national economy and provide decent jobs for South Africans. However, we have been surprised by how many people are unaware of what we do as a business. Earlier this year National Minister of Economic Development, Mr Ebrahim Patel visited our factory and we were humbled when he referred to the company as a 'manufacturing icon' and encouraged us to increase awareness of what has been achieved in this country against a very competitive global industry.

"We have worked persistently over the years to earn recognition globally for our South African designed and manufactured range of products and have emerged as one of the global leaders in the Articulated Dump Truck market. Our engineering expertise and product quality are comparable with other global players in the industry and we are immensely proud of the ground-breaking technological advancements we have developed on South African soil with our team of local engineers.

"We are hopeful that our membership of Proudly South African will create an awareness of the role that we play as an employer and a contributor to the country's GDP as well as encourage others to be excited about what we, as South Africans, can achieve. It is important that South African consumers, wholesalers and retailers understand the real value of supporting South African manufacturers as well as the impact that buying imported products has on local producers."

"However, being part of the Proudly South African campaign is not just about creating job opportunities and growing our economy. While we accept that these are important and virtuous goals, we would like to see all South Africans having pride in the achievements of our companies and the efforts to which we go to ensure that we can compete successfully either on the global market or here locally against imported competition."

According to Bell, 75% of revenue generated by Bell Equipment in South Africa is from machines that  are manufactured in the country. The company employs 3 500 people and it is estimated that about 34 000 additional people gain some form of benefit through its 440 South African suppliers. In addition the company believes in ‘growing its own timber’ and has one of the largest accelerated training programmes in its sector with 236 apprentices and 144 trainees.

Bell ADTs, Haulers, Trailers, Tri-wheelers and Tractor Loader Backhoes all currently have a local content of over 70%. For every additional Bell ADT that leaves the Richards Bay factory per week it is estimated that 42 direct jobs are created while eight direct jobs are created for every additional TLB per week. These direct jobs in turn each create an estimated additional 18 indirect jobs with the result that every additional Bell ADT per week creates 768 job opportunities and every additional TLB per week, 144 jobs.

Apart from being a member of Proudly South African, Bell Equipment is a member of the Manufacturing Circle, a group of the country's foremost medium to large manufacturing companies, which interacts with government regarding policies which will have a positive influence on the manufacturing industry.

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