Africa's homegrown premium equipment supplier, Bell Equipment, has shown its commitment to Zambia by investing in a state-of-the-art Customer Service Centre in Kitwe, which opened to the public at the beginning of December.

Managing Director of Bell Zambia, John Fleetwood, is excited about the new development and what it means for Bell in Zambia and its customer base. "Previously we've always rented premises so this is the first time that Bell has bought property in Zambia. We see the growth, particularly in the Copperbelt, and thought it was important to invest in the country where we're operating to show our commitment to our customers in terms of our customer support," says John.

Bell Kitwe is now located at Plot 4095, Chingola Road, Kitwe, which is the main road transport route from Zambia to the Democratic Republic of Congo. "From a location point of view, you don't get much better. Our new premises are very accessible to customers and we are highly visible from the road, especially with our bold Bell branding."

Everything about the new Bell Kitwe CSC is bigger and better. Apart from a modern and spacious office block, the 4 226 square metre facility features 11 work bays, large enough to accommodate a Bell B60 truck, compared to the three found in the old facility. It also has a component shop that provides a dust free environment and the parts store has doubled in size to 800 square metres to cater for improved parts availability to the region.

Bell Equipment is well known for its successful apprenticeship programme and Bell Kitwe has a separate building, which will serve as a training centre for the company's apprentices from Zambia and neighbouring countries. "We anticipate 50 apprentices will attend training at the facility next year which, apart from being more cost effective than sending them to South Africa for training, is also a means of investing in the region as we are now able to provide much-needed skills training right here, where it is needed, to ensure that we can maintain our product support levels into the future," says John.

Bell Equipment Chief Executive, Gary Bell adds: "Apart from providing strong reliable products into Africa, we have built a reputation for providing strong reliable support, which we need to uphold. Upgrading our Bell Kitwe CSC is part of the Bell group's strategy to upgrade and invest in our CSC's in southern Africa to improve our coverage and support so that we are able to sustain the growth in the region going forward."