Epiroc and DDE proudly don their partnership HATs for another five years!
Epiroc South Africa recently extended its longstanding agreement with Demolition and Drilling Equipment (DDE) in a bid to continue building on the partnership’s success in growing the Hydraulic Attachments market in South Africa and to further strengthen the service offering to customers.
Effective from October 2021, the extended agreement, which will be revisited in 2026, covers Epiroc’s complete Hydraulics Attachment (HAT) range: Rig-mounted hydraulic hammers, breakers, grabs, drum cutters, deconstruction equipment, spare parts, kits, consumables as well as ground engaging parts for all of the above.
DDE Director, Robin Jackson, says that the extended agreement will serve to reinforce and grow the relationship between the two companies. “Moreover, this latest agreement brings DDE closer on-board, helping to further bolster
customer focus, support, and response times for Epiroc’s Hydraulic Attachment range.”
“Looking from an inward perspective, our mandate is to sell products, remain market leaders in the mining and industrial space and grow market share in other segments where our products are used,” continues Jackson. “Outwardly we remain committed to improving existing customer relationships and to building new ones by always putting customers first.
Epiroc’s state-of-the-art equipment is amongst the best in the market and let us not forget that Epiroc invented the
hydraulic hammer. But while you can have the best product, you will never succeed if excellent after-sales service does not follow, an area I firmly believe DDE will add a lot of value going forward.”
The extension also provides certainty and therefore confidence in the additional investment DDE needs to make and indeed is already making to grow the Epiroc product within the company. Premises, equipment and personnel
complement are continuously reviewed and right-sized to meet product and customer demand. DDE have been renting out half its premises located in Jet Park, Boksburg, just behind Epiroc. As from 2022, DDE will now be taking over the entire premises in order to accommodate the increased Epiroc business, including new products, sales and especially service activity.
“In addition to doubling the existing Epiroc physical floor space, we are also adding additional sales and service resources which will help to increase focus on the Hydraulic Attachment product range.” Jackson adds that extra personnel will help to significantly add to the service and field support available to all customers, to meet their objective of growing the Hydraulic Attachment market in South Africa.
The expansion will also see re-equipping to adequately handle the full range of Epiroc Hydraulic Attachment equipment, including new products released by Epiroc globally. This will include the installation of new presses, cranes, forklifts, etc., some of which will come over from Epiroc.
“With previously all stock coming from Epiroc, probably the biggest recent change brought about by the Epiroc/DDE partnership extension is that we have begun importing directly from Epiroc’s Essen Distribution Centre in Germany,” says Jackson. With control of the logistics and forex and insight into data at the factory source enables the DDE team to provide more accurate order information and delivery times to customers.
Epiroc, always at the forefront of hydraulic attachment innovation, continues to release new updates, products and technologies, which will require retraining of DDE technicians. Furthermore, DDE also undertakes to collaborate with existing Epiroc partners so that they can seamlessly continue providing support to their loyal customer base. In order to provide more localised support, DDE is also establishing relationships with other partners and agents in other cities, mining areas and activity hotspots. This includes engaging with local community businesses in mining areas where community support is becoming an increasingly important socio-economic imperative.
Jackson concludes, “We believe that this new enhanced partnership agreement will drive good change to the South
African Epiroc market, to the benefit of both Epiroc and DDE customers. We undertake to directly and personally engage with all existing Epiroc customers, large and small, to keep them informed, a process that we will kick off at the beginning of 2022. It promises to be a very exciting year for us all!”
Kathryn Coetzer, Regional Indirect Sales Manager at Epiroc, says, “We have enjoyed a successful a long-standing
relationship with DDE and by continuing our partnership with them, we believe that we will see continued customer
satisfaction and value. The expansion of their workshop facilities is a large investment from their side, and evident of their continued commitment to better serving the Hydraulic Attachment customers throughout South Africa.”