Hudaco Group company Berntel is expanding its footprint by offering its extensive range of pneumatic products through the Bearings International (BI) branch network. This, in turn, expands BI’s value proposition to its own customer base by being able to offer a wider range, in order to be able to offer complete solutions for different market segments.

Acquired in 2014 as a complementary company to pneumatic and hydraulic automation solutions provider Ernest Lowe, Berntel expands the Hudaco Group’s industrial offering in pneumatic, hydraulic, vacuum, process and automation solutions. It also manufactures its own pneumatic cylinders, as well as designing, building, and commissioning control systems, including PLC programming.

In addition, Berntel represents a range of well-known brands, such as JELPC, JORC Industrial (condensate drain management), VMECA (water-free units), Belef (actuation), Ober (air tools, air motors, and automation), Piab (vacuum technology), and BOGE (compressors and dryers). Target markets are food and beverage, automotive, general industry, sugar, pulp and paper, OEMs, machine builders, and agriculture.

A dedicated Berntel team supports BI, allowing the former to begin growing its customer base countrywide, highlights GM Neil Champion, who has been growing the Berntel product sales through the Ernest Lowe branch network over the last five years.

Involved in the pneumatics industry since 2001, Champion oversaw the KwaZulu-Natal branch before being appointed Sales Director prior to Berntel’s acquisition by the Hudaco Group. “I am very optimistic for next year, as I believe we will be in a position to service the industry from a more holistic approach,” Champion predicts.

Looking to 2020, Champion reveals that Berntel will introduce its latest Ober agency, an Italian designer and manufacturer of portable pneumatic tools, motors, automated machinery, and systems for drilling, tapping, threading and screwing, including power screwdrivers with electronic torque control, since 1952. Another new agency is BOGE, a German producer of reliable compressors for over 110 years.

The Piab agency has also extended Berntel’s offering into smart vacuum solutions.

“Our value proposition lies in our capability to offer complete solutions,” Champion stresses. These range from the efficient generation of clean, dry compressed air to condensate drain management, pneumatic, vacuum, process, and industrial components, and designing and programming control systems with PLC integration.

Being part of the broader Hudaco Group allows BI to leverage synergies across a broad range of companies, meaning it can offer a complete product basket at its extensive branch network countrywide.

“BI is a house of world-class leading brands, and we are working closely with our suppliers and the larger Hudaco Group to penetrate new market segments and grow through innovative marketing initiatives,” BI Offer Marketing Manager Victor Strobel concludes.