The Buckau R. Wolf AG machine factory emerged from a shipyard founded in 1838 and changed to a mechanical engineering company through a number of mergers and portfolio changes. As from 1998 BWS Technologie GmbH in Grevenbroich has offered Buckau-Wolf Sugar Technology and Supraton Mixing Technology products under the Buckau-Wolf brand and continues the company's traditional line.

BWS, having sold some equipment to a variety of South African industries (including starch manufacture, polymer modification of bitumen, explosives and toothpaste manufacture) recognised the need to partner with a local South African company to provide “local touch” service to existing customers and to grow their business here. Being well connected to the
sugar, chemical and biomass processing industries, AWANDA was signed up as local distributor in 2014. AWANDA has a 25-year history of sourcing specialised chemical and allied industry products and technologies for South African manufacturing operations.

The growth in demand for polymer modified bitumen for road surfacing and industrial applications fuelled the initial sales growth. There are currently four Supraton machines being used for making polymer modified bitumen, while another two are in the country and ready for installation this year. The interest in upgrading bitumen emulsion plants with
Supraton emulsion mills has grown from the sharing of best practice and the realisation that our industry has fallen behind in the research and development of local variants of these more energy efficient, worker-safe products.

Taking advantage of AWANDA’s longstanding relationships with sugar milling companies, BWS and AWANDA introduced the industry to Buckau-Wolf patented honeycomb calandria (HCC) for improving the efficiency of water removal in the final stages of raw and refined sugar production. The first HCC installation was completed during the 2019 off-crop in the
UCL mill in Dalton and has provided the expected increase in vacuum pan efficiency. Further HCC installations are being planned for the 2021 off-crop.

Owners of the machinery made and backed by Buckau-Wolf Supraton benefit from the rich manufacturing legacy of a myriad of mechanical devices, designed and built over many decades of operation. The adoption by BWS of the latest information technology has enabled the development of on-site and remote monitoring of BWS products.