Fabricators can now access welding consumables and equipment supplier ESAB’s welding machines, consumables, automation equipment and gas apparatus following its partnership with industrial equipment supplier Howden Donkin’s distribution and logistics network.

ESAB South Africa MD Massimo Borello says, by bringing the welding and cutting technology offerings to the Howden stable, benefits have been achieved for end-users and distributors.

“The ESAB management through Howden Donkin has enabled us to work on value chain improvements, which have impacted positively on our ability to reach the market with a competitive offering,” he explains.

ESAB and Howden are both part of the global industrial corporation Colfax Corporation which is a US-based industrial giant. This helped to ease the establishment of ESAB South Africa as part of Howden Donkin, which has made ESAB fan units the standard fan unit within the JSE-listed Howden Africa.

ESAB South Africa’s head office and central warehouse is in Booysens, Johannesburg, and the existing Howden Donkin marketing, sales and logistics network in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Port Elizabeth serves as a country-wide network of distributors. Logistics company Imperial Logistics provides warehousing, distribution, office and workshop space in Durban.

Key accounts are supported with specialist sales support and technical process skills from the Johannesburg office.

“The beauty of the current structure is that we have an excellent footprint in the market through our distributors, yet are able to retain scarce specialist skills centrally to service large customers wherever they are located, who want to benefit from process improvements,” says Borello

ESAB South Africa process specialists can be deployed either directly, or by the request of a distributor, to audit complete welding and cutting processes and make recommendations that improve customer productivity and profitability.

The process specialists work includes making recommendations that reduce process waste and speed up production throughput by improving welding and cutting quality – which cuts down on rework and clean-ups – to improve bottom line performance.

“The revised ESAB South Africa operation is more efficient and stream- lined than it was in the past, yet retains all the capabilities required to be a leading player in the South African market, and a reliable partner to distributors,” concludes Borello.