COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Volvo Trucks SA
(+27 11) 842-5000 | www.volvotrucks.com/za
company profile
Driving achievement Editorial: Helen Lake Production: Chris Bolderstone
Volvo Trucks has been enjoying an outstanding year with increasing production in Durban and awardwinning viral marketing campaigns – IndustrySA takes a closer look at its year of success.
The journey of Volvo Trucks is an inspiring one. From the late 1920’s when it produced its first truck, the progress has been marked. Accelerating through the 1940’s where it was the major supplier to the Swedish armed forces during World War Two and reaching ground breaking territory in the 1970’s with a truck design that set the standards of ergonomics and safety for many years to come. The new millennium has seen Volvo Trucks with increasingly better levels of safety, ergonomics, efficiency and more consideration for environmental impact, whilst keeping transport costs low and reliability high. It not only boasts an overall principle of safety first – with the aim of preventing accidents and injury – but it also prides itself on the reliability of its vehicles, making sure quality is a feature of every single step in the development chain of every single truck. After all, a vehicle that is going to be running 24 hours per day,
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carrying heavy loads across thousands of miles needs to encompass all of these features.
“The country and the region are rich with potential and quality people and resources, and the market certainly has a wonderful future ahead of it” Today Volvo Group operates in 185 markets, in 25 countries, with approximately 75000 employees and Volvo Trucks SA is one of the cogs in this massive manufacturing machine.
MANAGING CHANGE January and February of 2014 saw IndustrySA report on an extremely exciting time in Volvo Trucks SA history where it introduced 15 new trucks to the
Volvo Trucks SA
market, including the flagship FH16 model, that specifically focus on driver comfort. We also covered the phenomenal success of its viral marketing campaign that saw Jean-Claude Van Damme relying on the stability and precision of Volvo Dynamic Steering as he performed the splits whilst balanced precariously between two moving Volvo trucks – a video that has had more than 75 million views on YouTube to date. Following all this success, Volvo Group SA has passed on the Volvo Trucks SA and Renault Trucks SA Managing Director’s torch to Belgian national, Christian Coolsaet, after the resignation of Jacques Carelse in early September. Coolsaet comes to the position armed with extensive experience having been Volvo Group’s Director of Commercial Trucks in Central Europe and before that did a short stint as Area Director for the Volvo Bus Corporation in South Africa in 1999. In September Volvo Group Southern Africa President, Tobjorn Christensson,
told Engineering News: “We are very confident in Mr Coolsaet’s abilities and experience, and believe he will be a valuable asset to the local business… With his extensive experience within the group, in addition to his local South African knowledge, I believe our customers will greatly benefit from his appointment.” In the same article, Coolsaet said about his appointment, “I am very excited to once again return to South Africa and to serve the staff and customers of the region to the best of my abilities… The country and the region are rich with potential and quality people and resources, and the market certainly has a wonderful future ahead of it. I am truly looking forward to being part of the dynamic team in South Africa.”
DETERMINED TO SUCCEED The South African Automotive sector has been under pressure this year with the August 2014 sales down
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company profile
by 1.4% compared with August 2013. The drop has come mainly in the area of medium truck sales which dropped 3.5% overall from July last year – domestic sales of light commercial vehicles and heavy truck and bus sales have actually increased when compared with the previous year. In fact, the Volvo FH127 was the top seller for August 2014 in the category of Extra-Heavy Trucks. Certainly, Volvo Southern Africa’s truck assembly plant has increased its productivity by 500 trucks this year, going up to 1800 trucks and buses from the last eight years’ 1300 average. These trucks and buses are assembled from knock-down (KD) kits that are imported from Sweden and the Durban facility is considered to be one of the top two KD assembly facilities in the Volvo Truck Group. The facility in Durban is a vast 21,772 m² in size with 7422 m² under roofing and was a R41 million investment after relocating from Botswana. The plant has steadily increased its production since it opened in January 2006 with two production lines that have the combined capacity to produce up to 3500 trucks and buses every year – allowing plenty of room for the truck and bus assembly to continue increasing its numbers.
VIRAL BUZZ A large part of Volvo Group’s success should be attributed to its innovative marketing campaigns that have a tendency to go viral – such as ‘The Epic Split’ mentioned above. Jean-Claude Van Damme’s
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impressive leg work is not the only video to have caught the attention of the public – it was part of a series of six Live Test video’s that showcased some of the most innovative technological features of the new Volvo truck range using breath-taking methods. These adverts have cleaned up at various prestigious advertising competitions such as The One Show where ‘The Epic Split’ won the much coveted ‘Best in Show’ award – beating 21,000 other entries from around the world. The adverts also received 20 awards, including eight gold prizes and two prestigious Grand Prix awards in the categories Cyber and Film at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2014 – considered to be one of the most important advertising competitions in the world. “It is of course especially satisfying that our Live Test campaign is praised in such a global arena and in direct competition with the largest consumer companies in the world. It shows the exceptional nature of the campaign, that films about trucks - only distributed online - receive this type of recognition. We have shown that we can produce world-class communication about business-to-business products,” says Per Nilsson, Director Public Relations at Volvo Trucks. “Our surveys show that almost half the truck buyers who have seen the Live Test films indicate they would be more likely to choose a Volvo the next time they buy a new truck. For us this is another strong sign that
Volvo Trucks SA the campaign has been successful,” says Nilsson. The latest video features a car valet at Casino San Remo in Italy who, after parking sports cars all night, is startled to find himself tasked with parking a new Volvo FH truck. Little does he know, however, that the new Volvo FH is equipped with a world first I-Shift Dual Clutch transmission – similar to that which you
“We’re really pleased that so many people are taking note of our products” would find in a sports car. “We’re really pleased that so many people are taking note of our products. With our latest film about Volvo Trucks’ new transmission, I-Shift Dual Clutch, we are continuing to communicate our technological innovations in a way that is not only relevant to people interested in trucks but also to a wider public,” says Claes Nilsson, President of Volvo Trucks. This I¬-Shift Dual Clutch became available in
September 2014 and can be found on all markets that sell the Volvo FH with Euro 6 D13 engines featuring power outputs of 460, 500 or 540 horsepower. It is not only online video campaigns either, Volvo Trucks have specially designed Volvo FH and Volvo FH16 trucks for the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo Ocean race is one of the toughest sailing competitions in the world, covering a total sailing distance of 38,729 nautical miles, with port stop overs in nine countries, it takes nine months to complete. These attention-grabbing trucks feature the Volvo Ocean Race graphic ‘The Splash’ alongside the Volvo Ocean Race Globetrotter sign as well as the Volvo Ocean Race emblem – with specially designed floor mats to boot. They also come with an option of cab colours – Dark Knight Pearl or Millennium Silver Metallic – making these trucks stand out from the crowd in a big way.
ROARING AHEAD Volvo Trucks seems to be continuously coming up with innovative and cutting-edge technology that takes its trucks into a league of their own. It has recently released the Volvo FE CNG in Europe – a model of the Volvo FE that runs entirely on
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company profile methane gas. This is a huge leap forward for curbing the environmental impact of vehicles required to do short cycles that need numerous stops and starts such as refuse collection vehicles. The carbon dioxide emissions of this Volvo FE CNG is thought to be up to 70% lower than that of a diesel truck. Not only that, it is equipped with a new 9-litre Euro 6 gas-powered engine featuring spark plug technology and an automatic transmission – meaning that it still maintains the excellent driveability and productivity of the Volvo FE. With so many cities all over the world seeking alternatives to diesel fuelled engines, Volvo Trucks can now offer them an alternative that has a much lower impact on the environment. Sales of the new Volvo FE CNG started in Europe in August 2014 with series production set to get under way in early 2015. With pioneering innovations such as this, accompanied by intelligent viral marketing campaigns, Volvo Trucks is catching – and keeping – the attention of industry professionals and the public alike - and with Christian Coolsaet the new driving force behind Volvo Trucks SA, it will be looking out for great things on the road ahead.
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We repair accident damaged trucks, over 3 tons, and provide the best possible service in the industry. In so doing we intend to create new and maintain all current relationships with our loyal customers and road users. Hermans is currently on the panel of all Insurance Companies. We are proud to be factory approved by: Mercedes Benz; Scania; Volvo; International; Iveco; Freightliner; Fusso; MAN; Nissan; Isuzu. Pinetown - Kwazulu-Natal Pinetown Kwazulu-Natal P.O Box 237 New Germany 3620 Tel: 031 701 3822 Fax: 031 701 8902 Email: info@htar.co.za
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Centurion - Gauteng 875 Freight Road, Louwlardia Ext 13 Centurion, Gauteng Private Bag x3 Wierda Park 0149 Tel: 012 661 1010 Fax: 012 661 0885 Email: info@htar.co.za
Wadeville - Gauteng Cnr Steenbras & Mullet St Wadeville Gauteng P.O. Box 14757 Wadeville 0422 Tel: 011 824 1777 Fax: 012 824 1781 Email: info@htar.co.za
Engineering your road to success
Volvo Trucks SA
SAF-Holland is one of the leading global brand names in the manufacture and supply of high-quality systems and components for commercial vehicles as well as buses and recreational vehicles. The company has a strong presence in South Africa and use their know-how, innovative products and perfect systems solutions to meet the requirements of big-name clients across the country. Sales Manager, Steve Russell tells IndustrySA more that the company has a long-standing relationship with Volvo, something which SAF-Holland would be keen to grow. “We’ve been supplying them for around four years. We supply fifth wheels, sliders and couplings.” “Prior to SAF-Holland being in the country, there were a couple of distributors in South Africa and our product is EU approved and used by Volvo in Europe so they were buying the product through a distributor. When we came into the country, Volvo wanted to deal directly with us being an OEM supplier.” SAF-Holland have adapted their processes in order to take maximum control of their products, ensuring quality from initial manufacture right through to delivery. “Our headoffice is in Johannesburg and we were using a third party to store and deliver the fifth wheels in Durban as the Volvo plant is there,” says Russell. “We found that the products were getting damaged in storage and this prompted us to open our outlet in Durban which has been running for around 18 months. This means we have our own people storing and handling the goods and we have control over the product.” In 2014, the company has a number of exciting new products coming into the market which they would like to supply to Volvo. “We have a total no-lube fifth wheel that we have recently bought into South Africa which a couple of our clients are testing. In the New Year we will look to approach Volvo with this. This is a green product, a totally greaseless fifth wheel,” says Russell. Of course, Volvo only use premier parts when manufacturing their trucks and Russell says that SAF-Holland goods are widely recognised as top of the range. “We definitely have the best products in the market. Positive customer satisfaction surveys and proven product innovations is a clear indication of performance.” “We go the extra mile for our customers, Volvo is a valued customer and we will always strive to improve our offering and service levels.”
Quality Components & Systems for Truck & Trailer
SAF-HOLLAND South Africa Crn. Crownwood & Modulus Road Ormonde Tel: +27 11 496 3196 · Fax: +27 11 496 3696 · Jo@safhollandsa.co.za
OCT 14 PAGE 7 www.safholland.co.za
+44 (0) 1603 411569 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, 2 Ardney Rise Norwich, Norfolk NR3 3QH
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