Deutz Dieselpower

Source: Energy Digital

Date :07/07/2008 17:25:37

Revving up their Deutz engines

Written by Fiona Nicolson and Produced by Alex Smith

Deutz Dieselpower has been supplying its engines to the South African market for 27 years. Initially formed to handle the South African manufacture and marketing of Deutz diesel engines, the company now sells and provides technical support for new and reconditioned Deutz engines and spare parts.

Although it has passed its quarter century mark, the company shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, there are plans to gather speed, as sales and marketing director Rowan Michelson explains. “Our turnover rose by 40 percent as compared to last year, and we are aiming to further increase this by 26 percent by our year ending November 2008.”

Performance to date indicates that this optimism and ambition for the year ahead is well founded - Deutz has increased its turnover by a massive 138 percent since 2005.

The impressive rise in demand for its engines, whether liquid or air-cooled, gas or diesel, is due to a number of factors, including changes in the economic landscape. “There has been an upturn in demand for our products from the mining market, due to increased demand for platinum, rhodium and other PGM metals,” says Michelson. “Another market that is very strong for us right now is the diesel engine power generation sector,” he adds.

New products

Marketing is key to Deutz Dieselpowers’ ongoing achievements and the company places a high priority on creating new products to add to its existing range. It recently launched the ADG, a new Deutz diesel-driven power generating set, designed for extreme environmental conditions. It has already proved to be a great success.

“It’s selling really well,” enthuses Michelson. “The design is state of the art, using a plastic compound (PET) for the canopy of the generator, instead of metal, which makes it tougher and longer lasting. And of course plastic costs less, especially given steel prices at the moment, so we can offer the generating set at a very competitive price.”

The next new product is already on the production line. “We’re introducing a high speed marine application, which is an engine specifically produced for work boats,” he adds. “It’s due to be launched in late summer this year.”

Ticking over

It’s not just the sales of new products that have contributed to the company’s success. The workshop and field service repairs department is thriving too: “We’re doing a huge volume of engine repairs, particularly for the military, industrial, construction companies and also for the mining industry,” says Michelson.

This is not a quality issue: “The growth in repairs has emerged as a direct result of our growth in sales,” explains Michelson. Also, the engines that come in for repair tend to have been working harder, over longer periods of time and at a higher efficiency rate than the average, which causes the wear and tear.”

Preparing for the future

One of the ways in which Deutz Dieselpower is preparing for the next phase of growth is by consolidating its workshops and support and head office into one space.

“We are opening a centre of excellence in Johannesburg, which will improve our services to customers,” says Michelson. “This means that all of our expertise and experience will now be available under one roof, so they can access everything they need in a one-stop shop.”

The facilities offered by the new centre will include new engines, spare parts, repaired engines, customer support and product training.

And the good news is that customers don’t have long to wait, as work begins on the new centre during July and is due to be completed by November.

Customer satisfaction

Deutz Dieselpowers’ corporate ethos is simple. “Everything we do here is focused on the needs of the customer and on customer satisfaction,” says Michelson. “We are always looking for ways we can improve and make a difference.”

The company has demonstrated its commitment through offering two new services: “Our mission is to be a solution provider,” Michelson explains. “Last year we introduced a high level technical support service, to further assist with customer needs. If they have technical problems with our engines, we will send out skilled staff to their workplace to resolve these.”

And if customers just need to ask a question or two, Deutz Dieselpower has looked at the most effective way of providing them with a quick and effective response: “We have a business unit manager specifically for this purpose,” says Michelson. “His in-depth knowledge and experience of our products and operations means that he can answer a wide range of questions, without the customer having to speak to lots of different departments.”

Michelson believes customer loyalty is also key to the company’s success, as customers know what exactly what they are buying when they choose Deutz. “We maintain high levels of quality, as we only sell and service Deutz engines,” he explains.

The challenges

While Deutz Dieselpower is going from strength to strength, it recognises that there are challenges to be faced. “We must keep adapting to market trends,” confirms Michelson. “We need to ensure we change with the market and grow with it.”

Like many other South African businesses, Deutz Dieselpower also faces the human resources challenge of finding the number of technical skilled people it requires, to service demand for its products. “The skills shortage in South Africa is an ongoing problem,” Michelson says. “A large proportion of the workforce is choosing to take up administrative posts, instead of seeking to learn a trade, so there are just not enough technically skilled staff available.”

However, Deutz Dieselpower has identified an innovative way to deal with this issue: “We’ve created an apprentice training programme for diesel fitters,” explains Michelson. “The aim of the programme is to train people from economically disadvantaged groups. This provides them with a trade and a skill, enables us to meet the rising demand for our engines and it also creates jobs.”

Creating jobs is one of the company’s key achievements. In the last two years, Deutz Dieselpower has hired an additional 45 employees, raising staff levels to 161 and there are plans to recruit seven more new employees in the near future.

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Deutz Dieselpower