NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
A variety of piston compressors are manufactured here.
So, I arranged a quick trip to this Grasso
factory in Den Bosch before returning
from Chillventa last year in Nuremburg,
Germany. The Cape Town office was
kind enough to facilitate this with the
help of my tour-guide-to-be – Tom Eelen.
Den Bosch was about a two-hour
train ride from Amsterdam itself and the
beautiful countryside whizzed past in a
peaceful blur as I set off on my journey
to find the red-circled building on my
printed-out map. Although quite simple
directions, me being me, of course I
first attempted to find the street on the
wrong side of the train station.
Luckily I found my way not too long
after, walking alongside the train track
to the historic GEA Grasso building.
The staff were all as friendly and
helpful as Eelen and I were quickly
kitted out with safety shoes that felt
more like diving flippers.
In the entrance to the factory stood
mounted an original 1920 compressor
as well as the latest GEA V compressor,
truly showing just how far compressor
technology has come over the years.
Throughout my ‘tour’ of the building,
I would see many more of these relic
compressors, preserved beautifully from
a time long past.
Eelen took me through a very
interesting and detailed presentation on
the history of the company and what
exactly they do in the factory…
After the presentation, he took me
down to the factory itself, walking me
through the entire process from start
to finish. The place was incredibly
neat and tidy; I couldn’t believe it
was actually a working factory. Each
section was properly signed – from
welding to spare parts to dispatch.
And each section was properly
demarcated with signage and bright
colours. Compressors of all shapes and
sizes, in various stages of assembly,
could be seen throughout. The factory
also has lots of natural light and loud
and vibey music playing – really a
great working environment.
The most noteworthy thing was how
few people were actually needed to
operate all the machinery (especially
compared to South African factories
that still rely quite heavily on manual
labour). The compressors all have
a unique robotised steel-welded
compressor housing – so no hand-
welding is needed.
After walking through the various
sections and seeing how the machinery
operates, we ended off our tour at the
cafeteria where most of the factory
workers had just finished their lunch. The
menu was great and Eelen treated me
to lunch where a selection of traditional
Dutch food was on offer.
It really was an amazing experience,
but I think the photos will tell a better
story of what the factory was like than
my words ever could – see for yourself!
Compressor packages leaving the Cape Town workshop.
A NEW OFFICE FOR SA
Working on a large pressure vessel.
As mentioned, the South African team
also recently moved into a new building
– in June 2018 to be exact.
Historically, GEA was represented
by a number of different legal entities
in South Africa. During 2016, GEA
embarked on a process (worldwide)
where all legal entities inside a country
were merged into a single legal
entity representing the wide range of
products, solutions and services.
“We considered
expanding and
renovating the facility
in Montague Gardens,
but it was obvious that the needs of
the new organisation could not be
accommodated at the old site and we
needed to relocate,” explains Hannes
Steyn of GEA.
The new building covers slightly more
than 8 000m 2 on a site of about 20 000m 2 ,
allowing potential for further expansion.
This includes a wide variety of divisions:
equipment and solutions sales functions;
engineering; finance and administration;
service (offices and workshops); mild steel
and stainless steel packaging workshops;
logistics; training facilities; and meeting
rooms. About 130 staff work in this building
(including the sub-contracted labour).
LOCAL MANUFACTURING
A two-stage compressor set built in Cape Town is of the same standard as one built in Europe.
COLD LINK AFRICA •
OCTOBER 2019
Although the South African offices are
hugely involved in a variety of projects
and services across the continent, on
the manufacturing side, GEA Africa
is quite small and focuses on building
refrigeration packs and the stainless
steel food equipment for processing.
The labour for this is sub-contracted out.
However, it should be said that
the sub-contractors that GEA use
www.coldlinkafrica.co.za
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