AGRICULTURE
By Carolize Jansen
New Holland Agriculture, part of the CNH Industrial
Group, has decided to take a firmer hand in their South
African business by opening a direct branch based in
Centurion, Tshwane. “To be close to farmers, we will have
a full dedicated team here,” explains Federico Bellotto,
New Holland business manager for Southern Africa. “Our
footprint will be the independent dealer network of more or
less 80%, as previously.”
Hannes Smit, executive category manager of Kaap Agri, which is New
Holland’s exclusive dealer for the Cape region, from Bredasdorp to
Springbok, and Aussenkehr in Namibia, believes that this will result
in more competitive prices and a wider product offering in future.
This will bring better prices to the farmer, by a much-improved, direct
dealer support system because of the elimination of an extra llink in the
supply chain of New Holland parts and products.
In this way, Kaap Agri is able to provide New Holland
products to customers at the price quoted when the
order was placed, despite a possible weakening
Rand in the interim.
Bellotto continues: “One of the pillars of our project is providing
three-month pricing stability to obviate currency fluctuations.”
In this way, Kaap Agri is able to provide New Holland products to
customers at the price quoted when the order was placed, despite a
possible weakening Rand in the interim. New Holland’s partnership
with Wesbank will remain a foundation of its business in South Africa,
with the added certainty that all models in the formidable New Holland
product range will be available to the South African customer.
Kaap Agri has had a long relationship with New Holland. In fact, at
the official announcement of New Holland’s intention to directly enter
the South African supply market, Federico Bellotto singled out Kaap
Agri for its contribution to New Holland’s success in the South African
26 MARKtoe! Julie 2017
From left to right: Antoine Rebillard, vice-president for spare parts – EMEA region, Erdem
Safak, marketing manager New Holland Southern Africa, Alessandro Maritano, New
Holland vice-president for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Federico Bellotto, Southern
Africa New Holland business manager and Carlo Lambro, New Holland Agriculture global
president. Photographer: Darren Alexander
market. Thirteen service outlets, a centralized distribution centre and 9
New Holland accredited workshops are only a part of the service offer-
ing from Kaap Agri with New Holland accredited mechanics. The New
Holland South Africa office in Centurion, Tshwane, will carry and supply
the dealer network with spares from their Iveco warehouse in Centu-
rion, as this constitutes a large part of New Holland’s business.
Furthermore, New Holland will have its own logistics pad 60km
inland from Durban, and will partner with OneLogix for inland
distribution. “We’ll have a very competitive delivery time. We can
move a combine harvester in a maximum of three working days from
Durban to Cape Town. At the logistics pad, units will be coming from
across the world. Units from India will be containerised and assembled
directly here at our pad in Durban, it’s what we call a semi-knockdown
operation,” Bellotto explains.