ON THE GROUND
From left: De Wet Pretorius (Cape Town branch manager, Kemach JCB), Les Lothian (CEO, Kemach JCB), Joao da Silva
(shareholder and director of QuickSilva Burcon Plant Hire), and Hein Buys (operations manager, QuickSilva Burcon Plant Hire).
save the initial capital outlay of purchasing
expensive equipment, allowing them to focus
their resources on their core operational
competencies. Simultaneously, they get the
benefit of a specialist contractor offering expert
advice and ensuring that all equipment is
properly maintained, which will allow them to
reach their production targets and deadlines.”
“Our strategic decision to grow our plant
fleet to at least 75 machines by the end of
2018, and to increase our staff complement
from 29 to 66 employees, will ensure that
we can offer our customers the best possible
range of equipment, as well as excellent
service levels,” he adds. “No contract is too
big — or too small — for us to handle.”
Expanding the fleet
Speaking of the decision to immediately
begin growing their hire fleet, Da Silva says,
“We wanted to extend our machine offering
to the industry to include wheel loaders,
mini excavators, compaction equipment,
and telescopic handlers. To achieve this, we
looked for an original equipment manufacturer
(OEM) that would be more of a partner in our
business, a company that had our interest
at heart, and that was not only interested in
selling machines.”
After doing its research, QuickSilva Burcon
Plant Hire decided on Jet Park-based Kemach
Equipment, the sole distributors for JCB
construction equipment in southern and South
Since March last year, QuickSilva Burcon Plant Hire has expanded its fleet from 23 to 57 units and
plans to increase this number to 75.
26
MARCH 2018
Africa, as its partner for this endeavour. And
then the company began implementing its
new strategy. In the first 10 months after the
acquisition, it bought 19 3CX 4 × 4 backhoe
loaders (the last four units were delivered in
January), two VM115D single-drum compaction
rollers, two VMT260-120 tandem-drum
rollers, two VMD70 walk-behind rollers, one
422ZX wheel loader, one 535-140 telescopic
handler, two 55Z mini excavators, one JS205
excavator (delivered in January), and four
155HD skid steers.
“The JCB machines offer productivity
at low cost, are robust, and performs at
an optimum in every application we have
hired it out. But what really sealed the deal