PROFILE
DIVERSIFICATION
AND LONGEVITY
By Tarren Bolton
Peter Blunden, CEO of ELB.
P
eter Blunden joined Edward L
Bateman (today, simply known
as ELB), a JSE-listed company, in
1978. Under the Bateman umbrella of
companies, construction products were
introduced in 1981, when ELB took on
the distribution of construction plant-
related equipment for the first time.
“Until that time, we were only involved
with building underground load and
haul equipment,” says Blunden.
“In 1984, we were approached by
a Japanese company, Furukawa, that
manufactured a range of front-end
loaders, drill rigs, and hydraulic breakers.
They had a very small footprint in South
Africa, which they were looking to
grow, and we were looking at enlarging
our distribution business,” explains
Blunden. In mid-1986, an autonomous
division responsible for earthmoving and
construction equipment was established
under the trade name of Bateman
Earthmoving Equipment (BEE). In line
with the group name change, Bateman
Earthmoving Equipment became ELB
Equipment, positioning itself as one
of the most respected names in the
earthmoving, construction, and mining
equipment supply industry.
“The then CEO of ELB Equipment
approached me and said they had taken
over a number of additional products
for distribution and needed someone to
head it up. I agreed and I moved across
in 1989 as commercial director. I took
over from the then CEO a couple of
years later when he retired. Since then,
what had started as a relatively small
company and after having added more
construction and earthmoving products,
the company kept expanding. In later
years, we added a range of mining/
quarrying equipment.
40
MARCH 2019
With values rooted in a proud heritage that spans almost a
century, ELB celebrates its 100th birthday this year. Plant
Equipment & Hire met with CEO Peter Blunden to learn more
about the part he has played in the history of the company
“Today, we operate in three main
sectors: mining, quarrying, earthmoving
and construction equipment. It is
basically a distribution organisation,
although we have some of our own
designed products,” says Blunden.
Blunden and the management team
have had a major impact on the growth
and expansion of the company and
diversifying it into the three different
sectors. He has been a major influence
in growing the company footprint —
what was originally principally Gauteng-
based has spread to a network across
the country, into southern Africa and
now includes a dealer network. It
is this diversification and expansion
that has carried the company through
challenging times.
Blunden maintains that the biggest
challenges faced by ELB over the
years have been the major economic
downturns. In 1998, like most of the
country, the company had to downsize
and reduce overhead costs. “But with
subsequent downturns, we were
diversified enough as we had spread our
operating network into a substantial part
of Africa to avoid having to downsize
again,” he says. He puts this down to
one of ELB’s key successes. “ELB
maintained solid operating results in
challenging environments primarily due
to diversification,” he asserts.
Asking him whether there was an
industry policy or standard that he
wished he had the power to change
and what would it be, he unequivocally
responds, “Apprenticeship standards.”
He elaborates: “If you compare the
technical expertise in days past, it was
substantially better than today. I put
the lower standards down to the fact
that the old Apprenticeship Board fell
by the wayside. I would like to see the
industry reintroduce the old-quality
apprenticeship standards. Back in
the day, we had highly competent
technicians — some of whom are
still around but are now over the age
of 50. For the industry as a whole,
the standards are no longer what
they used to be.” Blunden feels that
although the bigger companies have
embarked on their own apprenticeship
programmes, standardisation as a
whole is lacking. “The sad thing is that
we’ve lost most of our best-qualified
people to emigration and some now
work as expats in Africa, whereas in the
past, South Africa had a good pool of
technical people,” he says.
Blunden attributes much of ELB’s
success to the fact that it is run like a
family business. “Despite the company’s
growth, its success has been the
family value culture, inherited from the
Bateman family influence. We at ELB are
under no illusion that without our staff,
we wouldn’t be successful,” he says. “As
part of our vision statement, we pledge
to our employees that we will ensure
the continual development of our people
to ensure professionalism, personal
advancement, and security. Many of our
staff members have long service with
the company for 20, 25, and even 30
years of service, and they are not the
exception to the rule,” he says.
It is clear that the enthusiasm
and foresight of a young American
mechanical engineer, Edward L
Bateman, way back in 1903, has had a
major influence over personalities like
Blunden and the day-to-day business
of the company in terms of the
management style and culture, which
today remains unchanged.
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