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LUFT FANS ’ FOUNDER RETIRES :
A PATH OF TRIALS AND SUCCESSES BY PERSISTENCE
By Benjamin Brits
Anton Jansen recently took the decision to step down and take on a well deserved retirement at 81 years young . RACA Journal had the opportunity to sit down with him and talk to him about his career and business progress over his time in the industry .
The path of this gentleman was anything but easy and despite all of the complications , challenges , uphill battles and nay-sayers , he still managed to break through the clouds to stand tall atop the mountains and reach success he never thought possible – to the point where at time of publishing Luft Fans have expanded even further to occupy new and bigger premises of over 4 000m ² to meet demand for their products and services .
Jansen started his story where his career began in 1976 – rightly pointing out that this was before I was even born . Having been working for a company that sold cable glands , he was offered the opportunity to open a branch in Durban for a Cape Town-based fan company . His boss at the time was a friend of a director of that company called Luftspares .
Jansen recalled that it was at his first meeting with the new fan company that he was given the best compliment of his life when one of the directors said ‘“ Anton , what you don ’ t know about fans I can teach you , but the qualities that you have , the way you handle yourself , your honesty and enthusiasm means I can trust you .' I didn ’ t understand the value of those words until years later when I had to employ my own people and then I knew exactly what those words signified ,” Jansen said .
He and his wife naturally had to work through several changes on top of the fact that he was then selling a product that happened to be up against very big competitors in the ventilation industry .
“ I knew nothing about fans and my first reaction was ‘ I don ’ t think so ’. My understanding of a fan was something you put on your desk that blows air into your face ,” Jansen said . “ I had no idea , but with some pictures and with some explanations I went out to go and sell ( or try to sell ) fans to the industry . I ’ m not talking about HVAC , I ’ m talking about industrial uses like workshops and factories – whoever would need one . That was a cold canvassing exercise - which I don ’ t think anyone enjoys actually – but it had to be done ! The orders started to come in and as our product range grew , our fans were selling and the company was hitting new records .”
Learning for Jansen was not easy in those days as he mentioned things like a “ telex machine ” that he and his new boss used to transfer training and product knowledge over . In his dayto-day he further recalled going into people ’ s offices with a tape measure where he would measure dimensions and then work out using formulas for what the clients would need and then the costs and scope of work and so on . He admitted comically that when the the fax machine came out it definitely made things a little easier because one could see pictures and visualise plans and fan placements . The arrival of computers was nothing short of “ revolutionary ”.
Jansen never stopped putting his head down and working through all of his challenges which included some tough clients , tough engineers , challenging the status quo and supplying to some large projects – which were nerve-wracking to say the least . Small jobs turned into medium jobs and those in turn turned into several million rand orders – all while building good client relationships which Jansen continually reinforced .
The next miletone in this journey came when their factory was not able to meet the order demand because of larger volumes required with quick turnaround . His boss basically said outright that they could not meet the client ’ s request . Being persistent , Jansen thought to himself that perhaps he could fulfil the order by building the required fans in Durban after hours . He then engaged an engineering company to cut the cases and flanges and he went out to a local retailer and bought himself a simple cheap welding machine , got a couple of chunks of steel , some welding rods and taught himself how to weld . “ My welding was obviously not the best when I started , but it improved with practice and I got that
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RACA Journal I February 2023 www . refrigerationandaircon . co . za