Celebrating 70 years in business, Bell Equipment South Africa is proud of its roots in the agriculture and forestry industries and will showcase three machines at NAMPO Cape that are designed to make life easier for their discerning farming customers.

When Gert Coetzee buys any piece of mechanised equipment for his irrigation farm in the fertile Vaalharts Valley in the Northern Cape, his eye is always on the resale value of such a machine, which is why he confidently bought a market leading JCB Backhoe Loader after a good maize crop in 2022.

Less than a year after launching its Bell Equipment Trusted Alternative (BETA) Parts offering, Bell Equipment has expanded its footprint of South Africa, and Zambia to include the major articulated dump truck markets of the European and United States dealer network.

The late Japie van Straten was known amongst his children and fellow farmers to be a perfectionist as he believed that success in any farming operation followed when you did what was necessary, timeously. That’s why, on a day that he felt he needed the sole use of the JCB 3DX Backhoe Loader on his farm and it wasn’t available, he got so angry that he promptly bought another one.

Nestled in the picturesque KwaZulu-Natal Midlands area of Karkloof is Jetteson Timbers, a quintessential family-owned and operated business. At the helm is Brendon Raw, who is living proof that hard work creates opportunity and you don’t have to be booksmart to be successful.

It is human nature to want to describe what uses there are for any mechanised equipment that looks and works differently from normal agricultural equipment on a farm. Near Winterton, in the picturesque foothills of the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, a young farmer though poses a different question when he asks: “What can this machine not be used for?”

A fourth generation of passionate Karoo livestock farmers is doing more than making hay while the sun shines, turning high-quality crops grown along a major river into nutritional animal feeds, and using a world-class machine to unload raw products and load ready feeds for wide distribution.

Dusty Freudiger believes that if you can advertise your brand on the steering wheel of a Formula 1 racing car, yours must be a brand worth pursuing. And Dusty should know as his own company, Tractor Giants, is used to taking gigantic steps forward in establishing itself as a worthy brand.

The small farming town of Letsitele in the Limpopo Province, close to Tzaneen, has a name derived from the Northern Sotho phrase meaning “valley of death”, believed to refer to the many deaths that malaria caused in this area in bygone times.

George is said to be the second largest city in the Western Cape where it lies between the towering Outeniqua mountains and the blue Indian Ocean. This pretty town surrounded by many forests and farms is where we find S. Haddad Agricultural Services, a newly appointed dealer for Bell Equipment’s Forestry & Agriculture Division.

When you hear the vernacular reference to any make of backhoe loader as being a ‘JCB’, then you know that is a brand that will almost sell itself due to that most effective form of advertising, word of mouth.

The everlasting value of learning at a father’s knee, even in the case of selling tractor and implement parts, has held true for Bryan Taylor, owner of M & F Tractor Parts in Marburg, Port Shepstone’s light industrial area on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast.

Marc Tolmay, by his own admission, is a great fan of learning new things. Marc is the owner of Dorning Motors, the newly appointed dealer for Bell Equipment Forestry & Agriculture and JCB Agriculture in the Kokstad and Underberg areas of KwaZulu-Natal and says he first learnt important business-related insights from his accountant.

Some eighty kilometres southeast of Johannesburg lies the town of Balfour. It wasn’t always called that having started out its life as the proclaimed town of McHattiesburg, after Frederick Stuart McHattie who owned the farms on which the town lies. The town was renamed to Balfour in 1905 after a visit by the then Prime Minister of England, Arthur James Balfour.

The mechanisation division of a market-leading player in the retail agricultural space is excited at being appointed as a dealer for Bell Equipment Forestry & Agriculture and JCB Agriculture as it will enhance the mantra of the company being a one-stop shop for its existing and potential new customers.

Imagine buying a machine that you thought would be used for the sole purpose of loading bales of animal feed but during a scant two months of using it you find that it is so useful for a myriad of tasks that you gradually come to consider buying a second similar model.

Bell Equipment Forestry & Agriculture, which plans to launch a harvesting attachment in 2025, has revealed that the prototype will be on show for the first time at NAMPO 2024.

The delicate balance of investing today to save in the long term certainly holds true for the forward-thinking management of the Timbadola Sawmill. What gives this balancing act a real homegrown flavour is that the spend was directed at a proudly South African company that produces a uniquely local yellow machine product.

The first Bell UltECO6 4-WD Slew Loader arrived in Indonesia in late 2022 and has made a strong impact by bringing valuable advantages compared to competitor machines.

Traditionally Bell Loggers have been known as quite simple yet robust machines, which is probably why they have become the industry standard as a loading and timber handling tool. But, as robust as they are, they can also display the odd quirk as the workshop and transport manager of a leading South African timber group will attest to.

Imagine having such a versatile loading tool on a farm that it not only has interchangeable attachments but can also be used to draw trailers when normal agricultural tractors are used for essential farming-related tasks.

Timber forwarding is often thought of as the unglamorous link in the timber supply chain. Felling trees, extracting and cross-cutting them gets the adrenaline going as it’s mostly noisy and busy. However before the timber reaches the long-haul transport, done by either road or rail, it must be moved from the roadside to a loading depot. This must happen continuously, efficiently, and above all, safely.

José Carlos Rocha Filho, Marketing and Commercial Manager at Latin Equipment Norte, describes his experiences as he explores new frontiers in the Caribbean region to support customer success and sustainability-related goals with Bell Cane Loaders.

Bell Equipment Limited has appointed Ashley Jon Bell (41), grandson of the company's founder Irvine Bell, as the new Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) effective from 1 January 2024.

There is huge scope for JCB Agriculture’s range of Loadalls (telehandlers) in South Africa as local farmers increasingly look to mechanisation to maximise the efficiencies of their operations, as Bell Forestry & Agriculture and JCB Agriculture dealers learned first-hand during an intensive two-day product training session.

With almost seventy years of demonstrated expertise in complex engineering, heavy fabrication, and machining for its own range of material handling equipment, Bell Equipment is now offering these specialist services to all industries in the country through its newly formed division, Bell Heavy Industries (BHI).

There is a lot of good news emanating from the Coega Special Economic Zone (SEZ) north of Gqeberha on South Africa’s vast Eastern Cape Coast.

OVK, an established and major player in agriculture, is a newly appointed Bell Equipment Forestry & Agriculture’dealer for the Free State and Northern Cape regions.

Identifying a need in the market for a middle-range parts offering, Bell Equipment has launched Bell Equipment Trusted Alternative (BETA) Parts to give its customers a convenient and competitive alternative, endorsed by the OEM, for their more mature Bell machines or when faced with budget constraints.

Two brothers, both engineers, have hit on a novel idea to create a solid underfoot surface at the two new truck stops they’re developing and are using non-traditional loading tools to handle concrete products.

In January 2019, a tornado hit a farm near Panbult in Mpumalanga and blew flat standing timber that ranged in age from eight to twenty-five years, breaking the trees off as if they were matchsticks.

An upward growth spurt for a leading South African timber growing company has seen it turn to a preferred supplier of timber handling equipment to replace its fleet of older machines.

When a well-established timber harvesting contractor in the Mpumalanga Lowveld wanted to speed up infield bunching and presentation of felled timber, his solution created the imaginary comparison to when a featherweight boxer takes on a heavyweight rival in the same ring.

As commercial farms in South Africa are getting larger and smaller farms are getting fewer, the one factor that keeps growing consistently is mechanisation. And in both Ermelo and Standerton, a dealer who is a distributor and an importer firmly believes it is the local farmer’s partner in mechanisation.

“We believe that farmers and other customers working in the farming space would prefer to buy their equipment, spares and related accessories from a ‘one-stop shop’ such as the one we own in Cradock,” says Jean Nel. “It is also here at Landmeg Landini that customers have access to the full range of Bell and JCB Agricultural and Forestry products.”

Tiens de Bruin sees big potential for especially JCB’s Backhoe Loaders, Skid Steers and agriculturally specified Loadall equipment in his company’s agricultural target market and he and his young team are excited at the prospect of selling and backing this new equipment offering.

When Johnny Scholtz and his company, JBJ Machinery, couldn’t sell any more of his favourite JCB machines due to local distribution rights changing hands to Bell Equipment, he so missed the experience that he actually wrote a letter to Lord Anthony Bamford, the Chairman of JCB, to plead his case.

When two brothers in Limpopo’s provincial capital, Polokwane, saw a gap in the market for the repair and servicing of construction and agricultural machines, little could they know that some twenty-eight years later, they would be part of a distribution network of market leading JCB yellow metal equipment as well.

“A farmer without a JCB Backhoe Loader can’t call himself a real farmer” is what William Fullard believes and he should know as most of the customers of their family business are farmers around the town of Bela-Bela, previously known as Warmbaths.

“We don’t think there is a better Backhoe Loader or Loadall on the market than those made by JCB, and we would have said that even if we weren’t the official JCB Agriculture and Bell Forestry & Agriculture dealer in this area.”

When Danie Scheepers and Mike Cowie first started developing the concept of opening an outlet that would serve amongst others, the forestry industry and dairy farmers in their area, their collective thoughts told them that they wanted to be more than just a chainsaw dealer.

Startling similarities exist when one compares how Kobie van Breda started his business in a farm workshop near Banhoek in 1984 to that of Irvine Bell doing the same, some thirty years earlier in 1954 near Empangeni.

Seen from the air, the mighty Orange River snakes its way across the arid Northern Cape Province while on its banks, emerald green vineyards and orchards belie the harsh sunlight that creates so much sweetness in the various fruit grown here.

Nicky Russouw’s purpose in life is to empower people, which is why at the height of the initial panic that accompanied the first lockdown period in South Africa in 2020, he had his younger members of staff at all their branches, come in to work to still service the company’s large farming customer base.

The planets must have been aligned on the day in 2022 that De Wet Dannhauser, Sales Manager at ALM Tractor World, called Charles Inggs to enquire about whether Bell Equipment, the South African distributor for the well-known JCB brand of yellow metal, perhaps needed an outlet that focused on agriculture.

The heavy summer rains in early 2023 caused many inland dams to overflow and South Africa’s largest reservoir, the mighty Gariep Dam, was not spared either. A large portion of its water flows via the Fish River Tunnel into the Eastern Cape’s Great Fish River causing that waterway to come down in spate and this has potential catastrophic downstream effects for the farmers along the river’s banks.

Francois Malan is by his own admission a top gear man. This doesn’t mean that he’s addicted to a popular motoring show on British television but rather that he insists that the surface condition of the roads on his family’s well-known wine estate must be such to allow him to drive in any vehicle’s top gear.

The introduction of the JCB 530-70 Loadall to the South African market has brought owning an agricultural telehandler within easy reach of farmers who are looking for a versatile and ever-so-capable tool for almost any on-farm task.

Geared for the short haul and to provide access to difficult-to-reach remote areas, South African OEM, Bell Equipment, will introduce its Tracked Carrier concept to the local market at NAMPO 2023.

Bell Equipment Forestry & Agriculture is in the process of expanding their distribution and support network where they have recently appointed a dozen independent dealers covering 19 branches.

Designed to meet the emerging needs of the grader industry, Bell Equipment has expanded its mining and construction OEM product range to include motor graders. With several units running in diversified applications, production has been set to begin as early as Q3 2024.

Richards Bay, 31 March 2023 – JSE-listed Bell Equipment (Bell), a leading global manufacturer, distributor, and exporter of a wide range of heavy equipment for the construction, mining, quarrying, sugar, and forestry industries, today released final results for the year ended 31 December 2022.

Sawn timber is deceptively heavy and to move it around safely within a large storage area or loading bay, on sometimes uneven surfaces, taxes any machine’s mettle to the limit.

Two machines from the JCB Agriculture range drew a lot of curious interest from visitors to this year’s annual King Price Baler Challenge held on a farm outside Parys in the Free State yesterday.

When Piet Badenhorst asked his former school friend, Alec Pieterse, what the most versatile piece of mechanical equipment was he had ever owned, the answer was quick and to the point, a JCB Loadall Telehandler and Piet, by his own admission was sold on the idea.

What do a pharmacist, an agronomist and an accountant have in common barring the fact that they are all related as cousins? Probably nothing you’d say unless all three are partners in a business venture such as that doing contract forestry harvesting, which started out as a timber transport company.

Barend Steenkamp faced a somewhat unique problem in his felling, extraction and loading of pine thinnings operation in forests in the west of Eswatini. His contract called for full tree-lengths, up to fifteen metres long, to be loaded onto specialised stinger-steer truck-trailer combinations, but there was not enough space in the narrow roads between forest compartments to do this safely.

When Cedusizi Dlamini wanted to start his own forestry contract harvesting business, he turned down a lucrative loan offer from a family member as he didn’t want to risk any disharmony in his family that loaned money may cause. Instead, he did it the hard way, paying back a substantial loan from another party over a mere twelve months.

A marked saving in fuel consumption has justified the purchase of new and more efficient material handling equipment for a Mpumalanga-based manufacturer of timber products.

The old saying that time is money rings very true for a KwaZulu-Natal sugarcane grower as a new cane loader drastically cuts loading time while maximising the usable space in a cane trailer.

Excavators using hydraulic technology have come a long way since Sir WG Armstrong & Company first used water to drive an excavator when building the Hull docks in England back in 1882.

Word of mouth is said to be one of the most powerful forms of advertising and to Danial Rana’s ears this certainly held true when his family’s business wanted to buy a timber handling machine in the past year.

Bell Equipment and JCB were established almost a decade apart on opposite ends of the world, yet with their similarities in terms of timelines, family lineage, philosophies, and product pedigree it is small wonder that these companies have now forged a growing partnership in South Africa.

Bell Equipment Group has reached agreement to distribute and support the JCB Agriculture product range in South Africa.

After two cancelled seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic the Richards Bay Rugby Club (RBRC) has reason to look forward to the 2022 season. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Club, and it is the first time in several years that it has received financial sponsorship towards the season’s expenses.

Friends of Thuthukani Special School in Empangeni gathered recently (10 November) to celebrate the school’s fortieth anniversary, introduce ‘Changing Lives’ as the school’s new motto and officially open the Gary Bell Play-to-Learn Centre, sponsored by Bell Equipment.

R&B Timber Group, ‘Africa’s most trusted supplier of treated wooden poles’, relies on Bell as its trusted supplier of material handling equipment and, after weathering the economic downturn, has started getting its extensive fleet back into a replacement cycle by introducing its first Bell F-series Loggers.

Bell Equipment made up for lost time last week when it acknowledged and celebrated one hundred and fifty-eight local employees who reached long service milestones during 2020 and 2021 at functions held over two days at its Richards Bay factory.

When Bell Equipment became the exclusive dealer of Kobelco Excavators in southern Africa in 2017, part of the appeal was the strong standing the Japanese brand has in forestry elsewhere in the world. Since then, Matriarch Equipment, now a division of Bell Equipment, has had great success providing a professional and thorough approach to the conversion of Kobelco excavators for the local forestry industry.

A well-known Free State maize farming family is enjoying the versatility that using a fleet of Bell 1734AF Haulage Tractors offers while lowering their all-round production costs and increasing efficiencies.

How does a qualified mining engineer who rose to the level of a general manager change tack so radically as to get into the timber harvesting field? In the case of Mandla Nxumalo, the answer is almost by accident. His subsequent success though is based on two disciplines: that of finding an experienced mentor for guidance and listening to what people in the know say about getting the correct tools for the job.

Bell Equipment South Africa, in association with JCB Finance and ABSA Bank, is pleased to offer customers prime -6,9% when they purchase a JCB 3DX Plus Backhoe Loader. This finance offer is valid until 30 September 2021 and is available over 36 months with a 20% deposit. Contact your nearest Bell Customer Service Centre or Bell Sales Representative for more information on this or other JCB Finance options.

Timber harvesting is a fascinating field and in Southern Africa it is an industry that is seeing ever growing mechanisation. Large machines are now felling and cross-cutting trees while stockpiling and loading timber onto interlinked rigs for haulage to sawmills and pulp and paper plants is totally mechanical.

After four years of development and testing of the new Bell Series V Haulage Tractor, the company’s Product Marketing Manager: Forestry and Sugar, Ettienne Terblanche, says “this latest version of an old stalwart is our best ever”.

Two experienced foresters and partners in a contract timber harvesting company have for a while considered undertaking thinnings as a profitable business opportunity but they felt it prudent to wait to find the correct tools for the job.

South Africa’s picturesque Nkomazi district lies tucked in between the borders of Eswatini, Mozambique and the Kruger National Park and, with its abundance of fertile soils and water, it’s a really good place to grow sugar cane and a host of choice fruit and vegetables which are mostly exported.

Latin Equipment Norte has recently introduced the first Matriarch Skogger into the Americas where it is working in a thinning and clear-cut operation in teak plantations in the remote woods of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Bell pre-owned equipment can now be shopped online thanks to the launch of a dedicated global website, pre-owned.bellequipment.com, which is also accessible from the company’s website.

A cane grower from Pongola in northern Zululand has found that shortening the time it takes to load a cane haulage truck bound for the nearby mill, has a direct positive impact on his bottom line profit and believes he has Bell Equipment to thank for this.

JCB has appointed one of the most respected companies in the construction equipment sector to be its distributor in the key South African market, the company announced today.

Lessons learnt early in life about perseverance and loyalty have stood Elvis Shabangu and his company, ES Forestry, in good stead when relying on one brand of timber handling and haulage equipment.

From November 2020 until the end of March 2021, Bell Equipment South Africa and the Bell dealer network in Africa, South America, South East Asia and Oceania are offering up to 30% discounts on select maintenance kits.

Sixteen-year-old Julio Ritchie from Richards Bay is the proud owner of a new Shimano rod fitted with a Tiagra 50W reel as the overall winner in the Ski-boat magazine’s annual ‘Reel Kids’ competition, sponsored by Bell Equipment.

Bell Equipment is introducing the Bell Care Package, which has been thoughtfully designed to satisfy our customers’ need to look after the servicing of their assets, manage costs and increase flexibility to better respond to today’s uncertain and challenging environment.

Bell Equipment will showcase the best of local at NAMPO 2020 displaying a Bell 315SL TLB, a modified Bell Haulage Tractor with tandem Afrit side-tipping trailers for the maize industry, the new, more economical Bell 620G Grader as well as a selection of Kobelco Excavators and Bomag compaction equipment.

Heavy equipment manufacturer and distributer, Bell Equipment, has concluded a Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment agreement, effective 1 January 2020, that will empower the Group’s South African manufacturing subsidiary, Bell Equipment Company South Africa (BECSA) and further empower the South African sales and distribution subsidiary, Bell Equipment Sales South Africa (BESSA).

An enterprising spirit, enduring perseverance and an ability to change with the times have seen an emerging timber harvesting contractor in northern KwaZulu-Natal evolve from a motor manual outfit into a successful, fully mechanised harvesting operation.

Bell Equipment has evolved from a global supplier to a global manufacturer with the 17 million Euro expansion of its Eisenach-Kindel assembly plant in Germany. The project, which attracted a grant from the state development agency, the LEG Thuringen, for its contribution towards the improvement of the regional economic structure, accommodates the fabrication of Articulated Dump Truck components for the Northern Hemisphere.

The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government took its first steps towards achieving its goal of stimulating the manufacturing sector by visiting Bell Equipment’s factory in Richards Bay this week to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.

Bell Equipment won the ‘Major Contributor to Innovation and Technological Advancement in KZN’ category and was a finalist in the ‘KZN Investor with a Global Footprint’ category of the inaugural KZN Investor Awards, held at the Durban ICC on 12 September.

Over seventy customers from various industries across Southern Africa accepted an invite to the Bell Head Office in Richards Bay at the end of August to gain a thorough understanding of the company, our manufacturing principles and processes as well as our extensive product offering.

Life is full of lessons, some learnt easily and others not. When it comes to creating things or harvesting products, you may be advised to have the correct tool for the job at hand. In business matters, you would hear that diligence and patience pays off, with the latter indicating that you could be in for a long haul.

Bell Equipment’s strategy to revitalise its presence in the agriculture and forestry industry has been bolstered by the announcement that the South African manufacturer will acquire its long-standing partner, Matriarch Equipment.

It’s a well-proven fact that Bell Equipment’s Articulated Dump Trucks have been designed and built to withstand the rigours and challenges of working in some of the toughest conditions in the world.

When the Matriarch ULTeco 5 Slew Loader first hit the wide-open sugar cane lands of the Komatipoort irrigation farms it was a revelation.

Bell Equipment understands that business is about more than just supplying strong, reliable machines and that strong reliable support is an equally, if not more, important consideration for decision-makers. To this end, Bell has an all-inclusive range of aftermarket products and services to enrich the Bell ownership experience so that customers get the most out of their machine throughout the different stages of its lifetime.

Trees in a pulp rotation compete for light, moisture and nutrients. If the trees become older their growth slows and they become susceptible to insects, diseases and mortality sets in.

SiyaQhubeka has conducted an independent evaluation of Waratah’s new H215E Harvesting Head to compare productivity and quality with the company’s current equipment and methods in line with Mondi Forest’s objective of achieving a single pass for its harvesting operations to follow the standard set by the Brazilian forestry industry.

Bell Equipment will have an assortment of new machines for forestry and agriculture on display at NAMPO following partnership agreements with Japanese excavator specialist, Kobelco, in June 2017 and Russian heavy-duty tipper truck manufacturer and 15-times Dakar Rally winner, Kamaz, in December.

A firm belief in the value of long-term relationships is proving its worth for a Swaziland-based timber harvesting contractor. What makes the story intriguing is the fact that even though the contractor believes in job creation by using manual labour, selective use of innovative mechanisation is streamlining his operations, leading to steady growth in a competitive market. Barend Steenkamp, the fifth generation of Steenkamps in Swaziland, along with his father Jan, owns J & B Timbers. The family has for many years farmed in the Sicunusa area in the west of the country. They were some of the last farmers to close their dairy production and Barend, who has a tertiary qualification in agriculture, saw a gap in 2010 in the contract timber harvesting field. “We started out on a small-scale felling 300 tonnes per month using one chainsaw and an agricultural tractor-trailer combination with all handling and loading done using manual labour from the Rocks area near our farm,” Barend says. “This was done for the Montigny timber group who later bought out all of Sappi’s forests in Swaziland.” Over the next five years J & B Timbers's operations showed steady growth and by 2015 the labour force had grown to 65 people. All felling, cross-cutting and loading was still being done by hand and at that time, Barend decided it was time to start mechanising. “We found a used Bell 125 Logger on the open market and in our ignorance, had it repaired using freelance mechanics who installed pirate parts, which soon caused the machine to break down during critical production times,” he says. “We then contacted Charlie Boucher at Bell Equipment in Swaziland and despite it being close to Christmas of that year, we were warmly received as new customers of Bell Equipment and more importantly, had our Bell Logger repaired and back in production quickly. This was the start of a long-term relationship that has benefited us greatly.” In March 2016 J & B Timbers bought its first new Bell 220A Teleboom Logger. “That machine made such a difference to our production as with two Bell Loggers we could now use one machine infield and another stacking timber at the roadside depot where it would also load timber onto trucks,” Barend adds. “Soon after this, our clients Montigny, who are also keen on job creation, doubled our monthly production from 2 500 tonnes to 5 000 tonnes as they saw in us the potential to grow and create more jobs.” In the same year and some six months later, J & B Timbers took delivery of another new Bell 220A Teleboom Logger but replaced the Teleboom with a Crankboom, which has a higher reach and can be used to load timber onto larger trailers. “We had been using the Matriarch 420 Timber Grab on our Bell Loggers and when our clients, Montigny, put out a contract in January 2017 to harvest pine thinnings, we were naturally interested although we now faced a new challenge of extracting bigger timber,” Barend explains. “Charlie Boucher arranged for us to meet Ashley Bell, Matriarch Equipment’s Marketing Manager, and Derek Howe, Bell Equipment’s General Manager: Forestry, Sugar and Agricultural Sales, to look at the Matriarch FASTfell and Skogger timber machines as possible solutions to our proposed thinnings harvesting.” A trip to see the Matriarch machines at work in forests in Tsitsikamma paid dividends and Barend decided that buying the Matriarch Skogger was the best way forward. “Our challenge was to get the felled timber to roadside and the Skogger, which fulfills a dual role of extracting the timber coupled with the ability to then stack it as well, seemed the obvious choice,” he explains. “A big advantage of the Skogger is that we believe it will work equally well in thinnings as well as clear fell operations where it will haul gum in longer lengths, such as that which is destined for transmission poles.” J & B Timbers's operators have taken to the Matriarch Skogger with ease. Barend ascribes this to the ease of handling in the machine’s design and with so many features he enthuses about. “First of all you have a low-revving engine and this in turn translates to fuel burn of around 7,2 litres an hour, which means lower cost per tonnes of timber handled; a big plus. You then don’t have to pre-bunch the timber as the Skogger does that automatically with its delicate grab. That same grab has a built-in scale to prevent overloading and it further features a re-grab effect of which the frequency can be set, which means the timber is held firmly during the extraction and stacking processes. A floating boom also retards the grabbing action.” Other features of the Matriarch Skogger include low temperatures on the hydraulic oil which leads to longer component life, no wheel slip due to the presence of differentials and a transfer box and self-straightening of the articulated turn feature once a change of direction has been completed. Barend believes that the weight-to-power ratio is perfect and this should lead to longer tyre life. “We would not be at this point without the backing, advice and support we’ve enjoyed from Charlie and Nicolien Boucher at Bell Equipment in Swaziland,” Barend says. “We believe we’ve done our part by planning our cash flows and not growing too quickly. We’ve confidently entered into a maintenance agreement with Bell Swaziland and rely totally on the company’s expertise.” Barend’s wife, Carmia, appreciates the challenges of the contract timber harvesting industry but her real passion lies with farming sheep. “From our first meeting, under the pressure that the festive season brings as everyone tries to get away, Charlie and Nicolien have always been eager to assist us,” she says. “We believe we can reward their commitment to our business by keeping our account with Bell Equipment paid up.” From humble beginnings, J & B Timbers has grown its contact timber harvesting operations in a planned and systematic way and while mechanisation has brought benefits, Barend believes that their support of their local community in creating jobs is key. The company’s current labour force of 370 people fell and extract 9 000 tonnes of timber a month but equipment such as the Matriarch Skogger, is certainly speeding things up. Barend quotes a client who said of the Matriarch Skogger: “This machine is going to cause a revolution in the forestry industry” and we have reason to agree. Team Leader of Bell Equipment Swaziland, Charlie Boucher, with Carmia and Barend Steenkamp of J & B Timbers.

Bell Equipment and Matriarch Equipment have announced the signing of a formal distribution agreement, which sees Bell taking on the distribution and support of the complete, locally manufactured Matriarch range of agriculture and forestry equipment. Bell Equipment Product Marketing Manager, Tim Beningfield, says that the agreement will strengthen the existing partnership and creates a win-win scenario for both companies and their customers. "Matriarch is owned and managed by the grandsons of Bell founder, Irvine Bell, so the ability to innovate and develop according to customer's needs is entrenched in the genes. However, Matriarch's real value lies in its dedicated focus on agriculture and forestry, and its responsiveness to bring to fruition niche, low volume solutions for these industries in a relatively short period of time. "With our strong heritage in agriculture and forestry, we are always looking at opportunities to diversify our product offering. With the range of Matriarch products we will be able to better provide a tailor made full line solution to our customers. In return we bring to the partnership a respected and quality distribution and after-sales support network that will provide Matriarch with access to more regions and a larger market." Bell and Matriarch first collaborated and began marketing and distributing the Matriarch UltECO Slew Loaders in 2014 as a solution to sugarcane farmers wanting to pursue a controlled traffic approach to cane loading and haulage. Matriarch's Ashley Bell says this partnership with Bell has proven to be beneficial, with a number of Matriarch UltECO units sold into South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and Swaziland. This has paved the way to extend the agreement between the companies. "In terms of the new agreement, Bell will continue to distribute the UltECO models along with our Matriarch Skogger timber extraction and loading machine and the FASTfell felling and bunching machine. We will also continue to develop new products which, following an assessment of each of these by Bell, would potentially be included in the agreement," explains Ashley. "Matriarch has always been very customer focused and although Bell will provide after-sales support, we will still keep contact with our customers to ensure that we are constantly developing to meet their needs." According to Tim, the Matriarch forestry line enables Bell to offer customers solutions that meet their needs for different levels of mechanisation and machine complexity. "The Matriarch range is well suited to southern African timber conditions and contractors with lower production targets and higher cost sensitivities. This means that they will find favour with a number of smaller contractors while high production, larger operations will still make use of Bell Equipment's complementary range of purpose-built forestry equipment. "Bell, through leveraging our industry leading support network, will ensure that everything is in place to provide these Matriarch machines the same level of service that we provide to all the products in our range. We're confident that this agreement will continue our legacy of providing 'strong reliable machines, strong reliable support' to our agriculture and forestry customers," he ends.

Some of the earliest gold discoveries in South Africa were made in the hills surrounding Barberton in Mpumalanga. This brought about an industrial revolution of its own in the mild climate of the Lowveld. Now Barberton’s gold has all but been depleted, to be replaced by a new and more sustainable resource namely timber. Up in the pine forests of the Montrose area above Barberton, a more subtle and quieter revolution is taking place in the manner and ownership of the once male-dominated industry of timber harvesting and extraction. Winnie Ndlovu grew up in the forests surrounding the Sappi Ngodwana Paper Mill near Nelspruit. Her father, Frank, worked for the company as a forester and when she was a teenager Winnie accompanied him to work in the forests during her school holidays. “When I expressed an interest to study forestry after matric, I was told in no uncertain terms that it was not a place for women,” Winnie says. “So instead, I studied agriculture and with my diploma in hand, I joined TSB Sugar for two years to complete my practical training modules.” Another year’s work with a furniture manufacturer preceded Winnie not being able to resist going to work for then timber contract harvester Gavin Simms. “I worked for Gavin in the administrative department and learnt firsthand about the importance of keeping accurate machine and man-hour records plus all the essential regulatory paperwork that ensures a business runs smoothly,” she says. “Gavin seemed comfortable to let me work on my own and I appreciated learning so much about the timber contracting business in this way.” After Winnie had spent seven years with his company, Gavin Simms was in the throes of exiting the contract harvesting business, choosing instead to hire out forest harvesting equipment under the banner of Sable Hire while also mentoring young and upcoming entrepreneurs to start up their own harvesting outfits. “In 2015 Gavin approached me and asked whether I had ever considered starting my own contract timber harvesting company,” Winnie explains. “It had long been a dream of mine but without access to finance and such resources, I was doubtful that I could do it successfully.” “Fortunately at that time, paper and pulp company Sappi’s Forestry division was putting out tenders for timber harvesting contracts and I was able to negotiate a contract to supply the company with 85 000 tons of pine and eucalyptus a year, for five years. Now that we had a goal, and a somewhat daunting one at that, I had to get started in earnest and Winnie’s Logging Services was founded.” Winnie started off conservatively, employing 24 people. One of those was Violet Motubatse, who is still the Production Manager for Winnie’s Logging Services. “Violet and I have been friends since we both worked for Gavin and she has lots of experience in timber harvesting and extraction,” Winnie adds. “We started off with 11 chainsaws, felling timber manually, and the first machine we hired in was a Bell 225A Logger from Gavin’s Sable Hire, which we used for stacking timber at roadside. All other operations were done manually and we soon realised that to make a dent in our massive annual target of 85 000 tons we would have to mechanise to some extent.” Fortunately help was at hand as besides the valuable mentorship role that Gavin Simms was providing in terms of contracting and technical matters, his company Sable Hire was well equipped to assist Winnie with forestry equipment at competitive rates. “Gavin has been so much more than a mentor to us as a young company, helping us to obtain favourable financial terms from banks with which we could buy our vehicles to transport our staff and light utility vehicles for both Violet and I,” Winnie says. “His vast knowledge, built up over of many years in the forest of how to work efficiently and safely, is the stuff that no one could get from books alone.” “And to add to this backup, Gavin has the experience of what forestry harvesting and equipment will work best for us. He owns the first Matriarch Skogger and has just bought a second machine, which we have the privilege of hiring from him. Working in unison with the Matriarch Skogger is the Matriarch FASTfell timber felling machine which has speeded up our production to levels we’d never have believed possible.” Winnie is adamant that despite the years spent working in the industry it’s working in the timber compartments where experience and knowledge is gained to further her company. She and her harvesting teams are eager learners and value input from experienced specialists in the field. A recent visit by Derek Howe, Bell Equipment’s General Manager: Forestry, Sugar and Agricultural Sales, who will be responsible for much of the sales of Matriarch equipment, and Ashley Bell, Matriarch Equipment Marketing Manager, was eagerly awaited. “Derek with all his experience is a wonderful teacher and he taught us in the pine compartment how to really approach clear felling efficiently,” Winnie continues. “He showed the Matriarch FASTfell operator how to cut a swathe into the compartment with directional felling, so clearing a way that allows the Matriarch Skogger to bunch timber and extract it quickly, stacking it at roadside from where it can be processed further.” Working in tandem, the two Matriarch machines are playing a big role in Winnie’s Logging Services currently achieving around 320 tons per day although Winnie and Violet are confident that as their operators improve, this figure will increase. Working efficiently yet maintaining safety standards is a priority for the whole team. Sable Hire’s Matriarch equipment is hired out on dry rates and Winnie has been impressed by the low fuel consumption that the equipment returns. The Matriarch FASTfell machine purrs its way through 5 to 7 litres of diesel an hour with the Matriarch Skogger only slightly more at between 6 and 9 litres. “The big decision for me now is whether I can afford my own equipment and machines from Matriarch are definitely top of the list,” Winnie says with a broad smile. “The equipment is so competitively priced and as we’re assured of excellent technical back-up through Bell Equipment’s wide footprint, the first thought is that I certainly want both the Matriarch FASTfell and Skogger. Time will tell though and for now, we’re relying on Sable Hire and their favourable rates.” (From left): Winnie Ndlovu, Gavin Simms and Violet Motubatse. Matriarch Equipment's Ashley Bell (left) with Winnie Ndlovu and Bell Equipment's Derek Howe.

Bell Equipment Chief Executive, Gary Bell has made a commitment to increase the company's investment in the development of its employees so that the company can continue to grow and compete internationally. Bell was speaking at a graduation ceremony at the Bell Equipment Training Centre on Friday, 11 August where he congratulated 20 employees who have completed an Operations Management Development Programme under the auspices of the Production Management Institute of South Africa (PMI), as well as four who have completed a Fundamental Management Programme (FMP) through the UNISA Graduate School of Business Leadership. The company's Executive Manager: Manufacturing, Clive Hodgson was the guest speaker and explained the background to the PMI Operations Management Development Programme, which Bell introduced in 2008. "Around that time Bell experienced rapid growth of production volumes but was finding it difficult to bring in supervisors and managers from outside of the company," he said. "As the only South African manufacturer with this level of complexity, we found that many people we brought in struggled because they lacked an understanding of the Bell culture, our products and the unique way that we do things in our production and stores." At the same time the company realised that it had a strong group of employees on the shop floor with the required technical abilities and product experience yet had lacked the opportunity to pursue tertiary studies, which excluded them from applying for supervisor and managerial positions. The PMI development programme was born to enable Bell to grow its own timber and several groups have now attended the course and progressed in their careers. The PMI course runs for a year with lectures every Saturday, which has its challenges. "Many Supervisors would be coming off a third shift and walk straight into their class, or they would finish their lectures in the afternoon and go onto their overtime shift on the weekend. So it wasn't easy but the results have been incredible. The lowest mark that was achieved in the class was 64%. I also sat through many of the final presentations in terms of cost reduction and there were some great ideas," said Hodgson. For similar reasons Bell also put four Trainee Supervisors through the UNISA FMP. Hodgson said that this was quite challenging because "they were expected to work as Supervisors, work on shifts and study by themselves. There were no lectures. They had one contact session where they met with lecturers in Pretoria and got advice". In spite of this they also achieved outstanding results and all four went on to be appointed as fully-fledged Supervisors and are proving to be very successful. In congratulating the students, Shalen Mohanlall, PMI Academic Manager for KwaZulu-Natal, said: "It was a long programme and I know many of you went through a lot of difficulty working, studying part-time, managing your family lives and your social lives. It was a really difficult process but you guys came through with flying colours. Every single one of the facilitators had only the best things to say about this class. It was the best class that we’ve had in the last few years in terms of your results and in terms of your work ethic. Well done!" Thanduxolo Taboshe, a Supplier Quality Engineer based in the Bell Supplier Quality Team in Richards Bay, was announced the Top Student with the highest average in the class, as well as the highest average for the programme in KwaZulu-Natal. For his efforts he received a bursary from PMI to the value of R35 000. He will go on to the NQF6 Diploma in Operations Management and will attend PMI's public classes in Durban. In closing, Gary Bell thanked PMI for its assistance in putting the Bell candidates through the programme, as well as the graduates for giving up their time to further their studies. He added that Bell would add to Thanduxolo's bursary by covering the other costs related to the programme and said: "In time we look forward to seeing you back up here with your next qualification." PMI Academic Manager KZN, Shalen Mohanlall (left) and Bell Equipment Chief Executive, Gary Bell (right) congratulate the Top Student, Thanduxolo Taboshe on achieving the highest average in the class. At the graduation ceremony were (back left): Shalen Mohanlall (PMI Academic Manager KZN), Suraj Hurilall (Technical Rework), Eric Papiah (Matprep Main), Shilen Singh (Axle Assembly), Ernest Mthembu (Matprep TPP), Vinesh Naidoo (Heavy Machining), Antonio Webster (Quality - Test Track Inspection), Ashley Peter (Group SOP), Thulani Mngomezulu (Logistics Stores), Kemlall Dayaram (Machine Shop), Pooven Naidoo (Thin Plate Component Fabrication), Reginald Abraham (Machine Shop), Dumisani Shezi (Small Chassis Fabrication), Zama Sibisi (Thin Plate Component Fabrication), Cornelius Sauerman (Matprep Main), Nkosinathi Mngomezulu (Logistics Stores), Shoayb Amod (Logistics Stores), Saggies Mhlongo (Matprep TPP), Gary Bell (CEO); (front left): Riaan de Klerk (Technical Apprentices), Ivan Latshoomanan (Bin Fabrication), Nompumelelo Mbonambi (Axle Fabrication), Pinky Mlambo (Logistics Stores), Thanduxolo Taboshe (SHEQ Supplier Development), Mashell Peeriyah (Logistics Stores), Nokulunga Nxumalo (Cylinders and Pins).

Not too long ago the thought of being able to manage one's heavy equipment fleet remotely by computer would have seemed far-fetched. Yet today this technology is so readily available and beneficial that managing a fleet successfully without it should be unthinkable. This is according to Bell Equipment's Fleetm@tic® Product Manager, Philip Nel, who says that modern day telematics has taken fleet management to another level by offering accurate and in-depth data that would previously have been too time consuming and laborious to gather and assimilate. Bell Equipment was the first original equipment manufacturer to develop its own proprietary fleet management system, having introduced Fleetm@tic® for its range of Articulated Dump Trucks about 12 years ago, and remains a leader in the industry. "With our standard onboard weighing we saw an opportunity for this technology and had the confidence that this is the way that the market would eventually move. With growing competitiveness in the market it is important for customers to have accurate production data so that they can get the fastest return on their capital investment and optimise their operation," says Philip. Today the company has thousands of machines on Fleetm@tic®, with some operating in far-flung locations such as Greenland and Iceland as well as on a small remote island off the south east coast of Australia. Fleetm@tic® makes use of dual communication using cell phone networks where available, which provides a cost effective and reliable means of transmitting of higher volumes of data. In areas where there is no cell phone network coverage, Bell benefits from pole-to-pole satellite coverage to deliver critical communications. The company's design philosophy of continuous evolution has seen the system advance over this time to improve its user-friendliness and include real-time monitoring. Fleetm@tic® can work with any modern browser and is compatible with mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Most recently the system has been extended to cover a customer's whole Bell fleet. Since different customers have different needs, Bell Fleetm@tic® is available in three packages: The Basic package is available on all Bell-supplied machines and provides customers with machine hours worked per shift, average fuel burn and a fault code report. The Classic package is standard on all new ADTs for two years from date of delivery and provides production data including idle times and average payloads. Premium offers real-time tracking of equipment and detailed operational information for each individual laden and unladen cycle. Another useful aspect of Fleetm@tic® is that it can be built into a customer's upfront finance package. Bell also supports data export for customers who run fleets of equipment supplied by different OEMs so that they can access their data using whatever software they prefer. Apart from the obvious uses to track productivity and fuel consumption, Fleetm@tic® can be used to identify areas for driver improvement, which positively impacts on production. When used efficiently Fleetm@tic® can assist with scheduling maintenance and services, enabling Bell to order parts in advance and understand what is happening with a machine's health. The security benefit of Fleetm@tic® was highlighted in November 2016, when a customer called the Bell Fleetm@tic® office to report a machine stolen in the King William's Town area. "The Fleetm@tic® engineers communicated directly with the machine to obtain its location and this information was passed on to the police. The engineers also sent the machine a disable message to prevent it from starting. The police tracked down the machine and recovered it for the customer," recalls Philip. Andrew O'Brien, Assistant Maintenance Manager of FWM-Fujairah Workshop Machinery Plant Division, part of Saif Bin Darwish Civil Engineering Contractors based in the United Arab Emirates, has seen firsthand the benefits of Fleetm@tic®. The company has five Bell B50D ADTs and a B40D and has been using the fleet management system for about two years. "We've been able to take our Fleetm@tic® data and chart it to see trends more easily. It gives us an understanding and detailed insight into production data like never before. We can identify shortfalls in our production output and implement changes where necessary, for example, if we are under payload capacity we can pick it up and take steps to improve. We can also set benchmarks and targets for a variety of areas like tonnage outputs, cycle times, laden and unladen idle times. Using geofencing has allowed us to identify bottlenecks in our operation, pinpoint locations that are slower and investigate our tipping points and see why we can't get in and out faster. "We can gather performance data on individual operators, remotely gather vital health and production data as well as identify and prevent possible future failures using data such as overloads, speeding and harsh braking. Recently we had a truck with excessive tyre wear and when we looked at our data we saw that the truck had more overloading events that had led to the problem, and we were able to identify how to improve tyre life. "We've checked the Bell onboard weighing system against our weigh bridges and have found it to be very accurate. Fleetm@tic® is a real benefit. By being able to gather this data we're able to change attitudes and perceptions. We use it to track so many things and it can be a measuring tool to see what improvements and savings have been achieved," he adds. Philip encourages customers to make contact and arrange a demonstration so that they can see the results for themselves. "Embracing this technology and incorporating it into your daily life will reap cost saving rewards. We understand that not everyone shares our enthusiasm for technology but we have tools to support you through the transformation," he says.

Bell Equipment, as part of its group strategy to grow its independent dealer network in select markets, has announced that Lonagro Mozambique has been appointed as its exclusive dealer in Mozambique and Malawi. Explaining the rationale behind the company's strategy and Longaro's appointment, Bell Equipment's Group Marketing Director, Stephen Jones, said: "Working through independent dealers has proven to be a model that allows us to provide better coverage and support to our customers in markets where areas are vast, and machine populations are low. In the equipment industry, infrastructure and investment are required to provide support that is essential to users of this equipment. In our experience, synergies develop quickly with dealers that have complementary products that can help support the necessary infrastructure and better weather market cycles." Lonagro is a division of Lonrho Group, which holds John Deere Agriculture dealerships in a number of African countries. It has quickly made a name for itself in the highly contested agriculture equipment market by displaying a willingness to invest and take a long-term view of the countries in which it operates as well as its equipment users and future opportunities. "We assessed a number of different business models as well as other potential dealers as part of a business improvement project launched early in the year," continues Jones. "From the outset it became clear that a closer relationship with Lonagro would provide benefits for Bell, Lonagro and, most importantly, our Bell customers. Synergies are clear with regards to management structures, scarce skills, logistics, facilities, and understanding customers. This gives Bell confidence that Lonagro, as a top performing John Deere dealer with a dynamic and motivated team, is well positioned to support our existing customers and grow the footprint of our machines in the region." Lonagro is equally excited about the opportunity provided by being able to supply and support the extensive range of Bell products into the territory. "While the market remains difficult we are confident in the future of the countries. Long term agriculture, mineral resource and infrastructure opportunities are vast, and with our Bell alliance we can now supply a significant range of products that will be used in these industries. This will allow Lonagro to continue to invest and position itself as the clear equipment provider of choice,” comments Reinhardt van Zyl, Managing Director of Lonagro.