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.

JWL Landbou Voorsieners was founded in Ermelo in 1991 by three original partners. The company is currently jointly owned by two silent partners and the Managing Director, Werner Nel, who tells us a bit more about its history: “The business was started when the founders saw a need for a reliable distributor of agricultural tractors and related implements with associated technical backup in this area,” he says. “I joined the business in 2008 and in 2016, we established a fully-fledged branch in nearby Standerton to give us more coverage of the area.”

Werner Nel is a graduate industrial engineer and holds a master’s degree in business leadership (MBL) from UNISA’s Business School. He is, by his own admission, passionate about agriculture, especially the mechanisation side of the discipline.

“As our name implies, we’re a supplier to agriculture and our business stands on two pillars with the first being a dealer in Massey Ferguson and Fendt tractors and a host of related implements and the second pillar, an importer of agricultural equipment not covered by the former distribution agreement, which we distribute ourselves within a set target area,” Werner says. “We employ 44 people spread across our head office in Ermelo and branch in Standerton.”

Apart from the sales and distribution side of the business, Werner emphasises the fact that reliable technical support is a key driver of what makes the business sustainable and benefits its customer base. “We run two fully equipped workshops with comprehensively stocked parts departments as we believe when a machine is sold, it should be fully supported,” he says. “Experience has taught us the valuable lesson that reliable technical support of a first machine sells the following one.”

“In this regard, doing business with integrity is what counts,” he continues. “Imagine it’s planting time and a customer has a planter that needs urgent repair. You need to do your utmost to get that implement up and working again, to put the long-term benefit to the customer first, as in this case if he could not plant his maize, he has no chance of a harvest and therefore no income.”

During the second half of 2022, Charles Inggs, Bell Equipment’s Business Development Manager: Forestry and Agriculture approached JWL Landbou Voorsieners to ascertain whether they would be interested in being a distributor of Bell and JCB branded equipment in the agricultural space.

“We keenly took the opportunity to become a dealer for both the JCB Agriculture and Bell Forestry and Agriculture ranges as we foresaw it would enhance our offering to our large agricultural and industrial customer base,” Werner says. “It’s an unassailable fact that as
commercial farms become bigger

with added mechanisation, so more yellow metal gets added. You’ll find that even though a farmer may not have owned, for example, a Backhoe Loader before, once he has it, it digs and loads every day.”

JWL Landbou Voorsieners put their words into action by recently selling a Bell 225F Logger to a property developer who incidentally also farms. The customer is developing a truck-stop in Volksrust and is using 30 000 concrete railway sleepers as a form of paving for the forecourt where the trucks will park. To handle these cumbersome sleepers easily and safely he bought a Bell 225F Logger.

“We were particularly pleased with the sale of this Bell 225F Logger as it’s the first machine of its kind to be sold by our new Forestry and Agriculture dealer network into an unusual application to boot,” says Charles Inggs. “We’re confident that this will be the first of many more yellow metal machines that JWL Landbou Voorsieners will deliver into their customer base and while we wish them well, we also want to assure them of our solid support from both Bell and JCB Agriculture.”

Werner believes his sales force, mechanics and staff working in parts all stand to benefit from the arrangement with Bell Forestry and Agriculture. “We are supporters of our people learning new things that will see them expanding their knowledge and undergoing personal growth, which benefits them personally, our business and ultimately our customers,” he says.

Managing Director of JWL Landbou Voorsieners, Werner Nel.