Bystronic South Africa, a subsidiary of Bystronic Laser AG, a Switzerland-based company that develops and sells systems for processing sheet metal, has celebrated the opening of its new showroom and offices facility in Spartan, Gauteng with over 150 clients, suppliers, staff and friends attending the opening function.

Bystronic flies the flag in South Africa – Bystronic Laser AG, a Switzerland-based company that develops and sells systems for processing sheet metal, celebrated the opening of its Bystronic South Africa showroom and offices facility in Spartan, Gauteng with 150 clients, suppliers, staff and friends attending the opening function

Earlier this year Bystronic Laser AG announced that it had opened a fully-fledged subsidiary in South Africa, thus demonstrating its confidence in the local market while also looking to the future. Sales of the Bystronic products in South Africa were previously entrusted in the hands of First Cut.

“Bystronic have made a significant investment in the South African market and it demonstrates our confidence in South Africa while at the same time conveying the importance with which the company regards the local market and customers,” said Philipp Burgener, Managing Director of Bystronic Sales AG and responsible for the new entity, Bystronic South Africa.

The cutting of the ribbon – Simone Malz Coetzer (Deputy Head of Swiss Business Hub, Embassy of Switzerland), Andrew Poole (Managing Director of First Cut), Philipp Burgener (Managing Director of Bystronic Sales AG and responsible for the new entity, Bystronic South Africa), Hugo Alleman (Senior Vice President Market Division Central Europe, Bystronic AG) and Johan Elster (President Business Unit Markets, Bystronic AG)

“With this direct investment there are numerous advantages that will be directly beneficial for customers as compared to the agent and OEM relationship that has existed in the past. Noticeable changes going forward will be in the area of communication, whereby an agent has to follow a certain protocol in terms of problem identification and problem solving. This can be frustrating and time consuming. In the environment of a direct subsidiary this protocol now falls away and will allow access to information a whole lot quicker,” continued Burgener.

Gareth Jackson, Joanne Canossa and Steve van Wyk, all of Bystronic South Africa with guest speaker Ray Mordt

Marco Strappozzon of Laser Fab, Hannes Pretorius of Bystronic South Africa and Luis Fernandez of Schuurman Lasercut

“The second win for customers will be the access to spare parts, particularly when it comes to big ticket items. There will always be accessibility and logistical and warranty problems for agents, which ultimately lead to extra costs, downtime and frustrations for customers, and these will now be avoided. Again, the direct subsidiary situation will eliminate all these problems and allow customers to have access to a wider range of spares in a much shorter period,” continued Burgener.

“Officially the subsidiary has been active since 1 April 2019 but it took a few months to find our own home here in Johannesburg, renovate the facility to include a large showroom, occupied by machines in a working environment as though they were in a production processing facility, offices, training, service and spares departments. There was a movement of 25 staff from First Cut to the new company and these include management, sales, software, marketing, service and administration.”

Anthony Lezar, Ian McCrystal and Manny da Silva, all of First Cut

Ray, Joost and Danie – Guest speaker Ray Mordt and Danie Gerber, two world-famous Springbok rugby players with Joost Smuts of TW Profile Services in the centre

“Our senior staff are made up of people that have extensive knowledge of our products. This includes Gareth Jackson for sales and service, Eugene Fernandez, Hannes Pretorius and Maurice Zermatten on the sales side, Steve van Wyk on the finance side, Joanne Canossa for marketing and human resources and Chris van Aswegan and his team on the service side,” continued Burgener.

“The showroom includes a 4kW Bystronic BySmart fibre laser operating on a nitrogen generator, a 100 ton Xact Smart Bystronic press brake, an Xpert 40 high-speed, mobile press brake and a Series 42 1350 WRbW Timesavers rotating brush machine for deburring, edge rounding and finishing.”

“Additionally, there is a dedicated training facility where customers can be trained on our BySoft 7, ByCockpit, Plant Manager and other software requirements that provides real-time analysis and visualisation of selected key indicators regarding machine performance and manufacturing efficiency, enabling companies to constantly improve their production.”

Jorge and Manny Peixoto and Ricky Camacho, all of JP Engineering

Grant Mackenzie and Jerry Govender, both of Qinisa Steel Solutions

“We have designed the showroom so that a client can set up a demonstration, sending us their drawing and test material so that we will be able to process his component or product from beginning to end in a real live situation, while at the same time discuss what might be the best way to fabricate a particular component.”

“We demonstrated this, with live video streaming of the process, to people that attended our function.”

“We would like to thank Andrew Poole, Ian McCrystal and First Cut for the smooth handing over during this transition period. At the same time, we thank all our existing clients for being such loyal supporters and for first time entrants into the market we will make sure that Bystronic equipment is your first brand of choice.”

For further details contact Bystronic South Africa on TEL: 010 410 0200 or visit www.bystronic.co.za