Hydrasales, with its head office located in Johannesburg, is a leading distributor that has positioned itself as one of South Africa's foremost specialists in hydraulic filtration and accessories. The company was established as a one-man operation in 1979 by the late Maurice Allenby and has evolved into a progressive, service driven entity meeting the specialised needs of fluid power system designers and engineers.
Today the team has grown to 16 people under the leadership of Haroun Pochee. There are branches in Durban and Cape Town and these are managed by Elvira Caripis (Johannesburg), Myra Smith (Durban) and Trevor Mentor (Cape Town), the first two showing the commitment of the company to promote women into positions of control. Also key to the expanding business of the company are Reginald Pretorius, Emeralda Els and Cheryl Johnson. Pretorius initially opened the Cape Town branch and has been in the hydraulics components business since 1973.
A private, majority black owned company, Hydrasales has managed to achieve an incredible score of more than 90% on the DTI BEE scorecard, more than meeting the requirements of preferential procurement as defined in the relevant legislation. In support of its satisfied customer base, Hydrasales ethics and core values encompass integrity, quality, service, competitiveness and delivery.
The company recently celebrated its 25th anniversary using the slogan 'Charging towards another 25 years'. It is a strong logo, supported by a robust elephant. Elvira, who joined the company in 1984, exclaims that she is looking forward to the next 25 years and hopes to still be with Hydrasales. Not surprisingly, with a small staff count, the company provides a very good working environment and remains a friendly, family type business with warm greetings extended to everyone who visits.
Christina Mthembu, the warehouse manager is proud of her stores and commented that the company holds more than four months stock to meet the high expectations of local buyers. A sophisticated inventory management system enables the company to shorten lead times and keep customers happy. While the company sells directly to OEMs it has a large number of resellers located throughout the country and these customers typically account for a large percentage of sales. The list of customers is long and encompasses leading hydraulic, engineering and construction companies.
Having been in business for more than 25 years Hydrasales has long standing relationships with its overseas principals that allows for continued access to cutting edge technologies, product development and innovation. All of the company's principals are certified to ISO 9000 and meet safety and other stringent criteria demanded by their local markets (Europe and the USA). Through these principals Hydrasales offers a wide and varied product range that encompasses:
* Hydraulic filtration and elements for suction, return and pressure lines on hydraulic systems.
* Level measurement equipment such as level gauges, level floats and bull sight glasses.
* A wide range of quick release couplings with ball, pin and flat face types.
* Check valves, flanges, pressure gauges and breathers.
* Flowmeters.
* Oil coolers.
The principals associated with the motion control industry include Faster, Hedland, M P Filtri, Mintor and Nuova Fima, all of these with the exception of Hedland being Italian companies. Hedland is located in Wisconsin in the USA.
Faster has more than 50 years experience in the hydraulic field and has focused on the design and manufacture of the widest selection of quick release couplings for medium to very high pressure. The company offers some 24 different product lines, interchangeable with more than 2000 types of coupling.
M P Filtri was established in 1964 with the focus being on the design and manufacture of a quality range of hydraulic filtration and accessory products. The company is now considered one of the international market leaders in this field.
Hedland has been designing and manufacturing quality flow measurement systems for more than 30 years, and its standard product line has grown to more than 10 000 different flowmeter models.
Mintor, another Italian company has been in the vein of production of metal plugs and level indicators since 1962. The company's products directly address the needs of builders of tool machines, compressors, road machines and all the other kind of machines used by industry.
Finally, Nuova Fima has been manufacturing instruments for pressure and temperature control since 1948 and is known throughout the world for its first class products.
Not content with just using the catalogues of its principals, Hydrasales has produced its very comprehensive range of brochures covering products and accessories most suitable for the local markets and conditions. Identification of the most likely required products ensures that stock holding can be rationalised, reducing the cost that is passed onto the customer. These brochures support technical catalogues and incorporate technical specifications such as product size, flow or pressure rating and construction.
Although the staff complement is small, collectively totalled, the experience pool exceeds over 100 years within the hydraulics industry. This obviously provides a talent pool that can always come up with the optimum solution. Staff turnover is low and individuals are incentivised and share in the financial success of the company. The role of management is also critical and here there is a hands-on approach and personal mentoring and coaching is provided to staff members.
BEE
The principles of BEE also imply that companies should have their own social responsibility programmes. As a small enterprise, Hydrasales does not have a formal programme but it has assisted staff in the purchase of cars, children's education and has provided support and counselling in times of trauma. Individual members of staff are however also involved in community and religious organisations for social upliftment of the broader community. For example Haroun Pochee, himself, heads up a community investment company, Roshgold, that is involved in investor education, property syndications and producing a company magazine. Other staff members, have, through their churches presented social programmes, while others are involved in caring for HIV/Aids victims in Tembisa.
Hydrasales is an outstanding example of a black empowered company that has managed to retain its total expertise as well as having a truly representative staff complement. Management is confident that the company and sales will continue to grow and that it will, through the innovation of its principals and its own total customer service focus, remain one of South Africa's leading specialists in hydraulic filtration and accessories.
| Tel: | +27 11 392 3736 |
| Fax: | +27 11 392 6957 |
| Email: | [email protected] |
| www: | www.hydrasale.co.za |
| Articles: | More information and articles about Hydrasales |
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