MechChem Africa visits the South African facilities of Bell Equipment in Richards Bay and talks to Stephen Jones, director of operations and global marketing, about the company’s expansion into a globally renowned brand and the consequent need to expand its European manufacturing hub for global market growth.
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Bell Equipment components are manufactured in Richards Bay and Eisenach-Kindel in central Germany to the same world class quality standards.
When Irvine Bell, Bell Equipment’s founder, first came to KZN there was very little development in the area now known as Richards Bay, begins Stephen Jones. “From here to Durban, all you would have seen was sugarcane. After serving in the Second World War, Irvine bought a little plot of land not far from here and started a small engineering workshop to support local farmers,” he tells MechChem Africa.
The first piece of equipment he designed was a self-load sugarcane trailer, which enabled farmers to grab and load bundles of sugarcane. He then went on to design his three-wheeler cane loader, which was quite revolutionary. And he did this from a small plot of land nearby that is currently used as Bell’s vehicle test track.
His wife's brother, Malcolm Campbell, came out to join him and they started ‘IA Bell and Company’. In those early years, the three wheelers were manufactured under licence by a company called Funky, because Irvine Bell did not have the workshop space to manufacture them. When his sons Gary and Peter joined the company, though, they started designing and manufacturing equipment for themselves, and that put the company on a rapid growth path.
“As the crow flies, we are only 10 to 15 km away from the original company, but the first move was into premises in Empangeni, which was a bigger centre than Richards Bay at that time. When the port at Richards Bay started to be built, the company began to supply engineering services to the harbour, as well as equipment such as tractor-trailers and front-end loaders,” Jones continues.
“We moved into the first half of this factory in Richards Bay in 1984, and we bought the second half three or four years later. We then further extended the facility with a new machine shop in 2001,” he says.
Peter Bell had the engineering background, which he used to design the innovative machines, while Gary became more commercially-focused, serving as the de facto CEO – and Gary Bell remains the Board chairman to this day.
“So that's why Bell Equipment is in Richards Bay. It has nothing to do with the port or where our markets are, it is where the company started. When he passed away, Irvine Bell was living in the same house he had bought when he first started working here,” says Jones.
The German factory
Bell Equipment has had a manufacturing presence in Eisenach-Kindel, in central Germany, since 2003, when its facility was initially used for the assembly of Bell’s flagship articulated dump trucks (ADTs) being sold into the European and US markets. This factory has been extended quite significantly in recent times as part of a strategy to streamline the logistics involved for producing heavy mobile equipment destined for Northern Hemisphere markets. The expansion began in 2018 with an extension to the original assembly line, which was opened 2019. Then in 2022, a nearby factory became available and was incorporated to accommodate plans to increase manufacturing at the European operation.
“We must do more of the heavy fabrication and machining closer to our markets and to our key material and component suppliers. This is a must. Having tripled the size of our German factory, we now have the space we need to do everything we currently do in South Africa, including the heavy fabrication and machining,” notes Jones.
Outlining the key advantages, he says the ADT product line accounts for some 70% of Bell Equipment’s income. Of this, two thirds of the sales go into Europe and the US, while the other third remains in Africa. Of the total market, 50% of global ADT sales are in the USA. “By moving more production to Germany, we hope to become more competitive in the European and US markets where we see strong potential to grow our market share,” he explains.
Increasing European production capacity will also relieve some of the pressure on the Richards Bay facility in South Africa. While Bell Equipment will continue to manufacture the volumes for local markets, the resources freed up by the German factory will be put to better use to manufacture new products and meet customised local fabrication needs. Locally sourced materials will be used wherever possible to offer customers in South Africa and surrounding countries customised design engineering and manufacturing services.
A new entity called Bell Heavy Industries has already been created to take advantage of the additional capacity being created. The new company aims to offer the same international quality levels used in the fabrication of Bell machines for the custom fabrication of local replacement buckets, tanks and components for any locally employed equipment brand, and the offer extends to project engineering and contract manufacturing for all industries.
Design and IP
True to its roots, Bell Equipment remains a proudly South Africa innovator of equipment solutions designed to meet specific mining, construction, and agriculture needs. This is an ongoing pursuit, as exemplified by the current development of a new motor grader for the construction industry. “We have been selling Bell Motor Graders in Africa since 1996, so we have almost 30 years of experience in these machines. We are currently testing a completely redesigned prototype, which is already attracting a lot of interest from those visiting our factory,” Stephen Jones continues, adding that the innovation, design and R&D role of the company is based in South Africa and will not be moving.
“When we first launched our ADT into our home market, it grew very quickly and, today, South Africa is one of the top three markets in the world. We believe we had a lot to do with the rapid growth of that market,” he says.
In the size of motor graders that Bell is focusing on – above 200 hp/150 kW – the South and Southern African markets are already in the global top five – and the world grader market is as big, if not bigger, than the ADT market. So, Stephen Jones is excited about the launch of another new global state-of-the-art machine, designed and developed in South Africa.
The USA and Canada are the largest market in the world for ADTs and graders, he says, and once the Bell ADT market has been re-established there, he sees great opportunities over the next 10 to 15 years to become a world leader in the grader market as well.
From an IP perspective, Bell Equipment has developed several niche custom equipment solutions based on its core vehicle successes. The front end of its ADT can be morphed into articulated haulers, bottom dump trailers, timber trucks, water tankers, fire trucks and more. The company has a range of purpose-built underground mining machines with best-in-class power to weight ratios. And the range of different attachments for the company’s agricultural and forestry machines, such as the impressive Feller Buncher attachment initially developed for the tri-wheeler, continues to expand.
Advanced features in its mobile equipment include keyless start, hill assist, bin tip prevention, standard turbo spin protection, on board weighing, and an auto park brake, while the Bell-developed satellite feet management system, Fleetm@tic, collects, sends and analyses productivity, utilisation, geolocation and machine condition data that can be accessed and managed from anywhere in the world.
Long may the proud tradition established by Irvine Bell continue.