ETT – from Richards Bay to the world

Founded 25 years ago, ETT has over the years expanded its traditional off-highway tanker trucks business to become a global designer and manufacturer of a diverse line of open pit mine support equipment and specialised mobile industrial equipment aimed at improving productivity and safety. Now offering a line of more than 70 machines, complemented by strategic global partnerships, the company has in the past five years embarked on a global expansion strategy with resounding success, writes Munesu Shoko.

Building a company with staying power is no easy feat. The ability to weather storms and compete over decades – and longer – is a primary metric for the success of any business. Every organisation is unique, and there is no precise formula for sustaining a business long term.

For ETT, its 25-year success owes to offering products and services that continually surpass customer expectations, as well as nuanced growth strategies – of which internationalisation is one – and a close understanding of the competitive marketplace.

Reflecting on the past 25 years, co-founder Richard Everingham tells Capital Equipment News that a combination of design capability, technical excellence and manufacturing flexibility provided the business with a strong foundation for its long-term success. ETT was founded on its ability to design and manufacture ultra-low centre of mass off-highway tanker trucks.

“We have been and are still successful with our traditional off-road tanker business. We set the standard in water tankers some 20 years ago and still remain the market leader in that segment in sub-Saharan Africa. We have also revolutionised the off-road lowbed trailer and lubrication service vehicle business on the continent,” he says.

In addition to its traditional mining support equipment business, ETT added the aluminium smelter logistic vehicle business to its portfolio in 1998.  Since then, the company has established itself as a go-to solutions provider of mobile equipment for the aluminium smelter industry in southern Africa. This has led to the conclusion of a technology sharing and manufacturing agreement with GLAMA Maschienbau, GMBH, where ETT will manufacture a range of GLAMA equipment at their factory in Richards Bay, South Africa.  

Strong OEM partnerships

One of ETT’s strong points is the trust it has established with large international original equipment manufacturers, such as Caterpillar, Komatsu, Volvo Construction Equipment, Bell Equipment and Hitachi.

Andre Mc Duling, MD of ETT, says it is one thing for any self-respecting engineering company to take an OEM’s piece of machinery and modify it, but it is quite another to maintain that machine’s warranty and to ensure that it remains reliable and safe after the adaptations.   

“Although our business is based on adapting or adding to large OEMs’ products, there is still a lot of engineering that goes into it, without compromising the integrity of the OEM product. We have demonstrated our engineering capabilities over the past 25 years, gaining the confidence of global OEMs in the process,” says Mc Duling.

ETT, for example, has a manufacturing agreement with Caterpillar and intellectual property agreements with Volvo CE and Bell Equipment. While the relationships extend to all major OEMs, Mc Duling explains that the company has formal agreements with these three OEMs. The Caterpillar manufacturing agreement has been aided by the local Cat dealer, Barloworld Equipment’s localisation strategy, and is reinforced by a frequent interaction with Caterpillar’s US representative.

Commenting on the changing dynamics in the equipment market, Mc Duling says because of the increasing need for machines to be safer and the rapid move towards autonomy, there are more and more electronics installed on big machines. It’s, therefore, important for engineering companies to work closely with OEMs when modifying these machines to make sure that their systems integrate seamlessly with the OEM’s systems in order to maintain the performance, and more importantly, the safety of the products. ETT has established a strong integration function within the organisation, which makes sure that all adaptations meet OEM standards.

Global expansion

Traditionally, ETT’s business has been concentrated in its home market of South Africa. However, in the past five years, the company has embarked on a global expansion programme, which has already yielded massive success. To provide context, between 2011 and 2012, 85% of ETT’s business was locally based, but today 75% of its business is export.

“It has been a priority for us to expand our footprint into the global market. For a small company that comes out of an area that traditionally doesn’t make a lot of specialised equipment for export markets, we are very proud of the progress we have made thus far in our global strategy,” explains Mc Duling.

The company intensified its export strategy with a push into Africa some five years ago. Key to the success in Africa is ETT’s strong support structures across the major mining regions on the continent. The company has placed a major focus on four major regions – West Africa, Central, Southern and Eastern Regions.

West Africa, says Mc Duling, offers the biggest opportunity to date, with ETT currently involved in a major project in Ghana and southern Mali. The company has successfully completed several projects in Gabon and Liberia. The Central Region, anchored by the DRC, offers great opportunity through an array of mining projects. In the Southern Region, Zambia and South Africa remain the two major markets, while the Eastern Region is predominantly Mozambique.

To maximise opportunities in these markets, ETT has set up local support structures, in line with the host governments’ push for indigenisation. The company has a local, established company in Botswana, which allows it to manufacture in the country. This is complemented by two entities in Mozambique, one supporting the aluminium business and the other focusing on the traditional mining interests. “We are also currently setting up shop in Zambia, with Ghana following later this year,” says Mc Duling.

Elsewhere, ETT has just established local representation in the United States to support its products in that market. The United States is one of the most important markets in ETT’s global strategy, and the company has just delivered its first equipment, designed and manufactured in South Africa, to the US market.

Equipped with well-engineered, state-of-the-art products, ETT has in recent years prioritised strategic partnerships as part of the global expansion strategy. “Evidence of the world-class nature of our offering is that it has been easy to find good partners in the world,” says Mc Duling.