COVER STORY
A NEW
N A R R AT I V E
FAST FACT
GRW has been named after
the founding trio – Gerhard
and Wentzel van der Merwe,
as well as business associate,
Rossouw van Eeden – but
is now operating under the
abbreviated form only.
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WITH BUSINESS CONFIDENCE ON THE DECLINE AND STUBBORN REDUCTIONIST
STEREOTYPES HOLDING BACK INTERNATIONAL TRADE, THERE WOULD BE EVERY REASON
FOR SOUTH AFRICAN MANUFACTURING BUSINESSES TO ABANDON THE FIELD. BUT SOME
ONLY BECOME MORE DETERMINED TO SUCCEED. [ Story by Sebastian Grote ]
W W W. G LO B A LTR A I LE R M AG . C O M / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / 23
COVER STORY
I
t was with more than a pinch of sarcasm that award-winning Kenyan journalist
Binyavanga Wainaina suggested to always use keywords such as darkness or
safari in the title when reporting on the African continent. His 2005 essay,
How to Write about Africa, openly criticised the repeated use of stereotypes
in mainstream media when dealing with Africa and inspired a widely acclaimed
2009 TED talk by Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Adichie, which has since
accumulated some 11 million views.
In her speech at the famed Oxford Playhouse, Adichie pointed out that clichés
about poverty, famine and disasters dominated mainstream reporting and, as a
result, the public understanding of Africa. There was rarely a rounded, balanced
or nuanced approach, she said, laying bare a conflict that is still impacting
almost every aspect of life on the 54-nation continent today – including trailer
manufacturing.
“We find a lot of negativity towards Africa when dealing with foreign people,”
says Gerhard van der Merwe, CEO of GRW, a 1.25 billion rand (€84 million)
trailer manufacturing company headquartered in Worcester, some 120km
northeast of Cape Town. “While we are a proudly African business, we are
often perceived as a third world company, which we are certainly not. People
often don’t realise how professional we are until they come and visit us and
see what we are all about.”
According to Suzanne Franks, a Professor of Journalism at the University of
London and former BBC current affairs producer who has published extensively
on the impact of stereotypes on cultural identity, GRW’s situation is symptomatic
for a continent trying to overcome the “old Afro-pessimism stereotype”, as she
puts it. “Simple binaries are not sufficient anymore to tell the [story] of such a
vast and multifaceted area.”
Agrees van der Merwe, who has been working hard to change the continent’s
economic narrative ever since he founded GRW in 1996. “We see ourselves as
a global competitor manufacturing in Africa,” he explains. “We compete with
the very best in the world, which in turn gives us an advantage in the local and
African market – not the other way around.”
After dedicating 20 years to growing the local trailer-making industry, van der
Merwe says he doesn’t want to allow an out-dated cultural stereotype to decide
on the fate of the business – and the industry – he helped build, especially now
that a slowing South African economy (see breakout box) is putting pressure
on local businesses to find new growth opportunities overseas. “GRW is on the
forefront of automation and we will continue to automate as much as possible
if there’s a business case for it,” he says – noting that hardly anything about the
company’s key manufacturing hub in Worcester is typically African. “The factory
could be anywhere in the developed world and is able to compete with the best
in the industry. I can’t see a difference that
would be relatable to our country of origin.”
Despite that distinct global edge, GRW
started out locally as the in-house tankermanufacturing arm of Wynland Vervoer, a
Worcester-based transport business owned by
his father. “At the time, local manufacturers
were complacent about tanker design,” he says.
“They simply didn’t meet the quality standards
Wynland expected, so I took the opportunity
and started GRW with my business associate,
Rossouw van Eeden. Neither of us had any
experience in trailer manufacturing, but the
first series we introduced to the market already
proved game changing with view to design
and payload. We well and truly hit the ground
running.”
The rest, van der Merwe says, is history.
“Benefitting from having such a direct link
to the end customer, we quickly learned
what a successful product had to look like –
so much so that we now see ourselves well
ahead of local OEMs in terms of design,
quality and production facilities – not only
in the tanker field.”
Only recently, he shares, GRW ventured
into the High Productivity Freight Vehicle
(HPFV) field with the manufacture of the
company’s first Performance-Based Standards
(PBS) range. “We see a lot of potential in
PBS, which is an up-and-coming market
segment here in South Africa and highly
popular in Australia and Canada, too,” van
der Merwe explains. “It’s a cutting edge field
and therefore the perfect fit for an innovative
organisation like GRW.”
GRW’s first PBS project was a 55,000-litre
quad-axle fuel tanker that provided the client
with a seven-tonne payload advantage over
the model it replaced. The second one was
FAST FACT
GRW’s best-selling model is
the Imvubu – the Zulu word for
hippopotamus. The 50,000-litre
fuel tanker is available with a
variety of discharge systems
depending on the application.
All GRW models are based
on a modular design concept
for easy repair-ability and built
using the latest computer-based
manufacturing methods, says
CEO, Gerhard van der Merwe. In
2017, the company is planning to
produce some 1,450 units.
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W W W. G LO B A LTR A I LE R M AG . C O M / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / 25
COVER STORY
a 30m A-double curtain-sider with a GVM of 85 tonnes that could carry a
payload of 54 tonnes – a substantial increase over the conventional 38-tonne
payload limit, as van der Merwe points out. “PBS is a global phenomenon and
really helped push our understanding of modern trailer design. It also showed
us just how much growth potential GRW has as a business, so we knew the
next logical step had to be expanding our global footprint.”
Van der Merwe says the successful excursion into the PBS field only strengthened
his original vision for the 800-people company, which was always centred on
going global. “We started exporting tankers to the UK in 2006 and we always
knew that our equipment was able to compete on the global stage, and especially
now that we have also mastered PBS, we’re confident enough to say it out loud,”
he says. “It’s that kind of confidence that has led us to become the only South
African trailer manufacturer that is servicing the African continent and has already
ventured abroad. At the moment, we are present in the UK, mainland Europe,
Australia and the Middle East – but we plan on further growing that footprint in
the future as we overcome the stigma that comes with being an African brand.”
Van der Merwe doesn’t get tired of stressing that GRW’s quality standards
and production techniques are “in line or superior to any European OEM” –
revealing just how deeply the age-old, reductionist stereotype is affecting himself
and the GRW brand. “We are ISO accredited and follow international standards,
and we are continuously investing in our manufacturing facilities to increase
our productivity and throughput, thus lowering our manufacturing costs and
improving the quality of our products – much in line with the best in the industry.”
Adding additional firing power to the Worcester plant is not just self-serving,
though – van der Merwe is well aware that the company’s global expansion
may not be carried by the famed tanker range alone. “Until 2010 we only
focused on tanker design, but we now have a more diverse portfolio serving
various markets and applications. We learned that we need to be flexible to be
competitive,” he explains. “We see some potential in the curtain-sider market,
for example, even though competition in that area is stiff globally.”
On the quest to gaining global recognition – and circumnavigating South
Africa’s pressing economic woes – van der Merwe banks on quality and delivering
on time as unique selling points, something he says is still unusual for an African
business. “People don’t associate African design with high quality, but we want
to turn that cliché around. We don’t build a high number of standard products
26 / G L O B A L TR A I L E R / I SS U E 3 2
– almost every order is custom made. While
that does complicate our systems, it also
ensures our equipment is of a competitive
standard.”
Vertical integration is core ingredient of
van der Merwe’s growth plan, especially for
the Africa market, where roadside assistance,
rental and second hand sales are all available
under one roof. “We prefer to be a onestop-shop for our African clientele. It is very
important that we control the Total Cost of Ownership cycle from new to used
trailers, including after sales service,” he says – unable to hide the fact that many
local suppliers have not yet managed to follow GRW’s example and mature to
a point where they can compete on the global stage. “In South Africa, there
are still many third party component suppliers who don’t have the technical
expertise to back up the product they sell. If we cannot control the quality of
the aftersales service they provide, we refuse to do business with them and go
straight to the OE supplier.”
Van der Merwe is quick to point out that even though there is room to improve
for the local component industry, it doesn’t contradict his core message. “There
is a lot of Asian low-cost gear flowing into the country that doesn’t reflect what
we do, and of course we also have to continue learning and evolving as a local
manufacturing industry. But we can’t keep generalising, it’s not good for Africa.”
The real problem, he adds, is not linked to processes or education, but a
lack of law enforcement. “We don’t have a lack of standards, we have a lack of
standard enforcement,” he explains. “This means that many manufacturers get
away with improper certification and operators get away with non- compliant
vehicles – which in turn makes for a bad reputation of the entire industry.
GRW and its clientele would benefit from a well-enforced system as we are
already committed to comply 100 per cent. I believe a lot would change if we
tackled this issue.”
While GRW’s on-going lobbying work may contribute to the economic
emancipation of the African continent, another, very different issue could
emerge from hyping up the local market too quickly, warns Suzanne Franks.
“In more recent years it looks as if the story [is shifting] gear. Instead of the
relentless negative image of suffering and impoverished victims there is a
new narrative, Africa Rising. Suddenly the
continent is brimming with mobile phones
and energetic businesses,” she says. “In a
part of the world still facing staggering levels
of inequality it brings the danger of tying
Africa too close to a neo-liberal agenda and
objectives … We do not want to fall into a
binary trap and adopt another unfortunate
stereotype in its place.”
Once more, GRW is facing the issue headon by putting an industry-leading Corporate
Social Responsibility agenda in place, says van
der Merwe. “We are fully aware that we play
an important role in the local community –
both in employment and social upliftment
– and we take it seriously. We believe there
is a business case for building sustainable and
safe products, especially in the Dangerous
Goods sector. Most of our big customers are
responsible, safety driven companies and we
pride ourselves on complying with or even
exceeding their standards on more than one
level. Together, we might actually be able
to tell the African story in the way it should
be told.”
www.grw.co.za
GRW is now also producing
PBS-approved equipment.
FAST FACT
South Africa, the country that put
the ‘S’ in BRICS – the acronym for
the best and brightest emerging
market economies – has been under
pressure in 2016 amid seemingly
endless political turmoil and the spill
over effect on its economy. Official
growth forecasts have been reduced
constantly as President Jacob Zuma
came into the crossfire after an
anti-corruption watchdog called for
a judge to investigate allegations
of influence peddling in Zuma’s
government, which he has denied.
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