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The recently held Africa Dealer Meeting in Poland plays an extremely important part in Wood-Mizer’s ongoing commercial and customer service improvement programmes.
Dealers from Africa and Asia arriving at Wood-Mizer’s European headquarters in Koło, Poland
The event, which takes place every second year, brought dealers from Africa and Asia together to meet and discuss the way forward and to also celebrate the company’s successes on both continents.
One-on-meetings together with group discussions combined with customer service and product training sessions, new product demonstrations, a plant tour and some much needed entertainment to strengthen each dealer’s ability to service their markets better.
Speaking at the start of the event Mr Robert Baginski, Vice President of Wood-Mizer Industries elaborated on the contribution that Africa and Asia have made to Wood-Mizer’s global commercial successes.
Kris Gyamfi from Ghana cutting with the new LX100 sawmill
Biashara Master Sawmill's Francis Mwangi receiving an award from JJ Oelofse with Krzysztof Kropidlowski, Wood-Mizer’s Sales Director for European Operations behind.
Mr JJ Oelofse, Wood-Mizer Africa’s former COO and newly appointed Corporate Director for Emerging Markets, underscored the importance of ongoing dealer development programmes to spur increased levels of service delivery.
Plant tour underlines manufacturing excellence
An enthusiastically attended plant tour of Wood-Mizer’s blade and sawmill manufacturing facility gave dealers that are not familiar with the process first-hand opportunity to view all the stages that form part of both processes.
“Guaranteed manufacturing quality and class-leading innovation give our dealers the ability to sell our products with confidence,” Greg Laskowski, Wood-Mizer Industries Plant Manager said.
Training sessions improve product knowledge and service levels
Training sessions designed to improve product knowledge, elaborate on new and existing product ranges and inform on new administrative processes contributed to the goal of creating a more professional and streamlined dealer network in Africa and Asia with the emphasis on serving customers better.
Training on the various Setworks and PLC control units
On-going blade sharpening and setting training
“Competent dealers sell our products better,” Gavin Prowse, Wood-Mizer Africa’s newly appointed Managing Director said.
The training sessions also provided Wood-Mizer with feedback from the dealers based on their own and market experience.
New products demonstrated
Sawmill prototypes and recently launched new sawmills were demonstrated to familiarise dealers with the fresh additions to the range.
Opportunity for the dealers to cut with the each unit on display will make it possible for the dealers to confidently demonstrate the new product to prospective customers once each model is released.
The new LX professional line was also demonstrated including prototypes of more sawmills that will eventually form a part of that range.
The new LX100 sawmill demonstrated
Wood-Mizer's WB2000 at the Africa and Asia Dealer meeting
SLP2 blasting through logs at the dealer meeting
On the industrial side the narrow band Smart Log Processing͛ line was highlighted together with additional wide-band sawmilling prototypes.
A proud Team South Africa holding their Go-Carting awards received for their victory at a race event that dealers enjoyed.
