Page 48 - KZN Top Business Portfolio 2024/5 - ebook

BELL EQUIPMENT

VISION
Bell Equipment’s vision is to be the global ADT
specialist and a leader in the heavy equipment and
industrial goods sector, developing and supplying
leading, quality brands into the construction, mining,
forestry, agriculture and industrial sectors in a number
of chosen markets.
KEY PERSONNEL
Non-executive Chairman: Group Chief Executive: Non-executive Chairman: Gary Bell
Gary Bell Ashley Bell Group Chief Executive: Ashley Bell
Group Finance Director: Karen van Haght
Full Name of Company: Bell Equipment Limited Chief Strategy Officer: Avishkar Goordeen
Business Units: Bell Mining & Construction, Bell Group Company Secretary: Diana Mcilrath
Underground Mining, and Bell Forestry & Agriculture
Nature of Business: Manufacturing, distribution and CONTACT DETAILS
support HEAD OFFICE
Products: A wide range of heavy equipment for the Physical Address: 13 – 19 Carbonode Cell Road, Alton,
construction, mining, quarrying, and the sugar & forestry Richards Bay, 3900
industries globally. Postal Address: Private Bag X20046, Empangeni, 3880,
Date Established: 1954 South Africa
No. of Employees: Over 2 500 Tel: +27 (0)35 907 9111
Auditors: Deloitte & Touche E-mail: Stephen.McNeill@bellequipment.com
B-BBEE Status: Level 3 Website: www.bellequipment.com

A PASSION FOR INNOVATION

The company was established by Irvine Bell in 1954 as
a small engineering and agricultural repair business
on the KZN North Coast. Irvine had a passion for
innovation and manufactured various inventions,
including a self-loading sugar cane trailer and an
overhead transfer crane for local farmers. It was the
development of a tri-wheeled cane loader a few years
later, however, that revolutionised the sugar industry
and irrevocably changed the company’s trajectory.
Sugar farmers of that time employed a sizeable labour
force to manually cut, stack and load cane for transport
to the mills. A few rudimentary cane loading machines
had appeared on the scene, but Irvine designed
a whole new class of machine that was simple to
operate and highly manoeuvrable. Using hydrostatic
technology and able to control each of the large drive
wheels independently, the Bell Tri-wheeler could turn
instantly on its own axis and had enough power to lift
and stack sugar cane infield or load a trailer.

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