Article published in African Review, January 2017.

Stephen Smithyman, Chief Executive of Kanu Equipment, tells African Review why he’s upbeat about Africa’s mining prospects going forward.

Kanu Equipment is a specialist in the supply and support of world-class earthmoving, mining, construction and agricultural equipment. It’s one of the largest dealers for big names like Liebherr and Bell Equipment, operating across markets in east, west and southern Africa.

Founded five years ago by chief executive Stephen Smithyman, the group has doubled in turnover every year since. Given the commodity price slumps and global financial uncertainty during that time it’s something of an achievement.

For the year ending June 2018, turnover is anticipated to be around US$80m.

But, in essence, Smithyman says the blueprint for success has been pretty simple: supporting customers every step of the way.

“We believe that by providing strong support we can reduce our customers’ cost of doing business, ensuring that their machines are more productive, that they have longer uptime — this enhances our customers’ productivity and allows them to get a better advantage for cost per tonne mined or cost per ton moved. That’s really the philosophy that’s embedded within our organisation.”

It’s also ingrained amongst the company’s increasing staff count (now 570 people), from the management teams right down to each and every individual.

Of course, while people are at the core of any organisations success, Kanu has the added advantage of working with leading edge industry names too. Smithyman says the company was founded on integrity and only distributes quality brands with necessary OEM support to respond swiftly to customer needs. Other brands under the Kanu umbrella include Case, Wirtgen -.

Key markets

The company is now well established across large swathes of the continent.

In the agricultural sector, it is a dominant player. Through representing Bell and Case it has a dominant market share in the sugar cane  industry. “Our partnership with Bell and Case Agriculture is obviously very important to us as we’ve got a lot of clients in the agricultural sector in west and east Africa,” says Smithyman. “We’ve got a lot of customers that are large players in developing Agriculture in Africaand we are experts in supporting those customers. Bell and Case was founded on producing cutting edge equipment to support the Agricultural Sectorand they’ve got some compelling products that we represent.”

On the mining side, Kanu works closely with Liebherr and Bell Equipment, , and in other markets with Wirtgen on the road building side. Mining has likewise played a strong role in Kanu’s growth story. “We’re the largest independent Liebherr mining dealer in Africa. It’s a cutting edge product, so we’ve got some large customers in places like Botswana and Namibia, where we are very proud to represent them.” Away from southern Africa, the company also maintains a heavy footprint in west Africa, in Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, as well as supporting key players in east Africa, notably Tanzania on the mining side.

Mining potential

Significantly, Smithyman sees room for further growth in the coming years, both within these core markets and potentially others too.

“We’ve got a business in Zimbabwe and we believe that with the new change in government this will be very good for foreign investment — so I think there will be some interesting opportunities there.”

Kanu is also presently exploring the potential of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It has its sights on other new markets as well, including Uganda, plus the islands of the Indian Ocean: Madagascar, Mauritius and Reunion.

“Our biggest mining platform is in Botswana, with Debswana, and they’ve got some very large projects coming up — maybe two or three diamond areas, and we’re very excited about that.”

Smithyman also cites new gold prospects in Namibia, plus copper and uranium projects, that the company is now looking at. “We believe that will be a very strong country for us going forward.”

In western Africa, gold will continue to push developments in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia, where there is also some iron ore mining that’s starting to move forward.Likewise, Tanzania represents a significant market for mining business, while Kenya holds untapped potential as it seeks to develop its own industry further.

Confidence high

While the steady rise in turnover through the years highlights Kanu’s successful strategy, there is every reason to believe that more good things lay ahead for this enterprising dealership.

Kanu has upgraded and grown — in size, stature and reputation — since its formation, even during tougher economic times, highlighting a steely resilience and no doubt some clever leadership.

“We are very positive about the prospects for the business over the next three or four years,” adds Smithyman. “We’ve grown our business at the worst time, I believe, so now we’ve got a good management team in place to do really well and enjoy some positive developments on the mining side. Agriculture is more stable but we believe the growth and demographics of the countries where we operate will enable us to grow even further over the next few years.”

And a shift in Africa’s political landscape could further bode well for the continent. Smithyman cites the recent transition of power in Zimbabwe and indeed the number of democratic elections in Africa over the last couple of years — the likes of Ghana, Liberia, and for the most part Kenya — that have passed by peacefully.

It’s something that will not have been lost on foreign investors, keen to unlock Africa’s undisputed potential, but perhaps thwarted at times by the complex politics.

“That, for me, is a fundamental change,” says Smithyman, “And that can only be good for business.”

When a business rents, leases or purchases equipment, it is really trying to solve a problem with that equipment. Equipment downtime due to mechanical breakdowns result in additional cost to operations and frustration on the work site.

Support is the catalyst of service operation and discipline and this is what places Kanu Equipment in a league of it`s own. In equipment rental, effective service and maintenance of machinery guarantees a satisfied customer experience yet in Africa it has been sorely missed  within the industry. Masterfully, Kanu Equipment has filled this gap securing their path to success. Kanu is all about optimally functioning equipment…. all of the time.  We caught up with company founder and CEO Stephen Smithyman, to find out about Kanu’s latest developments, and what is continually placing this company ahead of the opposition

For a young company, Kanu Equipment already has an impressive reputation. In essence, Kanu Equipment realised that the key differentiator between them and the opposition was service excellence. Through this devotion to service, the five-year-old company quickly carved out a space for itself in the equipment rental field for Africa’s key heavy industries, including agriculture, forestry, mining, earthmoving, construction and road construction. When working in some of Africa’s more remote locations, this support can literally be operation-saving, and the loyalty this has won Kanu, speaks for itself.

Kanu understands that good customer experience leads to brand loyalty. This brand association is ultimately what manufacturers are after. Excelling at customer service leads to manufacturer preference for agents that are able to provide the ultimate level of support, to sell and distribute their brands. Kanu Equipment has forged strong working relationships with several large equipment manufacturers: Bell, Liebherr and Wirtgen, who focus mainly on the construction and mining industries, and Case Agriculture, providers of top-of-the-range farming and forestry equipment. Kanu’s entrenched relationships afford them the ability to keep world-class equipment available for their customers, as well as a generous supply of related spare parts. This allows them to provide a maintenance support service of their own, and consignment stock on the ground in order to ensure that the equipment is working optimally and downtime is kept to a minimum.

“Our mission is to reduce our customers’ cost of doing business. In part, that’s through the support we provide. Our slogan is ‘Experience the Support”, as we differentiate ourselves by being a support organization to our customers in the hard areas where they do business”, states Stephen Smithyman.

The ability to have access to spare parts on site can mean the difference between a minor hiccup and a costly delay. This is true anywhere, but particularly in some of the more remote and far-reaching locations where Kanu’s African clients do business. “We have a very strong mutually beneficial relationship with all our OEMs and have maintained this relationship because we provide  good service on the ground. Previously, African customers would accept the fact that in these countries, they needed to provide their own support.” Many African markets still operate with this model focused on selling rather than on customer service. Once the equipment is sold the problem becomes the customers’. “What has fundamentally changed now is that the world has become a smaller place and customers require first-world support. Companies need to adapt to that or they will lose relevancy.”

The company started out in Congo, followed by rapid expansion into West Africa, Botswana and now East Africa.  “We basically started out in the hardest countries and then worked our way around.” The idea for the company came to Smithyman when he encountered his own difficulties in hiring equipment for a mining exploration project. “We were trying to find a bulldozer to rent. We couldn’t find one, and then when we eventually did, the rental rate was really high.”

“What inspired me to start the company initially was that I saw there was a real lack of support for people who are running machines in some of the markets. I was optimistic about the business opportunity – I knew that if we could provide exceptional support and service to our customers, we would succeed. What inspires me now is that we employ over 570 members of staff across 14 countries, who very often work in adverse circumstances. These are the people that drive me to continue to grow this business so that their lives and that of their families can be improved. They keep equipment humming under trying conditions to make a difference to our customers and this, I believe, will grow mechanisation in Africa.”

Smithyman’s praise of his employees is well-deserved. The Kanu name is inspired and derived from an old African tale ‘Kanthu N’khama’, a story about a small but brave and resourceful bird that flies into a dark and formidable forest, where it overcomes challenges eventually emerging wiser and more resilient.  It is the story of how ‘hard work pays off’ and it is the ethos that is felt throughout the company from their operational decisions and expansion plans right down to the daily choices of their employees.

Kanu’s dedication has pushed them to heroic acts of service: whilst expanding its operations, Kanu moved into several areas that were in the throes of dealing with the Ebola virus crisis. Instead of leaving their customers unsupported, they stayed firm. Truly going above and beyond the call of duty, Kanu proved that it values its customers as family and that its promise to provide support will hold true no matter how challenging the conditions. “We have shown our customers that we were prepared to support them even in the middle of a crisis. Many of our staff put their lives at risk to provide that support.”

Despite stormy waters, Kanu’s loyalty to their customers has led to their success in every market they move into. “Some markets are very new to us, whilst other markets like Botswana have more established customers. We’ve been very successful in a variety of countries all for different reasons but with one common focus, that we represent quality brands and we provide exceptional customer service”. As well as spreading their on-the-ground support throughout Africa, the company also has a physical presence in Europe, to reach the decision makers of larger industrial groups. Many companies that operate in Africa have decision-makers based in Europe, so our sales-arm in Switzerland meets with these key customers who wish to work in areas where we don’t currently have an active presence.”

This face-to-face contact is important, and Kanu is constantly branching out to increase this physical in-market presence even further. Kanu continues with expansion into Africa. “In Tanzania, we’ll be very successful – we have a very strong customer support base there. Kenya is also a very exciting market for us, because there is a lot of machine demand every year, so we’re hoping to gain market share there.”

Another exciting expansion plan is currently Namibia. “We are now the largest independent Liebherr Mining dealer in Africa as we represent Liebherr Mining in Namibia and Botswana. We’ve got a number of customers currently operating Liebherr Mining machines in Namibia. We believe there’s a lot of strong growth potential for mining in this region, especially now that mineral resource prices have increased. These customers have not been supported as well as they should have been in terms of stock, spares or on-the-ground service. We are going to introduce a level of sophistication around our IT system, and the support we can offer. We will also store a wide range of spares. We believe it will be a win-win for us and the market. Everybody’s really excited about the launch.”

Of course, not even Kanu can expand indefinitely. “Next year will be a year of consolidation. The year thereafter, we will look at expanding further, but only if we get the support we need to ensure top-class customer service. Largely we would look at going further into Africa – it is where we are mostly based, and where our customers want us to be. Over the next few years, we aim to be in 18 different countries, and then we’ll look at listing the business on the stock exchange. We want to double revenue every year – that’s our plan.”

It’s an ambitious plan, but given the loyalty Kanu enjoys from their markets and suppliers, it’s a goal that is well within their grasp. True to their mantra, however, their own growth isn’t the only one that interests Kanu. Project Hummingbird, taking its name from Kanu’s inspired logo, is a proposed initiative that will allow Kanu Equipment to empower and establish a network of small and medium sized entrepreneurs that will serve as independent spare parts suppliers for their products. “Project Hummingbird has been set up to finance local entrepreneurs. We will buy a container and give them training and IT support, allowing them to open up their own spare parts business in areas where heavy equipment is used. We’ll give all the technical backing, knowledge and spares to them, and they will operate like a distribution centre for us. Through Project Hummingbird, we believe we could create about 1000 entrepreneurs throughout the continent.”

“Training is a very important part of our service offering. It’s arguably one of the key drivers of our expanding business. Making sure that local staff are trained well means we have an opportunity to grow.” This development project not only contributes to Kanu’s operations and the increasing number of customers their support services can reach, but also creates jobs and serves as a boost to local economies. They are running feasibility studies on the proposition, and are hoping to receive government backing to supplement their own contributions. If successful, the project will be a fantastic boon to Kanu, but it will also be a life-changing one to the entrepreneurs empowered by the programme. Once again, this dynamic organization will not only achieve success for itself, but will ease and enable the industries and business around it, truly allowing Africa to ‘Experience the Support’ like never before.

Click here to see the article.

Heavy equipment goes hand-in-hand with both the mining and construction industry but it is the agricultural sector that demands machinery more extensively, to sustain the world’s food production. As one of the earliest industries to require the development of machinery, agriculture remains an essential and profitable component of the industry at large, the world-over. Across the African continent, agriculture provides livelihoods for many, most still with scattered small to medium sized enterprises that rely largely on the support of their associations to maximise their potential. Kanu Equipment has been well received within these markets with their readiness to provide this much-needed support for optimum output.

It didn’t take long for Kanu Equipment to get their core message across to their customers. Founded in 2012, the company has built a firm reputation as a reliable organisation that cares, living up to their ethos of service excellence. Kanu Equipment sells and rents heavy equipment and related aftermarket replacement parts across Africa’s agricultural, forestry, mining, earthmoving and construction sectors. They’ve taken their service offering to new levels by providing exceptional customer service and maintenance that was sorely lacking in many regions.

We spoke with Stephen Smithyman, company founder and CEO, about this after-sales care: “Our  mission is to lower our customers’ cost of doing business. In part, that’s through the support that we provide. Our positioning statement is ‘Experience the Support”, as we have chosen to differentiate ourselves by being a service-with-support organization, adding value especially to our customers that operate in the most challenging environments.”

For many agricultural operations, work is seasonally-dependant, which means that there is a limited period where conditions are favourable for operation. Machine downtime can be harvest-threatening and needs to be avoided at all costs. Fortunately Kanu provides a wide range of replacement parts to minimise this risk. They also offer skilled maintenance support with round-the-clock standby to ensure the machines are back in action as soon as possible. This support system has won Kanu the loyalty of several world-class equipment brands, who are happy that their equipment is backed with the highest level of care. “We have longstanding, entrenched relationships with all of our OEM suppliers, but our flagship equipment brands and companies include Liebherr, Bell, Case and Terex-Finlay. We also work closely with Costex Tractor Parts for aftermarket replacement parts, and Black Cat Wear Parts as our ground engaging tools partner. These companies have all supported us tremendously since inception.”

Although Kanu is best known for its contribution to the construction sector, their agricultural clients are just as prolific and it was in fact in this sector that the company began: “Our first customer was in the sugar cane industry. We worked with Bell Equipment initially – they are one of the leading companies in terms of product range for this market sector. Most recently we’ve expanded our equipment offering to include Case Agriculture and we are now in the fortunate position to offer an array of complimentary aftermarket spares to ensure that farmers and Agribusinesses alike are fully supported”.

The company started out in Congo, followed by expansion into West Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Over an eight-month period, this was followed by a further push into Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone “We basically started out in the hardest countries to do business in, and then worked our way around.” The idea for the company came to Smithyman in Congo when he encountered his own difficulties in hiring equipment for a mining exploration project. “We were trying to find a bulldozer to rent. We couldn’t find one, and then when we eventually did, the rental rate was really high.”

“What inspired me to start the company was that I saw a real lack of support for people who are running machines. The business opportunity presented itself as I realised that if we could simply provide additional support and service to our customers, we would succeed. We cover a variety of sectors, and the territorial landscapes for each are dynamic. There can be no ‘one size fits all’ approach to tackle any obstacles. Africa as a whole is in a growth phase, with threats to industry ranging from economic uncertainty to climate change to political instability. There is much competition but with our focus on service we have successfully navigated around these threats.”

One of the biggest obstacles Kanu has encountered, both in terms of business and human endangerment, was the Ebola virus. During an early period of expansion, Kanu found themselves immersed in a few territories that were struggling with this crisis, but rather than drawing back, they stood firm. Truly going above and beyond the call of duty, Kanu’s promise to its customers to provide support, no matter the conditions, prevailed. “We proved that we were prepared to support or customers even in the midst of turmoil as many of our staff put their lives at risk to remain steadfast”

Whilst their mining and construction projects see them operating across the African continent, West and East Africa is by far their strongest market in terms of agriculture. With holdings in sugar cane, cocoa, cotton and bananas, the Western territories boast crops that attract investment and maintain the demand for export. We have recently opened an office in San Pedro in Ivory Coast to support the growing Cocoa Business in that region.

We have also commenced operations in Tanzania with Bell and Liebherr as we have seen great agricultural opportunity there.

In an unpredictable market such as agriculture, it may seem unsurprising that Kanu are constantly expanding their reach. The ability to be on-the-ground with maintenance, supplies and support is key to what the company offers, and they are not afraid to take the necessary risks to uphold their promises.

“I am driven to set goals and reach them,” Smithyman shares. “I am up early every morning ready to embrace new challenges. I don’t see a challenge as a threat, I see it as an opportunity to grow. Our staff are motivated and inspired to work for a company that is determined to make a positive impact on the continent’s development”.

It is this passion that has been the driving force behind Kanu Equipment’s achievements this far, and will continue to carry them forward through whatever may come next. “Attitude is everything”, says Stephen, “With the right attitude, we have every reason to continue to soar”.

Click here to see article in magazine.