SUCCESS STORY
SOUTHERN POWER
Africa's leading marine industry product supplier based in Cape Town
Southern Power has been supplying the marine industry with propulsion and auxiliary power solutions and related products from Cape Town since 1985.
Situated on Marine Drive, Paarden Eiland, the company is part of Paramount Maritime Holdings, which incorporates Nautic Africa, Southern Power, Anchor Boat Shop and Austral Marine, among others.
“The primary business of Southern Power is the Volvo Penta importership,” says Southern Power CEO Jacques Brummer. “We are the official importer of Volvo Penta marine, auxiliary engines, propulsion systems and aftermarket parts. We are quite unique in our situation in that most importers across the world for Volvo Penta carry marine, industrial and mining, whereas in our case we primarily look after the marine business. Our business stretches from Namibia all the way around to Mozambique on the east coast.”
Other than the Volvo Penta products, Southern Power has over the last two years revamped its product portfolio, focusing on complimentary products for the marine industry and positioning itself as a “one-stop shop” service provider. “We’ve looked at companies and manufacturers across the world that are really innovators in their field and have got leading technological products. So that’s really been our driving force and its focused around propulsion or auxiliary power as well as accessories to the marine industry,” says Brummer.
“One of the latest exciting products that we’ve taken on is from a company called Torqeedo, based in Germany, offering full electric propulsion systems – so from small little ultra-light systems that power your canoe to inboard systems that go up to 80 horsepower, so very environmentally friendly, there’s no maintenance on it and we believe that’s another market that we are looking to serve.”
When Brummer took over as CEO of Southern Power in 2015 he had eight staff members. Today, the company employs 16 people. “In terms of business here, we’ve got some very experienced staff. Our parts director has been with the company for 30 years. We have our sales engineer who has been here for 13 years, we’ve got another parts guy who has been here for 21 years, so we’ve been able to build a lot of experience and retain experience in terms of people and human capital.”
Durban-born Brummer spent most of his working life in Johannesburg before relocating to Cape Town. He says there are a few things in the city that make it a very attractive business destination.
“First of all, the infrastructure. Basically, things work here. If you’ve got a municipal issue, it gets resolved very quickly. We don’t have challenges in terms of the major infrastructure problems. I worked in Africa for 26 years and we really are world-class. We’ve got a huge boat building industry in Cape Town. Our client base is quite diverse. The city provides a platform to grow and to thrive. The structures are there, the customers are here, a lot of our engines get fitted to boats that end up in the Caribbean and the British Virgin Islands.”
About the skillset in Cape Town, Brummer says: “Cape Town has really surprised me in terms of the amount of skilled artisans that we have, much more so than I found in Johannesburg. We often battled to get those senior artisan skills. There seems to be a very healthy availability in Cape Town.”
Visit www.southernpower.co.za
