8014 Autolive 55.Indd

Issue 55 | 21 November 2013 www.autolive.co.za AND NOW FOR THE NEXT 30 YEARS The Midas Success story Interview with Stefan le Roux starts on page 2 Castrol’s Graham The Rise and Rise Merc’s new A Merc Le Mans Noonan of Jaguar S-Class racer for the Road Page 6 Page 9–10 Page 11 Page 24 Subscribe for free @ www.autolive.co.za Page 2 Editor Stuart Johnston And Now For The Next 30 Years [email protected] General Manager An an intriguing interview with Midas’s Marketing Director Stefan le Roux, as the Roger Houghton motor spares and accessories group celebrates 30 years of South African success. [email protected] Sales AL: What about groups like Kieran Rennie Autozone? [email protected] SLR: Autozone is there, they are good competitors to have. Address Th ey did a management buy- Suite 106B, MISA Centre out a few years ago and I think 12 Fir Street, Northcliff they are still internally fo- cussed. You have to be, we did Johannesburg, 2195 a similar thing in 2000 and we Tel had to go through the same process. +27 (0)83 450 9255 AL: We believe Midas has become Fax quite diverse in what it owns +27 (0)86 505 8957 these days. SLR: Yes. One of the companies Website we own is Associated Diesel www.autolive.co.za Company. We do repairs on Midas’s Stefan le Roux. the OE diesel pump brands © 2013 WCM Media CC in many of the diesel engines While waiting for the coff ee to be “We need to have some presence available locally. It’s a good Production brought into the offi ces at Midas’s in racing, because that’s our busi- business to be in, due to the Marketing Support Services headquarters just off the OR Tambo ness, we sell parts and accessories. problems with our diesel fuel +27 (0)12 346 2168 Airport freeway, Stefan le Roux ex- Apart from the classics, we spon- quality from the high sulphur [email protected] plains his business card designation sor the Midas 1600 cc single-seaters, content, and vehicles work as complex, clarifying that “I just and we sponsor some individual hard in our country. We don’t Layout and Typesetting have a whole bunch of divisions that cars. In Historics we have some of have public transport the way Bonita Tuson I manage. I’m the marketing director, our franchisees racing and we also you have in Europe. and I run leisure products and motor- have a guy doing spinning in a Midas AL: In terms of going forward, is Disclaimer cycle parts and accessories.” car. Our sponsorship strategy is to Midas remodelling its core While reasonable precautions have We chat about Midas’ involve- make things more accessible to the business, in terms of the per- been taken to ensure the accuracy ment in Classic Car racing spon- moms and pops. We also sponsor a vasiveness of full maintenance of the advice and information given sorship and Stefan explains that fi shing series on TV, because when contracts regarding new cars the fairly low-key sponsorship you fl ick the channels you need to and LCVs? to readers, neither the Editor, the with the historic racers suits the see the Midas name. Th e brand is SLR: We understand the full main- Proprietors, nor the publishers group. “We won’t want to be a mega very strong.” tenance side. Many compa- can accept any responsibility for sponsor like we used to be, when Auto Live: Are you still the biggest nies are pushing it towards any damages or injury which may we sponsored Production Cars, it player in the aft ermarket parts fi ve years now but the average arise therefrom. cost us a fortune and we eventually and accessory business? pulled out. Stef an le Roux: Yes we are, by far. continued on page 4 Subscribe for free @ www.autolive.co.za Page 3 Editor’s Note “Global Players Need Presence In Africa” – Ford CEO It is interesting that the Jaguar F-Type was chosen as a fi nalist BY ROGER HOUGHTON bearing fruit and the third quarter of 2013 for the 2014 Car of the Year, the had seen Ford turn a profi t for the 17th nine fi nalists being announced at consecutive quarter. At least 15 new prod- Africa now forms an important aspect ucts will be launched globally before the the Johannesburg International of the global strategy for all interna- end of the decade, with fi ve new models Motor Show a few weeks ago. tional players in the automotive indus- having been introduced to the SA market Jaguar was reportedly hesitant try, according to the CEO of the Ford this year. to have its new sports car made Motor Company of Southern Africa, Jeff Th e One Ford programme, which has available as a fi nalist, because Nemeth, addressing a media briefi ng in transformed the product line-up ,as well as there is a very real cost factor to Johannesburg recently. the shift in markets, with China now be- preparing cars for the evalua- “Global players need a presence ing the biggest in the world, had resulted in tion days in January in 2014, as a number of examples have to be in Africa,” said the genial senior Ford having to realign its manufacturing test-driven by a bunch of eager journalists. Considering that the executive.”Th ere is a changing face of mo- operations, which has seen three plants be- model chosen comes in at just under R1-million, that represents bility in emerging markets and Africa is ing closed in Europe, while seven new fa- no mean investment. Also, Jaguar feel that as a sports car (the increasingly attractive as a continent on cilities are under construction in the Asia Porsche Boxter), was the winner last year, they probably will suf- which to do business. It is the youngest Pacifi c region. fer a bit of a back-lash when the fi nal voting is done in January. continent in terms of the age of its popual- rion, which is currently 19 years, so there is Two important milestones were cel- On the other hand, it is a real honour that Jaguar have a car ebrated by the Ford Motor Company of in the fi nals, something that hasn’t happened for many years. Th e huge growth potential.” He said that the mobility solutions Southern Africa recently: the produc- last Jag I recall being in the fi nals was the retro-styled S-Type, would not only be in the form of company tion of the 3 000 000th vehicle in SA – a well over a decade ago. or privately owned vehicles, but would Ranger pickup built at its Silverton plant Th e F-Type’s claim to worthiness as a COTY contender has th probably extend to concepts such as car- – and the production of the 100 000 new been born out by the remarkable sales fi gures recorded by the car sharing and other initiatives. generation, Duratorq diesel engine at the since it went on sale about four months ago. In September it sold Nemeth said there was rapid growth Struandale Engine Plant in Port Elizabeth. over 50 examples and it followed this up in October with 42 sales, in the size of the so-called middle class Th is latter plant has produced a total only being bested in the sports car class by the much cheaper in Africa, which is expected to grow from of almost 3 000 000 engines since it started Toyota 86. the current 355-million people (34% of the operations in 1964. Struandale will soon In an interesting interview with Jaguar Land Rover’s market- population) to 1.1-billion people (42% of start its fi rst shipments of the Duratorq en- ing head Phil Popham in this issue, he replied to a question that the population) in 2060. In terms of land gines to Ford’s Kansas City plant in the US with the F-Type, Jaguar won’t make the mistake of under-estimat- area Africa is larger than China, India, for installation in Transit vans and buses. ing the demand for this car, as the company had done with the Japan, the US and all of Europe combined Th e Struandale plant is currently run- runaway success of the Evoque. so the potential for economic growth is ning seven days a week, with three shift s As far as choosing it for Car of the Year is concerned, I tend to enormous. from Monday to Saturday and 2.5 shift s lean towards more modest cars, but if there was a category for “the Th e Ford CEO said that South Africa on Sunday when maintenance also takes biggest surprise in terms of overall excellence at a realistic price”, was among the 50 fastest growing econo- place. Th e assembly plant in Silverton is running two shift s, with more than 50% of then the Jag would be in with a huge shout. Come to think of it, mies in the world since 2005 and its the vehicles produced destined for export. isn’t pretty much for the credo of the Car of the Year competition share of business in Sub-Saharan Africa Nemeth took the opportunity to plead is all about? amounts to more than 30%, which is larger than that of any other country. to the authorities for improved logistics, He added that Gauteng, which was re- particularly in terms of clearing vehicles sponsible for about 65% or vehicles sales in and components at the ports where there SA, was primed for growth with a number were sometimes delays of up to 15 days, of high potential private-public partner- which impacted on local vehicle sales, Stuart Johnston, ships adding momentum.

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