Masslift Africa
Record Breaking Masslift Lifts Performance Yet Again
Introducing innovative new forklifts, bringing on new apprentices across SA, investing heavily in healthcare and education projects, driving fantastic results, and developing a new shareholding structure is all a year’s work for Masslift Africa’s CFO Thembi Mazibuko and CEO Marco Caverni. The pair speak to Enterprise Africa about another amazing year of milestones at the materials handling industry leader.
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In 2021, Masslift Africa – leading African distributor of Mitsubishi forklifts for the materials handling industry – was busy celebrating a year of record results against a tricky economic backdrop. In 2022, the company was equally buoyant, increasing staff count and celebrating strong results once again.
This year, CFO Thembi Mazibuko tells Enterprise Africa that Masslift has, yet again, beat all expectations and pulled off another record year. “Each year, we think there is no way we can beat our records, but each year we achieve amazing success.”
Selling a range of forklift trucks for use in materials handling across commercial and industrial sectors, the company is the local partner of Mitsubishi Forklift Trucks – recognised as the global leader in forklift technology.
In Southern Africa, the Mitsubishi Ninja is the preferred model and, although Masslift has a wide portfolio on offer, the quality and reliability on offer from the Ninja has helped to lift the company to its highest point since its establishment.
“We will be selling our 2000th Ninja by the end of the year. It’s one of the forklifts that is perfect for the African terrain and we’ve had a great run with that product,” says Mazibuko.
“It’s a great milestone after launching the model in 2013. It took us six years to sell 1000 but only four years to sell the second thousand.”
CEO Marco Caverni adds: “We are on the right track, and we remain excited about the Ninja which is such a fantastic machine.
“Coupled with this, Mitsubishi have an upgraded Grendia internal combustion model landing on South African shores early next year. The Grendia is the flagship range which was initially launched in 2003. It has cool new features, especially around health and safety, and it has a new multi-functional colour display. It’s an exciting development and looks brilliant.”
STRONG PERFORMANCE
Like both the Ninja and Grendia ranges, Masslift’s performance for the year has been strong. Nothing has been able to stand in the way of the growth of the business. Even a bleak economic picture has done little to scupper the acceleration of Masslift.
For Mazibuko and Caverni, this success is surprising but not unexpected. In 2022, the company was busy expanding its staff count by 25% while others were retrenching. By instilling a culture of excellence and delivering for clients, the Masslift brand is booming. “The growth is there, and it is happening organically through us following good business practices and strategy,” said Caverni.
Today, this mentality endures, and the growth continues to follow.
“Things at Masslift are busy,” admits Mazibuko. The team recently went about implementing a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to drive efficiency across the business’ processes.
“We recently completed the ERP system upgrade and people have been trying to familiarise themselves with that. With that new system, we have automated a lot of our parts processes – how we issue parts to technicians and customers. There have been a lot of efficiencies, that is good for customers, and it helps us to remain the best customer service provider in the world. In six months, when everything has settled, we are expecting to achieve significant efficiency improvements because of this upgrade,” says Mazibuko.
At the same time, the company has been onboarding a fresh cohort of apprentices as the Masslift educational programme goes from strength to strength. Now in its second year, the apprenticeship programme takes young technicians through a three-year experience, giving everything required to work on Mitsubishi forklifts.
“This year was the biggest intake with apprentices in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town,” details Mazibuko. “Our intention is to absorb them as diesel technicians when they qualify because of the skills scarcity in South Africa where most of our technicians emigrate to Australia or New Zealand. We want to cultivate the technical skills from within to get ahead of the skills gap that widens every year.
“It’s a forward-thinking approach,” she adds. “When everyone is looking for skilled technicians and they are nowhere to be found, Masslift will still be able to deliver its service excellence for customers.”
RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE
Refreshingly, key messaging from Masslift is about community development and positivity that impacts more than the company’s own bottom line. The senior leadership team within the business is keen for Masslift to work alongside its communities and not become a company where roles are ‘just another job’.
“We have had a lot of initiatives, internally and with customers,” confirms Mazibuko. “We had our annual golf day in September and that allowed us to again partner with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital and donate money that supports services. Last year we were celebrating our 30th anniversary and we donated around R120,000 to the hospital with our suppliers and partners matching this donation so we ended up handing over around R220,000. This year, we raised around R70,000 and suppliers and customers also contributed bringing the total to R110,000.”
Thanks to this fantastic ongoing support, Masslift received the Globetrotter Award from the hospital, given to those who above and beyond to deliver for the children of South Africa.
“That is something that we are really proud of,” says Mazibuko. “We also contributed to the Smile Foundation as part of Nelson Mandela Day where surgeries for children with smile deformities are sponsored. Again, that is something that we are really proud of and makes a real difference. We also had a community workplace outreach programme where we went to a high school in Soweto and spoke to 170 matric learners to discuss what options are available if they don’t qualify to go to university.”
Masslift has concentrated its CSR efforts around education and healthcare, and it continues to display an appetite for the greater good, supporting initiatives that go far beyond the business’ own health.
ALIGNING EXPECTATIONS
Stacking a structure for ongoing growth, Masslift is busy changing up its shareholding. Mazibuko will take equity with the Chairman of the board coming on as a major shareholder alongside Marco Caverni.
“This will align shareholder expectations with business expectations to make sure everyone is on the same page. There will be no change for normal business operations, but we will be able to introduce new initiatives to make sure we are an employer of choice in the material handling industry,” explains Mazibuko.
“I want the business to continue this positive journey,” adds Caverni. “We have had a massive growth phase, and we now need to maintain. The level of performance must remain. The growth in people is what we’re looking for next year. We want to stabilise and upskill people wherever possible. That is definitely a major focus – we don’t make the forklifts, we are all about people that support the forklifts.”
The forklift portfolio on offer, including all of the ancillary products and benefits, can be examined in detail at the new Masslift website. The company redesigned its site, streamlining and making navigation easier to help build connections. “We are looking to increase the number of leads we generate from the website. Customers can interface with us much more easily and we have received great response so far,” Mazibuko declares.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS
Masslift is preparing itself for the future of mobility by focusing on electric powered forklift trucks. The company already has clients desperate for cleaner, emission free machines and Mitsubishi is a world-leader in electric motors. While not neglecting its core customers, in a market where uptake of electric mobility is slower than other parts of the world, the company is still keen to display the benefits.
“When customers are ready to make that change, we are the subject matter experts and we have the machines ready to go,” says Mazibuko.
The Mitsubishi EDiA machine is a great example. Able to move 4-5.5 tons between three and seven meters, with four-wheel steering, and differential lock for optimum traction, the EdiA XL is fully electric.
“People are constantly in the battle between internal combustion engines and electrics, especially with the load shedding we suffer. Some are hesitant about electrics because of the load shedding, but we have been clear on the advantages and disadvantage and what must be considered. Being innovative and responsible in all aspects of business is still a big goal for Masslift. Many people use loadshedding as an excuse for not adopting electric or green strategies, but there are ways that it can work very effectively.
“In South Africa, there has not been a massive revolution around going electric just yet when compared with Europe. We do sell internal combustion engines and electric machines and we are definitely trying to highlight the benefit of the electric machines especially in industries where they are mandating the use of electric,” she adds.
As the electric category becomes more popular in South and Southern Africa, Masslift will only grow further, leveraging its strong position in the market where it is trusted by so many. For now, Mazibuko and Caverni are happy to look back on what has been a bright three years while planning for the next growth frontier.
“We are finalising our financials for the year ended 31 March 2023 and our performance was better than the previous financial year which was a record,” says Mazibuko.
“The deal we had with Makro and Massmart, part of the Walmart Group, has been a big contributor to that and it has driven a step change in the business and in our performance,” says Caverni.
By building a culture that breeds positivity, and embedding the business as a deep part of the community and industries where it is active, Masslift is now an industry leader with an option for every type of client and an open, transparent, inclusive, and high-performance philosophy. This, concludes Caverni, is the place to be to develop and grow.