KHS invests in the African market
Service cooperation strengthens customer support – start in Angola
Dortmund, March 06, 2015 – KHS GmbH, one of the leading manufacturers of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industries worldwide, is intensifying its customer service in Africa. A cooperation signed with the international Portuguese AMAL Group now enables KHS and AMAL service engineers to provide joint assistance to customers in the beverage industry, starting in Angola and later moving into other African states. Activities include servicing, maintenance and overhaul work for the beverage industry.The AMAL Group has several production sites and service centers on the African continent. The company is centrally based in the Angolan capital of Luanda, together with one of its subsidiaries, where it employs around 350 service engineers. Under the terms of the cooperation designated AMAL engineers complete an extensive, KHS-specific training course so that they can be quickly assigned for customer service and become familiar with the specific situation on site.
KHS has a close-knit worldwide service network which in some regions is supplemented by cooperations with renowned partners. The focus here is on structurally weak regions where customers are often hard to reach. "By also using the service networks of select partners we can quickly and efficiently strengthen our proximity to the customer. This gives our customers an even higher line availability and also boosts their competitiveness," says Markus Knabe, head of the Central Corporate Project Management division at KHS.
In services to the industry time plays an important role. Accordingly, the ongoing blanket expansion of services is aimed at further securing line availability in the production process. This is why KHS' service cooperation with AMAL is to be extended to cover other African states in the medium term.
The Dortmund company already has other successful service cooperation agreements similar to the one in Angola in force in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
About the AMAL Group The AMAL Group, headquartered in Sines/Portugal, is primarily active in petrochemicals and steel construction, processing turnkey projects in the beverage industry on a large scale. The group employs over 1,100 people worldwide, including approximately 750 service engineers. AMAL has been represented in Africa (among other places) by AMAL – Construções Metálicas de Angola, SA, in Luanda since 2003. It operates further facilities in Algeria and Mozambique.
About KHS KHS GmbH is one of the leading manufacturers of filling and packaging systems for the beverage, food and non-food industries. Headquartered in Dortmund, Germany, the company has an international production network with over 4,500 employees worldwide. In 2014 KHS was presented with the Innovation through Research seal. With this the Stifterverband, a nationwide German patron of education and science, honors companies' outstanding commitment to research and development and their particular responsibility to state and society.
KHS GmbH is a wholly owned subsidiary of Salzgitter AG. With around 25,000 employees throughout the globe the German steel and technology group achieved a turnover of over €9 billion in the 2014 business year. Within the Salzgitter Group the KHS Group and two other special machine manufacturers make up the Technology Division and are part of the core business of the MDAX-listed corporation.