Local waste-materials-handling equipment manufacturer 600SA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the 600Group, has partnered with a Brazilian-manu-facturer, Usimeca, to manufacture and import a new range of materials-handling equipment. Usimeca, a Latin Ameri-can company specialising in the segment of waste-collection equipment and conveyance, invests strongly in research, new product development, manufacturing resources and people. Prior to the agreement between 600SA and Usimeca, 600SA manufactured the E-Z Pack range as the company’s brand name. Although the E-Z Pack range sufficiently supplied the market’s needs and even though 600SA has the skills and knowledge to manu-facture in-house with all the benefits in terms of the South African economic policy, job creation and being Proudly South African, MD Ian Gourlay tells Engineering News that the question whether the company should be an original-equipment manufacturer (OEM) had been raised at the executive review of 2006. “In order to rise to the standard of leading products, extensive and sustained emphasis on research and development (R&D) is para-mount,” he says. Following the review, it was concluded that 600SA’s core business should be to enhance customer success through the management of relationships with leading suppliers. “This did not necessarily exclude manufacturing, but we came to the conclusion that a R&D division might be an exercise of reinventing the wheel,” says Gourlay. Instead, 600SA decided to partner with a sought-after, leading brand, which has an established R&D division and that will suit South African and Southern African con-ditions as the company’s products are well received in neighbouring countries, such as Zimbabwe, Zambia and Malawi. In addition, partnering with an international company also includes a distribution infrastructure and pro- duct support and it will back 600SA with one of the world’s leading brand’s R&D divisions. “If we have a product-capacity problem, we will easily be able to supplement from our Brazilian partners,” Gourlay says. 600SA will manufacture the body of the Usimeca smooth-skin compactor under licence and will assemble the tailgate from imported Usimeca components. “We will still manufacture, thus protecting factory jobs and we also source material locally,” he reports, adding that 600SA’s first Usimeca compactor will be completed in April. 600SA will offer the full Usimeca range, including the mini compactor suitable for the townhouse-type of estates to the heavy-duty industrial rear-end loaders. The UK-based 600Group was founded in 1834 and, in 1967, 600SA was established. The group claims to be the first foreign company to go the black economic-empowerment route after selling 25,1% of its shares to a BEE partner in April last year.