Condra: 60 years strong in crane manufacturing, expanding global reach
CONDRA, South Africa’s home-grown global crane manufacturer, will turn 60 on June 24.
Opened as a Braamfontein-based drawing office, the company today has factories in three cities on two continents to produce overhead cranes, hoists, end-carriages and components for markets worldwide.
Honouring Sepp Kleiner – Condra’s founder
Of all the firms with ties to Germany, how many can trace a history back to a director who cycled across Africa to open the company doors? Probably only one.
Condra owes its origin to Sepp Kleiner, who in 1959 strapped a tent and two changes of clothing onto a bicycle, and set off on a two-wheeled journey to Cape Town, travelling from Reischach, Germany, across France and Spain to North Africa, and from there southward across the continent. It took him two years.
His journey across Africa was epic. Kleiner cycled through warring countries, across deserts and through rainforests, and was even arrested and sentenced to be shot as a spy.
Sepp is retired today, but the company he founded has grown to become a leading local manufacturer of cranes, hoists, end-carriages and crane components for customers worldwide.
Condra’s growth and expansion
Condra’s growth is the result of a tight focus on quality and reliability. Cranes are manufactured to specification from hoists, drives, end carriages, brakes, gearboxes and some 250 components produced in-group. Hoists come in a number of standard models with capacities up to 500 tons.
Condra’s expansion from drawing office to global manufacturing group began with limited crane component production in 1971. The company announced its first locally manufactured hoist four years later.
Rapid growth followed, necessitating a move in 1976 to premises in Elsburg, south of Germiston, which remained the company base for more than 30 years. Over that period, the original factory and office space doubled to allow introduction of a new range of hoists in 1985. A second range was launched in 1997.
The need for yet more space became apparent in 2006, when the company began manufacturing two very large cranes, one for Sishen (capacity 150 tons), the other for Tati (capacity 145 tons) along with a plethora of machines of more standard size. Condra bought land with an area of 22 000m2 in Gosforth Park, Germiston, and built a
9 000m2 factory there. The company moved to the new premises in 2008.
There followed transformation into a group. The company won appointment as South Africa’s sole distributor of Hitachi electric chain hoists in 2009, followed quickly by the formation of the first overseas subsidiary, Condra OOD of Pazardzhik, Bulgaria.
Today, entities in the Condra group number nine, with two manufacturing companies in South Africa, one in Chile, one in Bulgaria, and five other associated firms. The parent company and main manufacturing facility remains headquartered in Germiston.
Cranes are designed and manufactured up to and including heavy duty Class 4, and to the standards of ISO, GOST and other internationally recognised quality control bodies.
Condra’s stated intent is to continue its focus on high product quality, delivering lower overall useful lifetime costs for sustainable competitive advantage.
Condra seeks reputable companies to partner with
Expansion of the global distribution network is to continue, but without targeting growth for its own sake. Group management is actively courting reputable, respectable companies that can help achieve this.
As Condra celebrates its diamond jubilee, its success today bears witness to Sepp Kleiner’s vision, and to an attitude summed up by a favourite quote he likes to share:
“To succeed, sometimes you just have to be bolder than the others,” he says.
