Wuhlf: forging ahead through tough times

Johan Grobler, co-founder and director of Wuhlf Equipment, spoke to Janine Ryan about the company’s success with mulchers, and how it is weathering the ongoing logistics storm.

- Janine Ryan

Wuhlf Equipment has specialised in the import and supply of front-end loaders, 4x4 forklifts and spares to the South African market for the past 17 years.

Initially called Quality Products (QualiProd), Wuhlf was rebranded in 2015, and has since become synonymous with mulchers.

Johan Grobler, co-founder and director of Wuhlf, says the rebranding of the company was necessary to improve brand awareness. “When we operated as QualiProd, our clients recognised us by the names of individual machinery, such as Renoster. As animal names have always worked well for us, we eventually settled on Wuhlf. The brand has thus become recognisable by both its name and logo, which is the head of a wolf,” he explains.

However, only the company’s name and logo changed, and Grobler says that it maintains its output of affordable, high-quality equipment.

FRONT-END LOADERS AND MULCHERS

Wuhlf began with the production of small frontend loaders for on-farm use. “At the time, small loaders didn’t exist on South African farms,” says Grobler. After visiting China, where he saw many small high-quality front-end loaders, he decided to import these machines into South Africa to make them available to local producers.

“Initially, we were able to manufacture the loaders locally, and would only import the parts. Now, however, with the high cost of steel, it is cheaper to import them in their entirety,” he says, adding that the local steel price has increased significantly over the years due to high import tariffs.