Rectron has completed phase one of returning to its old premises, Rectron House, in 15th Road, Midrand.
There is speculation in the industry that, by going back to the old premises, Rectron is downsizing. However, Rectron sales director Zandre Rudolph says this is not so.
"Because so much of our product range is increasingly becoming smaller and lighter, we found we were using less than 40% of our massive New Road warehouse, a wastage that obviously didn't make much sense," he explains.
Other reasons for the move include levies and an unstable power supply at the current premises.
The new premises have undergone a large-scale and expensive renovation, with Rectron having given out R10 million on construction, R2 million on new offices, R15 million on a robotics system from Toyota, and R2 million on a Cisco IP telephony system.
Rectron is especially proud of the robotics system, which Rudolph boasts as one of the fastest in the world. Seven cranes, each capable of moving at 160m per minute, are being installed, requiring only nine operators.
Construction, which will result in the size of the building doubling from 6 000m2 to 12 000m2, should be finished by July this year, which will enable phase two of the move to proceed.
For phase one, the accounts, sales and marketing division has been moved to 15th Road. Dean Prinsloo, Rectron managing director, says that customers have been affected minimally and the company's IT system has been altered to create an infrastructure that allows the company to run as if all the offices were in one building.
The second phase of the move will see the frontline operations, including the dispatch, credits, service, RMA, and technical divisions, being relocated to the same building.
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