In continuing our review of the electronics industry in South Africa, we now feature a Pietermaritzburg-based company, that currently exports electronic products to over 22 countries.
This series of articles, where we are looking at a number of the leading players (large, medium and small) in the industry, is based on press reports, annual company reports where available, and information available on the relevant websites. Obviously, it is possible to only cover a limited number of companies but we believe that the major sectors of the local industry, including commercial, defence, security and automotive electronics, together with telecommunications, have been addressed.
Established in 1969, originally to import and service parking garage equipment, Nortech International was, by 1980, focusing on inductive loop vehicle detectors - and these products were exported widely even during the sanctions era. At one time Nortech was part of the Control Instruments Group but it has now been operating independently for a number of years. Like all major exporters, Nortech is certified to ISO 9000 and all of its product range is CE-compliant. Although Europe is an important export market, the company sells its products into many countries, including North America.
Nortech sells through distributors based locally in the countries involved and is now represented in more than 22 countries directly, although product is sold in many more. In order to cater for its vast global customer base, Nortech has gone to the trouble of having its product literature translated into Spanish, French and German, a small 'customer care' consideration, but one that no doubt adds to its competitiveness in countries where these languages are spoken. As a result of the expansion of their market into the Far East the company has now undertaken to translate its literature into Japanese and Chinese as well.
In terms of inductive loop vehicle detectors for traffic control, Nortech has grown to become the world's largest independent supplier of these products. The technology offered by Nortech enables improved traffic monitoring and management, and is increasingly sought after as national road infrastructures fall behind in terms of the demand for use and number of vehicles carried. In addition Nortech designs and manufactures an extensive range of barrier control and parking detectors. These are also an important export product. These products have been expanded into a range of specialist devices for vehicle access control.
A more recent, innovative and successful venture, was the creation of a new company within Nortech called Headcount Systems. Headcount Systems uses a patented method of counting people through a pattern recognition process. Basically, the system has four beams that are placed at ankle level. The way the beams are broken is fed into a neural network system which, linked to a PC, can produce an 'In' and 'Out' headcount with typical accuracy on a daily basis of some 99%. Foreign objects such as shopping trolleys (and even animals) are discounted as the pattern is distinctly different from that obtained from a pair of human legs.
Applications of Headcount are enormous but could include for example, total visitors to an airport (actual travellers can be monitored separately), counting the number of people entering retail stores or shopping malls (could result in redesign of popular but inadequate entrances), or evaluating the results of specific marketing campaigns to see if they did increase the store's foot traffic. Headcount, using Nortech's inductive loop technology, has also expanded its operations so as to count vehicles. This allows for such measures as carpark utilisation and occupancy (number of open parking bays), with the latter providing accurate feedback to motorists wishing to park.
Apart from permanent installations, Headcount Systems offers 'contract counting' whereby its staff will manage the entire census count over a specified period and provide the client with the results required.
This series looks at some of the leading companies in the electronics industry in South Africa today. To simplify presentation and avoid perceptions that they are being 'rated' in any way, this coverage is being presented in alphabetical order. Do not miss the next issue of Dataweek where we look at a major JSE-listed electronics and electrical company that, besides a large commercial distribution business and an electrical switchgear operation, has major interests in telecommunications too.
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