Wayne Ross Email & Phone Number

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

At the beginning of the year I took on the challenge to create an Industrial New business division for Matus. The role is primarily responsible for leading a team to gain new business within the industrial sector. Matus is renowned to be the home of world class brands, whether our own or the international names we represent. As a wholesaler we are often removed from the man who ultimately uses our tools having purchased them from one of our distributers. We have identified the need to create this exposure at an end-user level without bypassing our distributor. Part of the new role is to create this exposure and we are piloting a dedicated end user specialist to take our industrial brands directly to the coal face. Working through a channel partner we are for the first time engaging directly with the end-users to market our products.As part of the portfolio I also look after the Tool Hire and the agricultural Co-Op sectors on a national level. Both of these sectors have been identified as having massive growth potential for us. A newly created Tender division is part of the new business strategy and actively sources tenders on behalf of our current customers. While Matus has always been involved albeit indirectly in most of the South African tender business we are now taking a more proactive role.

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

In this role I was responsible for heading up some of Matus's most prestigious OEM and International brands. Hitachi Power Tools: Matus is the sole distributor for Hitachi Power Tools in SA, during this period we transitioned the brand from Hitachi to Hikoki after the sale of Hitachi Koki to KKR. Hikoki remains a multi million Rand product category for Matus and continues to grow subsequent to the name change.Euroboor: Another sole agency line out of Holland which is synonymous with top quality when it comes to Magnetic drilling and cutting.Matweld & Matair: Matus's biggest product category with a revenue in excess of R170 Million. We continued to innovate in both categories bringing the first W style compressor pump to the South African market. Matweld launched SA's first digital synergic welding machine in its class. On a marketing front we introduced the first Two year warranty on welders in South Africa an initiative that was so well received that it has been copied by many of our competitors

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Matus is South Africa’s largest tool and hardware wholesaler, it is a distributor of tools and hardware to both the industrial sector as well as retailers with a turnover in excess of R1 billion. The Industrial Business Unit makes up approximately 60% of Matus’s R1 Billion turnover. It has branches in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.My role is to drive all aspects within the Industrial side of our business. I lead both a sales as well as a Product Management team. The Product management team are the custodians of some of our most popular industrial brands ( Matweld, Matair, Hitachi, Stahlwille, Fox) My role oversees the sourcing, development, marketing and taking to market of these products.On a sales perspective I oversee a sales team that call nationally on around 3000 of our Industrial customers

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Played a pivotal role together with the newly appointed CEO in transforming and restructuring Matus. The “New Matus” was transformed from a company traditionally lead for many years by an entrepreneur to that of a sustainable business model.• Transformation included:o Splitting the sales team into two business units to provide differentiated solutions to customers. The result was that new customers were won in both business unitso Segmenting the customer base into either the Retail or Industrial o Restructured the sales teams remuneration packages to drive the correct behavioro Completion of a sales force effectiveness initiative resulting in a more cost effective and skilled sales team who are growing market shareo Motivating employees through the change initiative resulting in a 200% improvement in employee engagement

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Responsible for the continued development and sales of Matus’s largest Industrial Product Groups(MatWeld, MatAir, Hitachi, Mobi Jack, Sykes, Groz and Stahlwille)During this period I successfully implemented and launched the Trade Counter concept. Trade Counter is a web based portal that allows Matus to interact directly with the end user without infringing on our wholesale model. http://www.tradecounter.co.za

Johannesburg Area, South Africa

Headhunted by Matus to resuscitate and further develop their failing welding program, I was responsible for all aspects of creating their welding brand.Conceptualized and developed the MatWeld brand the first of Matus’s MAT brands (today they include MatAir, MatSafe, MatPro, MatPower and MatPlumb) From 2001 till 2010 I grew sales on welding from R3 million per annum to in excess of R100 million

Cape Town Area, South Africa

The business is based in Cape Town, initially its core business was supplying the Industrial sector with their tool and allied needs.Products included power tools, hand tools, fasteners, abrasives, industrial coatings and safety products.Brands distributed included Bosch, Metabo, Makita, Gedore, Raco, Pferd, FEW.Some key customers included Hendred Freuhauf, Trencor, DeBeers, Serco, Department of Correctional Services and Dorbyl Marine. In the late 90’s we saw an opportunity to change the focus of the business to welding consumables. At that time there were only two major players who were importing welding products. We started importing a small range of products which soon allowed us to enter into wholesale arena.Today the business specializes predominantly in welding consumables and industrial gasses.

Bachelor'S Degree, Psychology, Uncompleted

High School, Matric

Activities and Societies: Sailing

High School, Matric