experience to be trusted
About Us
features and benefits
What makes us standout
1
We provide variety of project solution
Powertool Plus supplies all types of industrial fasteners.
2
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
We strive to deliver comfortable, well-designed protection.
3
Best possible
equipment
We have the tools you need to get the job done.
History
Powertool Plus
“It was in August, I think… 1984.” He ponders. Mr Alex H Nel was and still is a determined man. He can’t really remember the exact date, but he is sure it was on a Friday the 13th. There was no Friday the 13th that August, so it must have been on the 10th. But it does not really matter. He recalls that friends and family told him that was crazy to start “his own thing”. He had the courage to start a small business in Johannesburg on a hope and a prayer. That is the same way as so many of us started any new business.
“How did this all come about?” I ask. I can see his memory trying to click into gear. “I was the managing director at Lasch Cranes. Then a man by the name of Eddie Ross, nice guy, came along and bought out Lasch Cranes and Rutherfords as well and merged them into the Landlock Group. Rutherfords was the Makita power tool importer, and they still are today.”
He pauses. “Another man man, Doug Band, came in to help at Lasch Cranes…” Another pause… “I decided to leave Lasch, but the LandLock Group wanted me to stay on in the group.” I can see Alex’s memory is really running now. “The group offered me a Makita franchise, the first one in South Africa! Franchising was the hottest new concept in business and they wanted in on it.”
“So you were a guinea pig?” I interrupt him. “You can say so” Alex frowns, “I found a premises in Jules Street… Number 378 I think. No, it was 387, yes 387. On the corner with Marathon Road. They gave me a ninety day account to pay them for power tool stocks. So, I made a loan against my house and I was in business.”
“Well that was easy” I say, lifting my eyebrows. “No, not really.” Alex stares ahead of him. “I realized in the first month that by selling only one brand of power tool, I will never survive. I needed to add more products into the mix. That is where the Plus in the name comes from – Powertool Plus, power tools plus everything else. A month later the franchise was dead, but Powertool Plus was just starting to take off.”
Three years later in 1987, Alex moved his growing business to 475 Jules Street, and that is where it operated until we moved it to Boksburg in 2015. Alex is very proud of the people he was able to help through Powertool Plus over the years. From young start-ups in the fastener industry, to family members up the creek without a paddle, all the way to helping clients to find the love of their life and get married!
“We have always helped people at Powertool Plus, and that is what you must keep doing.”
