Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa (KDZA) has announced the appointment of Paul Wendlandt as its new GM.
Wendlandt stepped into the role of interim GM in July 2022, when he replaced Werner Engelbrecht, who announced in May last year his intention to leave KDZA.
Wendlandt has been with the company for 20 years, ensuring business stability for the company.
“I am delighted to have been appointed to lead KDZA,” he says. “The last nine months gave me and our team the opportunity to get back to basics and strengthen our alignment with Kyocera’s objectives. Our focus for this financial year is to strengthen relationships and improve communication with our business partners, and to continue to develop the South African team. We intend to expand our traditional printing products and accelerate our business solutions and commercial inkjet business.”
He adds that KDZA is in a transition to meet future market changes in alignment with Kyocera’s global business strategy.
“Digital transformation of the organisation and the optimisation of our workforce is as important as innovation and the development of new technology and products. This requires a culture of continual improvement across every business unit. In line with this, we will be bolstering KDZA’s skills development and training programmes to equip employees to meet the company mission and stimulate their own intellectual growth.”
Promoting sustainability, as well as respect for one another and the environment, are concerns Wendlandt cares about deeply and takes seriously. He aims to improve participation in Kyocera’s positive social change initiatives, and he will seek to motivate his team to join him in these endeavours.
KDZA has held the overall number one position as a leading supplier of MFPs/copiers since 2019 to 2021, and also retained its position as number one in mono A4 from 2018, and in colour from 2019 to 2021. The company has made headway into offering digital document solutions and has successfully entered the production print market.
Although KDZA is a subsidiary of an international manufacturer, Nozala Women has a significant stake in the local business and the partnership means that KDZA’s black economic empowerment ownership is at 35%.
“KDZA continues to be a successful business due in part to our product and solution offerings, and also to the loyalty of our customers and the resilience and hard work of our staff and partners,” Wendlandt says. “We will continue to strengthen our market leadership position and drive our strategic initiatives to create additional value for our customers and partners in the South African market.”