This year Festo South Africa turns 40. To commemorate the occasion, Festo invited key figures from industry, government, institutions and the media to its official anniversary VIP day on 5 September, where the compaany reflected on its impact in the region and its future prospects.
Festo South Africa supports the automation sector with state-of-the-art pneumatic and electrical components, electronic control and automation systems, as well as with skills development in the field of machine and process automation. Today, the company services over 5000 customers and trains up to 1400 students annually in South Africa, the SADC and EAC countries.
Festo is a family owned business. Seen here are senior members of the Stoll family who made the journey from Germany to be at the celebration. From l: Curt-Michael Stoll; Mrs & Dr Kurt Stoll; Dr Wilfired Stoll; Dr Ulrich Stoll; Wilfried Stoll.
Some of South Africa’s top businesspeople and ambassadors contributed to the event. merSETA CEO, Raymond Patel delivered the keynote speech, while other notable guests included the acting chief executive of WISA, Dot Zandberg, the director of the SA Institute of Electrical Engineers, Stan Bridges and a number of key Festo directors and shareholders from around the world.
“Over the years our industrial development has gone hand in hand with the expansion of our vocational education programmes at Festo Didactic, resulting in a sustainable model whereby skills feed growth, which in turn, creates a need for more skills,” says managing director, Richard Teagle. “This has firmly entrenched Festo South Africa as a leader within the industry as a supplier of both automation technology and vocational learning.”
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