We have been selling dehumidifiers into the South African market via Kovdor Trading since 2009 and have seen dramatic growth ever since.
Dehumidifiers are very much a niche product in South Africa with most people unaware of their existence, but people in South Africa do suffer from not only the same sort of problems that we have here in Europe but also uniquely in Asia too.
Cape Town tends to be cooler and wetter in the winter, not dissimilar to Great Britain; Durban suffers from hot and humid summers similar to Hong Kong while Johannesburg is warmer and dryer. This creates all year round problems ranging from condensation and mould in Cape Town through to sticky summers and increased mould growth in Durban.
Some of the applications are very similar to others that I have come across in other parts of the world – needing help to dry washing, stopping tiled floors from becoming slippery in humid weather, preventing mould growth on outside walls, looking after boats, caravans and classic cars over winter and stopping clothes from smelling musty in built in cupboards. Other applications were new to me, biltong drying and gun safes spring to mind as two that I have not come across in Europe.
The issue in South Africa is creating awareness that solutions to these problems exist. This is where the tireless work of Simon Brewer from Kovdor Trading back up by our visits to South Africa and a growing list of local resellers all helps. At the end of 2011 we launched www.meaco.co.za which is proving to be a popular source of advice for South African consumers looking for help solving their damp problems.
On each visit to South Africa we manage to extend our reach, train more resellers and educate more end users, looking at the sales figures and growth patterns this process is starting to pay off.
Below is a short welcome from Simon Brewer, if you are in South Africa and are looking for a dehumidifier then please do contact him via his email kovdor@mweb.co.za or his telephone which is 0861 388 878.
2 Responses
Hi Chris,
I have been at the Military Museum in JHB for 30 years. Our control of environmental control has always been neglected. We may be able to make some progress in the future. As always information and cost is required at very short notice.
The most we have been able to do is use dehumidifyers in the photographic archives. No long term monitoring of the Temp or Humidity has been done as we have no recording thermohygrograph, but have a few 40 year old hair hygrometers.
We have various storerooms:
Main store – webbing and metals – 185sqm -630 cubic m
Uniform store – cloth – 120sqm
Armoury – firearms 80sqm
Flag Store – 50sqm
Edge Weapons – sword and bayonets 25sqm
Medal Store – 12sqm
Photographic Archive – photographs, negatives video anDVD, -60sqm
Paper/document archive – 60sqm
Art store – some climatic control already – needs to be re assessed
Your comment would be highly appreciated.
Richard,
We might of meet when I popped into the museum last year and had a chat about conservation. My colleague in South Africa Simon Brewer is going to give you a call.
regards
Chris