They say that good news travels fast, but bad news travels faster. Well, this is certainly true of our Facebook page. For more than 3-years, National Luna has been developing an entirely new range of fridges equipped with superior insulation and an all-new compressor. We named it ‘The Legacy Range’; and, in October last year, it was officially launched into the market.
But then, in late November, disaster struck…
Sometime in the early hours of 22 November, a fire broke out in our fridge-service and pre-assembly unit. The 1 000-sqm building, and all of its contents, suffered irreparable damage that caused the total shutdown of our fridge-production facility, including product that was destined for Australia, the USA, UK, Europe and our local South African market.
Worse yet, customers’ fridges that were booked in for servicing (prior to going on holiday) were completely destroyed. To top it off, specialist machinery (pivotal to the production of National Luna fridges) needed significant repairs and replacement, and many of the parts and components that are needed to build new fridges require a 3-month lead time.
We posted details of the fire on social media and the news spread… well, like wildfire. But as one of our followers commented: Every dark cloud has a silver lining. For us, that lining has been the incredible support we’ve received from the off-road community, as well as our distributor network nationwide.
OUT OF THE ASHES
Of the 7 factory units that make up our production facility, units 6 and 7 were completely gutted in the fire, and now have to be rebuilt. But despite this mammoth setback, we’re out of the ashes and moving swiftly towards production capacity thanks to a new factory facility that’s just around the corner from our Head Office (JHB). Production has already started on select models, with capacity expected to return to normal during the next few months.
CUSTOMER FRIDGES
However, the best news of all is that we can now work towards replacing the customers’ fridges that were tragically destroyed in the fire. Currently, we’re in the process of contacting each of these customers with instructions on how to claim their brand new fridge, and subsequent 3-year warranty.
Once again, we’d like to take the opportunity to thank all our customers and distributors for their support and patience during these past months. Because of you, we’re already bouncing back stronger than before, not just because we’ve got newly pioneered products in the pipeline, but because we’re supported by a community that values our ideals of innovation and quality.
Kind regards,
The National Luna Team
National Luna moved into our current Edenvale premises some 20 years ago, but for more than 33-years we’ve remained committed to employing South African citizens (currently 77 people), and keeping our manufacturing facilities local.
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