You’re in a dilemma: You’re a South African consumer looking at buying a new machine for your manufacturing facility.

You start shopping around and decide that a European/British Manufacturer is the way to go, so you contact them for a quote.

You receive the quote and it’s in Euros and you find yourself overwhelmed as you cannot physically or emotionally relate to this figure. Then you ask yourself: Why are they quoting me in Euros/USD/Pounds?

We live in South Africa.

The answer is easy: The quoting in a different currency is largely due to the fact that our Exchange Rate fluctuates as much as it does. It is gruelling and frustrating as a supplier to have to change the Rand pricing on a quote almost weekly. As we all know this is the case. When we quote you in Rand, you might be quoted a machine price today and when you sign off on the Purchase Order or pay the Invoice your price might already have changed. (That is why Forward Cover is essential when you are buying expensive machinery) So it can be very frustrating for you as a South African consumer and that is why you should always expect the Sales Person from that company selling you the machine to sit down with you and go through the figures.

As a South African we buy in Rand so our mind is trained on those figures.

At MicroStep South Africa, due to the fact that we sell very specialized machinery, when quoting you on a CNC Plasma Cutting machine for example, we always sit with you and regardless of whether we have quoted you in Rand prices or Euro prices we always make you aware of the current exchange rate.