Industrial components and systems company SKF has provided support to Cape Town authorities that conducted an effective raid against a bearing seller who had been selling counterfeit SKF bearings to customers in the region, seizing 15 bags of various types and sizes of counterfeit SKF products.

The company had gathered intelligence from its Cape Town authorised distributor as well as from its customer who unknowingly purchased counterfeit products, said SKF contracts manager, territory sales and brand protection champion Lynette Nieuwenhuizen.

SKF is collaborating with police and legal authorities in further pursuit of the case, she added.

Further, the company said it was pleased with the raid’s successful outcome and pledged continued support of the market to ensure that only genuine SKF products were used.

The use of counterfeits can essentially be catastrophic for customers. Inferior bearings are known for failing prematurely, causing machine and equipment breakdowns that subsequently lead to downtime. This unlocks a domino cost-loss effect; alongside production losses, end-users also face maintenance and replacement part costs.

Additionally, counterfeit products are detrimental to both SKF and customers’ efforts towards sustainability, she said.

“Our authorised distributors and customers are our eyes and ears in the market and play a pivotal role in providing intelligence. Their valuable input will help us carry out more raids in the future,” Nieuwenhuizen said.

“As the custodians of our quality brand, we will continue our efforts to protect our valued customers and authorised distributors from counterfeits.”

SKF-authorised distributors offeed customers the best sales channel for sourcing genuine products and ensure that their supply chains were always free of counterfeits. SKF took proactive initiatives to ensure its network of authorised distributors always remained clean from counterfeit, she said.