The LandyOnline Story
(in brief)
LandyOnline.co.za was registered on 28 December
1999 and was created simply because Alan and
Brian Cotton loved Land Rovers and wanted to
create a web presence for all things Land Rover
with an African flavour. The LandyOnline web was
born and grew from strength to strength based on
an open, unbiased (except towards Land Rovers)
outlook. LandyOnline listed spares, repair
workshops, places to go, things to do with your
Landy and offered free technical info.
In January 2002, Brian decided to leave the
shelter of permanent employment and start a Land
Rover Specialist workshop - it was all due to
peer pressure !
The logical name to choose was LandyOnline
Workshop.
The workshop started trading back in January 2002
from a tiny home workshop of 90 sqm
Soon after
that in March 2002 we moved to a 140 sqm
workshop in a old warehouse complex belonging to
the Ferreiras Company
At some point in the years following we
increased the area to 280 sqm. by removing a
wall to an adjoining section.
This 7
meter wide by 40 meter long stretch of old-style
warehouse was home until we moved into our
current and permanent premises
It was
from here that we built our name and started
developing new products such as the
MadMan EMS system
During
July 2008, we started project managing the
development of the new workshop, some 8km
closer to town set on 2 ha land. This was done
in between and after regular workshop trading
hours and funded by some very clever footwork
and a whole lot of magic.
The NEW
WORKSHOP.
Total building floor space is 880 sqm of which
LandyOnline's portion is currently 440 sqm
excluding the upper level.
On 1 March 2009 we
moved into the new building.
With a 4 post lift, new administrative staff,
offices and more space, everything was set to
progress quickly forward.
Unfortunately that was not to be as we had a
nasty year as far as staff went.
Duke Zwane, the mechanic that started with
LandyOnline on day 1, contracted TB, then
Meningitis and was out of the picture - he did
however survive and is still recovering, but no
longer with LandyOnline.
Our other administrative staff and student
mechanics proved to be incompatible with the
business (and with work in general) and where
dismissed.
So that put us back
by a whole chunk as the scars left were enormous
and needed a huge amount of hard work to get
both the administration and customer base back
in good condition.
That is when
Abi joined LandyOnline as the
Receptionist / Online Shop Manager.
With Shelley taking
care of the bookkeeping, HR and SARS , Abi doing
the Administration and Online Shop and Brian managing the shop floor, we
started getting control of everything again.
2011 is going to be
a really busy year with a lot of new things
taking place - If all these fall into place
nicely, we will be serving our customers better
than ever.
The story continues
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ADMINISTRATION STAFF
Workshop
Manager: Brian Cotton
Administration Manager: Abigail Strachan
Bookkeeper & HR: Shelley Cotton
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FLOOR
STAFF
Egrina
- Housekeeping
Ericson - Mechanic
Fortune - Mechanic
Innocent - Mechanic
Rams - Cleaning
Reason - Mechanic
Trymore - Mechanic
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