Business

The 55-year-old family-run business selling high-tech machines in South Africa

Declan Thompson • 6 September 2026

The Thompson Machine Tool Group was founded 55 years ago by two brothers from Northern Ireland and has endured over the decades despite difficult market conditions.

The privately held machine tool company was founded in October 1971 as F. Thompson Machinery, a joint venture between brothers Frank and Fred Thompson.

The Thompson brothers grew up poor in Belfast, the Northern Irish capital, alongside four sisters and two younger brothers before emigrating to South Africa in the early 1960s.

In its early days, the Benoni-based company focused on the used-machine-tools market, selling locally manufactured lathes and sheet-metal machines.

F. Thompson Machinery soon changed its name to Thompson Machine Tools, with a holding group later established as additional companies were formed.

At one point, the group encompassed seven companies, including auctioneering business Trackman Auctioneers, financing company FKF Finance, and Trison Machine Movers.

Fred and Frank’s youngest brother, Philip, moved to South Africa in 1972 at the age of 16 and began apprenticing at the company as a fitter and turner.

After completing his apprenticeship and familiarising himself with the machine tool industry, Philip transitioned to a sales representative role at Thompson Machine Tools.

The business grew quickly and, by 1973, had increased its staff complement to 12 people. That same year, the company built a large showroom on Elston Avenue in Benoni.

The fourth Thompson brother, John, joined the company as a sales representative in 1974 and served as director for a few years before relocating to Canada in the late 1980s.

In 1975, the company purchased a three-acre industrial stand in Apex upon which a 5,500 m² building was constructed containing offices, workshops, and a showroom.

Co-founder Fred Thompson told Machine Tool Market in 2021 that it was the largest machine tool showroom in the Southern Hemisphere at the time, with a floor area of 2,800 m².

In 1980, sisters Isabelle and Shirley Thompson joined the company on the administrative side. Isabelle stayed with the company for 27 years, while Shirley emigrated to the United States.

That same year, Fred and Frank helped found the Used Machine Tool Merchants Association of South Africa (UMTMA) to protect machine tool buyers from unethical sellers.

Both brothers served as UMTMA chairman on several occasions until its closure in 2016, with Fred also serving as an advisor on imported used machine tools to the Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition.

Keeping it in the family

Left to right: Philip Thompson, Gavin Kriek, Thomas Zackey, Fred Thompson

After a successful first decade for Thompson Machine Tools, South Africa’s machine tool industry entered a recession that lasted from 1982 to 1987.

Frank sold his shares in Thompson Machine Tools to his brothers, John and Philip, in 1983, then founded Harp Machine Tools with his son, Seamus, in 1985.

Patrick Zackey, Isabelle’s husband, became involved with the company in 1987 as a director and shareholder of the sister company Interprovince Engineering Supplies.

The following year, the company built a 3,000 m² facility on Hamburg Road in Apex Industrial Sites, which is where it is located to this day.

That same year, Craft Machine Tools was established to focus on importing and selling new machine tools, many of which are sourced from Taiwan and China.

Philip Thompson, who formed Craft with Patrick Zackey, told Metalworking News in 2021 that they considered selling imported new machines in the mid-1990s.

“We realised at the time that with the advent of CNC, technology in machine tools was growing rapidly and we needed to be able to offer clients an alternative to a used conventional machine tool,” Philip said.

“Today, of course, there are many used CNC-controlled machine tools in the market, but at the time when we entered the market, there were only a few available.”

Fred Thompson’s eldest son, Danny, joined the Thompson Machine Tool Group in 1990 and remained there as a sales director until relocating to Australia in 2016.

Danny’s younger brother, Ryan, worked at the company for six years before moving to Perth, Australia, in the early 2000s.

Isabelle and Patrick’s son, Anton, also held a position at the company for a time, as did their daughters Lisa, Cheryl, and Mary.

Their youngest son, Thomas Zackey, freelanced for the group for six years before buying his father Patrick’s shares upon his retirement in 2013.

Gavin Kriek became the first non-family member to be appointed a director of the company in 2014, the same year that Craft Machine Tools rebranded as Craft Industrial Equipment.

Co-founder Frank Thompson passed away in 2018, while his younger brother Fred relocated to Australia in 2022 to join his sons after retiring from the company years earlier.

Youngest brother Philip continues to serve the company as managing director, and also served as chairman of the Machine Tool Merchants Association from 2008 to 2010.