Airfreight growth in focus for Ehrenreich Logistics

Work is no daily grind for Shawn Simonhoff, he’s actually having fun, and lots of it, as Cape regional director of Ehrenreich Logistics. Ehrenreich Logistics, fledgling but growing, believes small is not necessarily bad. It rather affords advantages such as greater customer interaction and more personalised attention. As CEO Peter Ehrenreich himself states: “We are not going after specific markets but rather pursuing clients we believe we can service well and add value.” Offering and maintaining service more often than not stems from sound experience and the three company directors are hardly lacking in that regard – a collective 70-odd years in shipping between them. Founder and CEO, Peter Ehrenreich, is an AP Moller- Maersk veteran who has amassed a treasure trove of global connections over the years. Simonhoff is himself no slouch in terms of shipping and freight experience – MSC, Maersk Line, Kuehne and Nagel, Grindrod and Seatram among them, while Nadia Govender (director in Gauteng) worked at Maersk Line, Maersk Logistics, Safmarine and UTi. Simonhoff expects the South African economy to remain ‘stable’ for 2011, in line with the assessment by ratings agency Fitch. The company’s Cape Town branch at Epping Industria 2 has only been open since September 2009, starting out with two people and two computers, but Simonhoff is well satisfied with customer growth to around 40 and hopes to increase revenue 200% by the end of this year. The branch’s strength is exports, carrying such commodities as fruit, winerelated products and machinery to China, India, USA, Europe, the Middle East and West Africa. On the import side, it moves various commodities including necessities for the winemaking industry. Simonhoff plans to focus more closely on the forwarding sector and also growing airfreight volumes. One of the company’s strengths is its BBBEE rating at level 1.