Solid and steady growth in the airfreight forwarding market has seen Air Menzies International (AMI) take ownership of a new warehouse at OR Tambo International Airport, significantly improving the neutral consolidator’s cargo throughput capacity.According to Milton French, vice president for AMI Africa, the new facility is already handling about 500 tonnes a month and is capable of processing twice as much.At 2 959 square metres, the company’s new premises at the Sky Park Industrial complex in Bonaero Park are more than twice the size of its previous facility which was an even split between office space and warehousing.Ref lecting on where AMI used to be, continually hard-pressed to expand beyond the old facility of 1 450 squares, French says their current premises have made a big difference.“Previously we were part office and part warehouse in equal measure with a couple of tenants using some of the office space, of which we clearly had more than enough. But we kept having to expand on the warehousing side.“Initially we made do by expanding into affordable warehousing space next to our old premises, but still we continued to run out of space. We realised soon enough that the increase in cargo sent our way meant a more dramatic, longer-term expansion wa s necessa r y.“That’s when we started looking at developing these premises. It was really a no-brainer!”Wa l k i ng Freight News through the warehouse, amid the constant backup beeping of forklift reverse alarms, French said although much was changing for AMI, in keeping with the company’s rapid growth, a lot was staying the same.“We still have the same emphasis on safety and security. The same access control and camera monitoring. The same adherence to rules and regulations as a section 108 agent of the Civil Aviation Act. The same attention to detail such as avoiding cross-labelling and cargo screening.“We even still use dogs to sniff out dangerous goods like explosives, although that might change to 3D X-ray scanning at some point.”Pointing away from the warehouse’s main section – double-side pallet racks standing five rows deep and consisting of six parallel levels all the way to the top about 10 metres high – French points to a large crate section containing trophies for one of AMI’s big clients.“We also have to maintain our f lexibility in the market by remaining capable of handling difficult cargo. And although the consolidations market has changed in fundamental ways, we remain true to finding the best possible price options for our clients.“We have about five consols coming in from the States and UK. Just to LHR we have a weekly service on Virgin Atlantic f lying to London where we offer low rates at the higher as well as the lower breakpoints.“Reduced handover and storage rates by our agent at Heathrow make it even more attractive for our clients to allow us to ship goods as consolidations.”Chief executive officer Jonathan Clark said apart from its state-of-the-art sophistication, the warehouse served as a symbol of AMI’s growth in recent times.“It’s a fantastic facility and a major step forward for us.“We’ve been expanding through infrastructure projects such as this one and through innovative online platform improvements to provide a better customer-centric experience for our clients.”Asked what extra market reach may accompany AMI’s physical footprint expansion, Clark said although they were already well established in English-speaking markets (US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and SA), the forwarder was focusing on growth out east and in Europe.
