Leonard Neill
A NEW contender is about to enter the top clearing and forwarding agents league following last week's announcement that the local operations of JH Bachmann and Megafreight are to be merged into a R1 billion-a-year concern.
Transport and financial services group Imperial Holdings, which took over Bachmann last year as one of four divisions of German-based logistics multinational Nestrans which Imperial bought from Krupp, is to inject R20 million into Megafreight to enable it to merge with JH Bachmann. The merged company will then be renamed Bachmann Megafreight.
The deal is subject to the approval of the Competitions Commission, but Imperial's chairman Bill Lynch says it is expected to be in place by the beginning of March this year.
The total staff contingent of the two companies is in the region of 300, equally distributed between them, but no decision has yet been taken on whether the new company will operate from only one of the existing offices or use both.
We have to wait until the two managements have formed a new team and then see how it all works, says Lynch. There is also the matter of warehousing to be taken into account, but it must be remembered we are an expansionist-minded organisation and development rather than reduction of facilities is always on our minds.
Staff duplication is another matter to be addressed, he said, and a decision on the eventual staff size of the merged company has still to be taken.
Imperial will hold 60% of Bachmann Megafreight, with the balance in the hands of the new company's management. Denzil Ashort, managing director of JH Bachmann South Africa, will be the chairman and Gordon Pascoe, managing director of Megafreight, will take up the same position in the merged company.
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