Birkart launches BEE company

Kevin Mayhew
LOGISTICS MAJOR Birkart Globistics has committed to the transformation imperative and established a BEE company which will trade as Birkhart Simesonke.
The management team of the new company – incorporated on April 1 – will be headed by George Khumalo who becomes managing director and Norman Nicholson, the Johannesburg branch manager of Birkart Globistics, who also becomes a director of the new company.
Simesonke, although based at Birkart Globistics headquarters’ in Spartan, will operate as a separate entity, according to Khumalo.
“The company is 51% owned by blacks and 49% by Birkart Globistics SA. If potential indigenous investors are identified, a percentage of shares could be sold to them to add more value to the company,” he added.
Chief executive officer based in Germany, Michael Villinger, who attended the official launch of Simesonke in Johannesburg last week, said the new company was in line with its international policy of supplementing its operations with local operations and management.
“We see South Africa as being in a similar position to the Asian economies where we have established a presence. It has always been achieved by absorbing the strengths of the local economy into our companies in these countries. We see South Africa as a major player in Africa and believe that its role will become more and more important,” he explained.
Birkart Globistics has been represented in South Africa for 30 years and is a business unit of the THIEL Group. Last year THIEL achieved a turnover of more than $2.3bn. Birkart Globistics contributed a significant amount to this performance and is the fastest growing unit within THIEL.