Celtic expands into warehousing

EAST RAND-based specialist in the movement of consolidations and full loads to Zambia, Celtic Freight has widened its horizons to offer a range of container handling and warehousing facilities to the freight forwarding industry at its newly developed premises in Isando. Established five years ago by managing director Adrian Friend, Celtic has seen a dramatic increase in volumes to Zambia, particularly in the past two years. "We desperately needed bigger premises and went ahead with the refurbishment of our current facility, previously an old timber yard. "We do however have excess capacity, which we are now making available to the freight forwarding industry," Friend told FTW. The new facility includes 10 000 square metres of covered warehousing, 3000 square metres of covered shed for products like steel and drums, handling facilities for 1kg to 40 tons, bonded store facilities and unpacking and repacking of containers on site. The company has purchased a sidelifter container crane capable of lifting full and empty containers. Additional equipment will be brought into service based on customer demand. "Our focus remains on Zambia," says Friend, who was born and raised there and has notched up several years of experience in overborder trade, previously with Sazam and Nobel Trading. He believes that the container park and warehousing facility offered by Celtic fill a niche in the East Rand area. "Most similar facilities are based at City Deep, and the availability of our sidelifter will offer the industry major handling benefits."