CFR Freight welcomed a familiar face back into its fold when Dave Graham, previously air freight director at Röhlig-Grindrod, joined the consolidator as co-CEO alongside Martin Keck with effect from May 1.
Graham previously headed up the air freight division at CFR for three years.
His freight forwarding career includes stints with UTi both locally and in Chicago, and at DHL in South Africa.
Speaking to Freight News, he said he was looking forward to a new challenge that included top level management and involvement in all sectors of cargo.
Naturally he has strong opinions about the position in which air freight finds itself because of the Covid-19 pandemic and said he was “cautiously optimistic about the future.
“The global air freight industry is in a very difficult position at the moment. There simply are no passenger planes in the air at present and although there is talk of recovery we first have to go through the current crisis.”
Recovery in the air freight sector would most likely result in additional and co-loaded charters, he added.
“I’m quite bullish about LCL as bookings are increasing as a result of declining airfreight and FCL volumes. In time, as markets start to recover, we will probably see a resurgence in FCL volumes, but I don’t think we have seen the worst of the coronavirus impact on the world economy. Until then, I anticipate that lower FCL volumes will be driving LCL.”
In view of Graham’s expertise and insight in the market, Keck said he found the best possible partner to jointly run the groupage company that his brother in law founded in the early 90s.
“Dave and I started discussions towards the end of last year and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He said he wanted to extend his portfolio, that he wanted to move into other areas of the market, and personally I think he’s the best man for the job.”
Graham said from a leadership point of view CFR would be co-managed as a business together with Keck and the rest of the team.
Keck said his long-term plan was to become the board chairman at some point in the future.
He added that whereas he would gradually like to assume a less executive role, focusing on staff motivation, personal client management and developing the Africa market, Graham would be looking at the core operational functionalities of CFR.
Graham said he could not think of a more difficult environment than the current one in which to commence such a role, but that it was made much easier by the good working relationship with Keck.
One of the initiatives with which Graham said he was particularly proud to be associated was the company’s “We are here for you” campaign.
“A lot of companies are focussing on revenue impact and profit-generating opportunities as a result of the virus. From the time that I started at CFR our focus has been on not only maintaining service levels but actually improving on them.”
Graham said with all the uncertainty in the market it was crucial to instil peace of mind in one’s clients.
“Looking after our clients has always been CFR’s number one priority.”