RAY SMUTS WHETHER HE is building a crate for a live buffalo or a Cape-built satellite or handling the off-loading of a vintage R36 million Ferrari racing car, it’s all par for the course for Sean Abbott, co-director of Cape Crating. Located in Carlisle Street, Paarden Eiland, Cape Crating is a specialised container loader, handler and custom-built crate manufacturer, its focus particularly on the industrial sector – Cape-built alluvial mining equipment, for instance. The company however handles a variety of interesting and unusual orders, more recently consigning more than 22 crates containing South African-built scale models of ancient Arab inventions to Dubai, where it will go on exhibition. Abbott says even though the company manufactures up to 1 000 crates in a busy month, the emphasis this year will be on container loading and lashing and securing of cargo on flat-racks (containers without sides or roofs), currently accounting for around 40% of overall business. Holding ISPF-15 phyto-sanitary accreditation from the department of agriculture, Cape Crating is also the preferred supplier for companies like SACD, Abbott explaining such companies do not as a rule undertake their own crating. Although 90% of its business is Western Cape-based, it is often necessary to travel elsewhere in the country to oversee packing of abnormal loads. Cape Crating turned over R7.7 million last year but Abbott says the target is to up that by at least 20% this year.
