Having cut its teeth on roadfreight to Malawi, export company Sapro International is working on expanding further into Africa, including East and West Africa.
Operations manager Hugo van Rooyen told FTW the company had seen an increase in demand for South African – and other internationally imported fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) – out of Africa.
“This has created opportunities for us to supply retailers and wholesalers on the continent,” he said, adding that exporting goods into the rest of Africa was a “whole different ballgame” to what the company had been used to. “We’ve learnt a lot of lessons, not only around the various roadfreight challenges but also about the potential opportunities – and pitfalls – of doing business in Africa,” said Van Rooyen, pointing out that although the company outsourced its transport to a number of companies, he and his team were very “hands on” with the logistics strategy.”
One of the biggest lessons, according to Van Rooyen, was the need to have the right documentation for every border crossing. “There are so many regulations along our transit routes and we have learnt that we need to be up to date with our paperwork if we want to clear the goods quickly.”
He said that this was particularly important for FMCG exporters focused on products with a limited shelf life.
“There are so many elements of compliance around labelling and packaging in every country we export to that we have special equipment and a dedicated team to change the labelling and packaging where required,” he explained.
This recently included the requirement to put a sell-by date on every can of Sparletta softdrink as part of a consignment to Qatar.
“We can’t keep up to date with every packaging regulation for every one of the 10 000 product lines we sell in every country, which is why we rely on our export customers to communicate their needs very specifically for us,” said Van Rooyen. The company’s long history of exporting to certain countries also gave them knowledge and insight that enabled them to sometimes guide their customers, he added.
“I’m an ex-military man with experience as a loadmaster and so when I joined the company, I wrote the warehousing instructions for Sapro, including the ordering, packaging, labelling and distribution procedures,” he said.
According to Van Rooyen, the company’s average turn-around time from ordering to distribution is three weeks. Strong relationships with its 262 suppliers to ensure stock availability as soon as the customer wants it is key.
“We also work with perishable products and have to ensure the shipped goods still have a minimum four to six-month sell-by date by the time they are placed on the shelf at a retail store or wholesaler.” Van Rooyen said that some countries – such as Kenya – required a minimum of six months’ shelf-life. “And when you deal with suppliers such as Koo who only produce canned goods in a specific fruit or vegetable season, it’s crucial that you have that relationship to ensure you can get the goods to your customer,” he said.
The company’s first African contract was with Saver’s Choice Superstore in Malawi and the customer insisted on using a particular road transporter for its deliveries.
“They offer a significantly lower transport cost than anyone else in that space and we have been able to work with them to ensure timeous deliveries,” Van Rooyen pointed out.
“It’s also the first time we are sourcing fresh produce from the Johannesburg Market for the superstore and we have established a good relationship with one of the original fruit and vegetable suppliers at the market, “ he said, adding that the preferred transport company also supplied reefer containers.
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The team sorting and labelling products to ensure compliance with the import country’s regulations.
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We don’t export products, we export nostalgia. – Hugo Van Rooyen
