Diversification pays dividends

Accepting bad news proactively
and making fast if difficult
decisions has kept Chrisilda
Transport not only functioning but
growing, despite a “double whammy”
of the loss of a key client and the
global recession.
The biggest business news story this
year in Swaziland has been the closure
of Sappi’s decades-old operations in
Bhunya. Transporting paper pulp had
been a large component of Chrisilda
business. Sappi’s closure hit just
as another of the firm’s big clients,
the garment industry, scaled back
following a recession-fuelled decline
in orders from overseas.
“There was a lot of talk about
Sappi’s fate – others possibly running
the company. But we made a decision
– we sold the truck (dedicated
to paper pulp transport), closed
the depot that specialised in tree
harvesting, and sold the equipment in
a timely manner. We didn’t see Sappi
coming back,” Chrisilda managing
director Sikelela Vilakati told FTW.
For one of Swaziland’s largest and
most reputable road freight firms,
securing new business was a matter
of reminding local and overborder
shippers of who they are and what
they do.
“We embarked on a programme
of new business acquisition, and
it’s working well. Before our main
export was mostly pulp, but now
I’m moving clothing, timber, sugar
and coal – and citrus in season. You
might say the closure of Sappi was
a blessing in disguise because the
company is spreading its wings.”
That includes more work in SA.
“The bulk of my trucks are
registered in South Africa, which
means I can pick up and deliver
goods in South Africa. My local
competitors don’t have that.”
Coal, for instance, is moved by
Chrisilda trucks from Middelburg
to Durban. The company moves
Swaziland’s main export, sugar,
from the lowveld plantations to
destinations throughout Southern
Africa. Wheat is brought in from
Maputo now in such volumes
that Vilakati sees the necessity of
registering vehicles in Mozambique
as he does in SA.
“We are working on that. In
Mozambique they hammer you for
foreign-registered trucks. It’s US
$100, compared to 50 metical for
local trucks,” he said.
“2009 was the year we closed the
(Sappi) depot. 2010 I am taking on
new guys. I think it may be that other
transporters are going under, because
I’m getting calls to move goods left
and right. Here it is October and I am
thinking of getting new vehicles by
year’s end to keep up with demand,”
Vilakati said.