PETER EHRENREICH, currently general manager in the Western Cape, takes over as managing director of Maersk SA.
He will be responsible for Maersk Sealand activities in South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Madagascar and Botswana.
In mid June the Maersk SA headquarters and corporate offices move to Cape Town. This will enable further synergies with Safmarine to be explored within the administrative scope of the business, such as finance and human resources, said Ehrenreich.
A close friend of his predecessor, Gert Andersen, Ehrenreich anticipates few changes in management style.
For the next 12 months our objective is to maximise the utilisation of our assets such as containers and vessels and to do it profitably. This has to be done simultaneously with the over-riding objective of always striving to exceed the expectations of our customers.
In terms of the bigger picture, investment is the key. A P Moller is the third largest terminal operator in the world and is clearly keen to play a similar role in South Africa once privatisation kicks in.
We are often unable to deliver the desired service levels because we are reliant on third parties over whom we have no control. The decision to build our own depot is part of our drive for tighter control.
Equally important in this drive is the company's alliance with Spoornet running unit trains from Tzaneen for the perishable market.We will be looking at a similar operation from Kakamas, operated jointly with Safmarine.
By combining our volumes we can negotiate lucrative deals from our service providers, which can be passed on to our clients, making them more competitive in their markets as well.
Ehrenreich, like Andersen, stresses the importance of the independence of the two brands. We're good friends but tough competitors, and that's how we will continue to operate.
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