Keeping transport
moving
Getting a bigger share of the cake
BLACK OWNED supplier companies throughout the country have been major beneficiaries of developments in the transport industry, with Spoornet using no fewer than 28 of them.
It's all part of Spoornet's programme to support and promote the development of suppliers and contractors from previously disadvantaged communities, says Abdool Lutchka of Spoornet's Procurement Board.
Lutchka points to the recent two-year contract awarded to KZN Oils, valued at R2 million for the supply of oils and lubricants.
KZN Oils started as a one-man business, founded by present managing director Rajen Reddy in 1996. Today he employs a staff of 12, and says Transnet has played a major role in the development of his company.
The annual supply of 400 000 litres of product to Transnet has given KZN Oils buying power and the ability to offer better prices to customers, he says.
Our company is one of a number of small and medium-sized companies that have grown and benefited from Transnet's business. We were given the opportunity to enter the oil industry, which has traditionally been dominated by the major oil companies, on a larger scale.
His views on the development of black-owned companies in the transport industry are echoed by Sugie Govender of Durban-based Transglobal.
We were strictly a clearing and forwarding company before e-commerce made all the old functions obsolete, he said.
Now we have moved firmly into third-party logistics, the first black empowerment company to do so. It has been the mammoth expansion of the transport industry, and the fact that private enterprise is getting a bigger share of the cake these days, that has enabled us to take this step.
Now we undertake total warehousing and distribution, and are linked on realtime with the distributors themselves. It has meant a giant step for companies like ours in recent years.
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