Family business celebrates 10-year milestone

Doing business day in day out with one’s family may sound illogical and impractical to some, but the formula has worked well at Cape Town’s Robertson Freight. With seven family members and two “in-laws” on the payroll, surely this must be some kind of an industry record. “At the end of the day it involves personalities and we do have our differences from time to time though it’s no big spiel,” admits director Brian Robertson. Aside from Brian and fellow director and younger brother, Neil, the other Robertsons are Brian’s wife, Cheryl (accounts); his son, Lyle (imports); daughters Mia (exports) and Kim (debtor’s clerk) and Neil’s stepson, Fabian, (exports). By no means one of the ‘biggies’ in the Western Cape, Robertson Freight celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. Rory Brickhill, who too is a seasoned shipping man, has been affiliated with the Robertson clan for almost a quarter of a century now. He manages the branch and keeps all the “flock under his wing”, according to Neil Brian was a co-founder and director of Meihuizen Freight in the Mother City in the mid-1980s but there came a time when he and Neil, also at Meihuizen at the time, decided to “go it alone”. In July 1999 Neil set up Robertson Freight with an initial amount of R51 000. A month later Brian joined the family business, and they haven’t regretted it for one minute.“We started the business with R129 000 working capital and a onepage debtor’s book, turning over around R1 million in the first year. “Ten years down the line, the debtor’s book has grown to more than ten pages and our revenue was up by 21% to R54 million in 2008, thanks to the support of 180 regular and about 45 cash customers.” Neil says the company initially handled around 15 containers (teus and feus) a month, that figure rising to 145 containers a month in 2008, 70% consisting of imports. Not given to mincing his words, Brian says it is unfortunate that while the Cape freight and forwarding sector has always striven for professionalism, it is instead treated with derision by some, much like a “spaza industry”. Primarily in the firing line are Sars and certain shipping lines who show clear disdain, particularly for smaller forwarders, by demanding bank guaranteed cheques for freight payments. Despite the challenges, says Neil: “We are not going anywhere anytime soon – the family business will be around for many years to come.”