Food and beverage keeps business buoyant

Sugar, spice and all things nice remain indispensable to many, even in this economically depressed day and age, but recovery signs are evident in burgeoning Africa, as Grant Barnard, Cape Town branch manager for international freight forwarder a hartrodt South Africa, can testify. Food and beverage logistics plays a major role in the overall success of the 123-year-old company, its Cape Town branch featuring prominently in this particular sector. “The company’s Cape Town food and beverage logistics division, established in 2006, has experienced 90% growth year-on-year,” says Barnard. He joined the company 18 months ago, bringing 19 years’ shipping experience, some of it in Africa beyond this country’s borders. He says the Mother City’s F&B logistics division receives more than 400 estimate requests a year from all parts of the globe, 10% from sub- Saharan African countries. “The main F&B commodity for us moving into Africa is wine and during 2009 we moved seafreight shipments to Nigeria, Benin, Kenya, and Angola, though the continent is an ever-growing market.” Hartrodt Cape Town, one of four branches since the company was registered in 1981, eagerly anticipates further growth, even though Barnard is quick to stress this will be a “challenging year”, on the back of 2009. The branch is located at Airport Industria, a stone’s throw from Cape Town International Airport – convenient given airfreight is a major player. As to warehouse capacity of only 400 m2, Barnard comments: “A lot of people ask “why so small”? but the answer is we do not want to incur extra costs for our clients by going bigger.” Hartrodt Cape Town, in anticipation of the Fifa 2010 World Cup, has been in touch with its 350-odd Western Cape client base regarding strategies of “staggered deliveries and collections”, cognisant of transport congestion during such major events. As is commonplace throughout hartrodt, honing skills through in-house training remains a priority. The Cape Town branch anticipates the Teta-accredited graduation next year of Rochelle Andrews and Clive Nduna. She is a junior clerk in seafreight imports, he in a similar capacity in the customs section.