Terblanche moves into FP du Doit hot seat
A high-powered career
which included making
extensive use of hauliers, has
put Stephan Terblanche, the
new chief executive officer
of Windhoek-based FP du
Toit Transport Group, in a
unique position, he believes.
“While I have not been
on the operations side of
transport before, I know
transport well from the
customer perspective,”
says the former general
manager of the Ladybrand,
Free State-based OVK,
which with around 10 000
members/shareholders, is
one of the biggest farmerowned
companies in South
Africa.
Before that he headed
up the Klein Karoo
farmers’ cooperative supply
organisation, which supplies
around 65% of all ostrich
meat, leather and feathers
found in the international
markets.
The companies move
everything from thousands
of tons of bulk maize to
high-value ostrich skins and
dangerous goods such as
guns and ammunition.
Terblanche, who took
over from Willie du Toit
at the start of 2016, is a
Namibian citizen who
served as a lecturer at the
Glen Agricultural College in
Bloemfontein before moving
into business.
As a former client of
trucking companies his
focus is on service.
With over 500 mobile
units and nine depots across
Namibia and three in South
Africa, FP du Toit is the
biggest cross-border haulier
in Namibia, and its growing
base of customers includes
most of the largest retailers
in Namibia and South
Africa.
Pro Parcel is a crossborder
transport service
between Namibia, South
Africa and nine other
African countries, with
depots in Johannesburg,
Cape Town, Durban,
Windhoek, Tsumeb, Walvis
Bay and Keetmanshoop.
Jet.X Couriers connects
all Namibia’s major centres
and towns as well as all
important trade routes
between South African cities
and Namibia.
Through Wesbank
Transport, which it
purchased in 2015, FP du
Toit Transport Group also
serves the mining industry
and has the equipment to
handle out-of-gauge and
project cargo.
Moving into the hot seat
of a business which already
has a strong service culture
and high morale is a huge
advantage, says Terblanche.
“It is much easier to turn a
business around financially
than it is to change the
culture and the
people
“My team
has good
team spirit,
with everyone
working
together
“Plus I have
the support of
an experienced
team, with
chief operating
officer Dirkie
Uys continuing
to handle
operations.
“This gives
me the space to
strategise and
to identify new
opportunities
for the
company.
“Businesses die if they do
not adapt. I want to be a
change champion and not a
change manager,” he says.
The new CEO is part of
the change, as most of the
current senior management
team are now at retirement
age.
There is a new generation
who have been trained and
mentored, and who are
now ready to fill the shoes
of the people who built
the company from being a
Northern Cape-based family
business in 1968 to one of
the region’s top logistics
companies, he says.
What the group will
be doing in order to raise
service levels is to measure
itself against “the best in the
world”.
This includes all of the
almost 1 000 employees.
Ongoing in-house
training programmes keep
everyone up to speed on
technology and customer
service, and the company
also prides itself on being
recognised as one of the top
employees in the Namibian
business sector.
“I am very optimistic
about the future. The
basic infrastructure is in
place. What we have to do
is to constantly raise our
productivity levels and sweat
our assets.”
The result will be higher
levels of service and happy
clients, he says.
CAPTION
Stephan Terblanche
