F or local manufacturers, staying sustainable in an unstable economic climate means running a very tight ship – and that involves keeping logistics and supply chain costs down to the minimum, according to the chief operating officer of Seal Cool Industries (SCI), Rudi Hasert. Established 26 years go by Croation couple Jack and Mirjana Blazevic – who came to South Africa with only the shirts on their backs – SCI today is the largest plastic profile manufacturer in Africa. “We produce plastic extrusions and injection mouldings, with about 95% of our products manufactured locally,” explained SCI business development manager, Karlo Blazevic. The company imports the rest of its products – to be used in final manufacturing – from Germany. “We offer solutions from conceptualisation stage, prototyping and tool building to series production and currently manufacture 40 plastic extrusions and 11 injection moulding products,” said Blazevic. The products are used in industries such as refrigeration, woodworking, automotive, construction, electrical, flooring and sanitation. The company has two factories in the south of Johannesburg and although SCI is mostly nationally focused, it has some core clients in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho. As Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments look to grow their own industries, there is potential to expand its product offering to other customers in Africa, according to Hasert. He explained that SCI did not distribute its products to Africa, saving itself the cost and complexity of cross-border transport. “We will package the goods and prepare the necessary clearance documentation and our customers will come and collect their stock, using a designated transport agent of their own when necessary,” said Hasert. The company also doesn’t offer storage solutions and sometimes excessive red tape from countries such as Zimbabwe can be challenging. “All exports to Zimbabwe need to be verified by Bureau Veritas and we have to wait for an independent inspector to issue a certificate before we can complete our paperwork,” said Hasert, adding that this could take up to two weeks. “We therefore have to prepare the stock, isolate it in our factory, and find space for it until it’s ready to be shipped.” He said this was however not a deterrent to doing business in Zimbabwe, at least “not yet”. While Seal Cool Industries does keep a small amount of stock on hand in the factory, there is no need for storage solutions or a warehouse management system as the customers generally collect the stock as soon as it’s ready. “Most completed orders are tailored to customer specifications and so we don’t tend to keep goods once we’ve completed the order,” said Hasert. Some raw materials that cannot be sourced locally are shipped from Germany via the Durban port and the company uses a freight forwarder to get the cargo up to the Gauteng factories. “The only challenge we have is that there are sometimes delays at port but the cargo is not time-sensitive and as our forwarder keeps us informed we can also manage expectations with our endcustomers,” he said. Hasert said the company did have some SCI branded vehicles on hand for deliveries within a 50-kilometre radius of the factories. “If we have big orders we don’t mind delivering the stock to our customers ourselves using either one of our five- or eight-tonne horse and trailers or our Hyundai delivery vehicle, driven by one of our drivers.” He said it was “not economically viable” to transport beyond the kilometre limits or to use a third party logistics service provider. SCI shares the same concerns and frustrations as many other local manufacturers when it comes to threats of a strike, power being down, staying competitive and retaining its skills set. “A reliable source of uninterrupted electricity supply was a major challenge for us and it was resolved with us finally getting our own transformer, although we waited nine years for it,” said Hasert. As to the potential labour issues and skills retention, Hasert told FTW that the company paid its staff “very well” and as a result had a very low staff turnover rate. “We don’t believe in minimum wages and we also know the value of skills retention.” He said that the skills were learned on-site in the company’s factories. “We also have strong relationships with all our suppliers and have a policy of always paying them on time,” said Hasert, noting that this ensured product and service delivery to customers in the long term, helping the company stay competitive. Competing with global importers who often ship stock to southern Africa at better prices is also a challenge but SCI ensures it retains the edge by focusing on cutting edge technology which is more technically advanced.
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We will package the goods and prepare the necessary clearance documentation and our customers will come and collect their stock. – Rudi Hasert
