Logistics majors increasingly opt for outsourced groupage services

Despite the fall-out from global events like the Eurozone crisis, independent consolidator CFR Freight is more than satisfied with results over the past year, which has seen continued expansion of existing services. The only neutral groupage operator with equal emphasis on both air and sea, the company has recorded pleasing results in both sectors, managing director Martin Keck told FTW. Overall, volumes for the year have been stable, says Keck, despite low freight rates that don’t help profitability and mean that margins are a lot narrower than in the past. “But CFR is always looking at the needs of its clients, and recent seafreight developments are a reflection of that.” New weekly import services have been launched from Shanghai and Nava Sheva into Port Elizabeth. “Transhipment is never the optimal solution. Our clients want direct services, and thanks to our proactive PE office, the business has grown.” Another recent development caters for Cape Town shippers with the launch of a direct service from Madagascar into the Mother City. For the future the growth will be in Africa, says Keck. “It’s a volatile market and not as fast-developing as the likes of South East Asia, China and India, but we are keeping a very close eye on its potential. We already have six direct sea freight services into Africa and will go wherever the growth is.” In the meantime its Mauritius office – opened ten months ago – is paying good dividends. “In conjunction with our World Wide Alliance partners, we’ve seen new business generated from the likes of Singapore, India and China. So we’re not looking exclusively at SA-Mauritius trade but rather global growth.” A global trend that has also impacted positively on growth is the increasing move by logistics majors to outsource their consolidations rather than maintaining an in-house operation. “We have certainly benefited from some global operators outsourcing their LCL products entirely,” says Keck. IT developments are also an ongoing project at CFR which recently launched proactive tracking. “The client doesn’t need to access the website to track his cargo – we will customise our clients’ information needs on the status of shipments and email as much or as limited information as the client chooses. “It’s all part and parcel of our mission statement – which is to exceed customer expectations.” Caption: Martin Keck ... ‘For the future the growth will be in Africa.’