Logistics opens up opportunities

For serial entrepreneur
Norbert Liebich the
decision some 30 years
ago to start his own
logistics company laid the
foundation for venturing into
businesses as diverse as growing
table grapes (from which he
also distils his own brandy) to
collecting electronic waste.
Transworld Cargo itself has
grown from being a small
freight forwarder specialising in
hunting trophies to one of the
biggest privately owned groups
in Namibia.
As part of a global network
of agents and logistics services
providers it is able to move
cargo to and from anywhere
in the world and Namibia and
neighbouring countries.
It has four warehouses –
in Windhoek, Walvis Bay,
Windhoek airport and
Oshikango, has its own f leet of
trucks and an in-house clearing
team.
Transworld manages the
UPS international and regional
courier services from and to
Namibia, and operates from the
Transworld warehouse facilities.
Liebich’s
breakthrough
came with
independence,
when the then
still small
company was
tasked with
providing all
the logistics
support for the
United Nations
Transition
Assistance
Group (better
known as
Untag).
The peace-keeping force was
deployed in Namibia from April
1989 to March 1990 to monitor
the peace process and elections.
He was given the job simply
because he was available over a
weekend when a senior Untag
officer had a query.
“Our industry is all about
service. While the bigger
agencies may be able to leverage
rates, this is a
business where
you have to be
available 24
hours a day,
seven days a
week.
“Smaller
agencies like
ours continue to
survive because
of our f lexibility
and the high
levels of service
we provide,” he
says.
Despite being available and
hands-on in the business 24/7,
Liebich still found time to
expand his business.
Having a logistics business
which covers the length and
breadth of Namibia as well as
neighbouring countries, has
provided Liebich with a number
of opportunities.
Having built a company that
offered the full logistics chain,
Liebich was able to start looking
at related businesses.
One of the first was Container
World, which customises marine
containers.
“As a forwarder we found that
we were dealing in containers,
so entering into a partnership
with Container World was a
natural step.”
More recently empty legs
are being filled with electronic
waste, or “e-waste” – which in
Namibia is “anything that has a
plug or runs on batteries”.
Transworld provides a
collection service, and then
does dismantling on site in
Windhoek.
Another environment-related
project is the harvesting of
encroacher
bush into
biomass,
which is
supplied to
a Namibian
cement
factory to
replace coal.
Liebich’s latest project – the
growing of table grapes on the
Orange River – also “comes
from logistics”.
“We move grapes for the
farmers in the area, and I
was told that I needed to own
a grape farm in order to be
part of the management
company. That’s how I got
into grapes.”
Brandy followed when
Liebich didn’t want to see reject
grapes going to waste. He now
has a warehouse full of barrels
of brandy in various stages of
maturation.
Liebich now has a little
more time to enjoy the brandy
and to identify and work on
opportunities – he has handed
the day-to-day management
of Transworld Cargo to Heino
Herrlich, and now has an office
on the top floor of the Transworld
building in Windhoek – right
next to a yoga studio where he
can also be found.
INSERT & CAPTION
We move grapes for the
farmers in the area, and
I was told that I needed
to own a grape farm in
order to be part of the
management company.
– Norbert Liebich