Maersk Line restructures to improve customer interface

RAY SMUTS NEW PROGRAMMES aimed at making the customer interface as efficient as possible are among bold initiativaes by the world’s largest container carrier, the new Maersk Line. Mark Cairns, who took over the newly-created portfolio of national sales director for southern Africa on June 1, says the company has adopted what he terms the ‘cluster approach’ by joining together countries in the region and using individual centres of excellence across the area for all functions such as operations and sales structures. In addition, the reefer and dry divisions, which ran as separate entities, will now be joined as one under Cairns, with the objective of further developing sales capability in the southern African region. “The reason we are going through this new process is to look at how we can align countries from a global point of view. By introducing new systems designed to make the overall customer interface as efficient as possible so that all clearly see the picture, we will ensure the processes within southern Africa are aligned.” Cairns was the former commercial director: reefer for sub-Saharan Africa at Maersk Sealand, which ceased to exist with the takeover by the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group of P&O Nedlloyd. He succeeds Maersk Line national sales manager, Nick Gough, who left for Antwerp last month to become a key client manager for the line in a number of countries. Taking the new thinking a step further, Cairns says: “The key areas we are looking at ahead include a very focused approach (set up by Gough) where we have in place various industry segments - automotive, retail, food and beverage, non-perishables, electronics and freight forwarders. “What we intend doing is utilising the competencies within these sectors by looking at our existing client base and making recommendations as to how we can become more efficient, taking global trends into account. “The purpose, really, is for us to better understand the key sectors, the key drivers within each, and how we can, as the AP Moller-Maersk Group, add value to those sectors.”