More services in and out of CT on the cards

CFR Freight is focused on growing the number of sea trade lanes in and out of Cape Town, following last year’s launch of a direct export service to Mauritius and a weekly service directly from Atlanta in the United States. “We will also continuously focus on improving our sales and service levels for our clients. The Zacpak container freight station (CFS) developments in South Africa have been extremely successful and we will ensure that we meet our clients’ needs for this type of service in the Western Cape too,” said Martin Keck, CFR Freight MD. He told FTW that at CFR Freight it was as much about rates as it was about service. “With our combined developments in local haulage, extended CFS and new seafreight route development solutions, we are well equipped to achieve this in 2015,” Keck commented. Sean Petzer, Cape Town branch manager at CFR Freight, commented that the growth in volume and services offered by CFR Freight in the region had been significant and that this rapid growth had put new demands on the CFS offering. “So Zacpak and CFR Freight are looking towards the next phase of growth as we secure more business – and not just the traditional less than container load (LCL) business,” he said. Petzer pointed out that CFR Freight's service offering included LCL collection, crating, palletisation and other warehousing services. This is over and above the neutral door-to-door export service in cooperation with its clients, the forwarding and clearing agents. “Our imports are just as versatile and we can offer full ‘delivered duty unpaid’ (DDU) services, with pick and pack and full delivery to the door of our clients’ clients,” he said. Petzer noted that Cape Town was a strategic location for CFR Freight as it served a massive part of the country that was far removed from the traditional Durban to Johannesburg corridor, adding that the industry in the Western Cape had very specific requirements around certain unique products. “It is not just the wine and perishable industry, but oil and gas and general cargo are fast-growing industries in the region,” said Petzer. He believes the approach to the Western Cape market is different from the rest of the country. “Our clients are well informed around the supply chain and therefore need a service provider that is located at the heart of their business.” CFR Freight has also established an airfreight branch in the Western Cape headed up by Chilton Corrigall. “Our airfreight growth in the region has been phenomenal and together with seafreight and Zacpak we can offer a well-rounded one-stop-shop for all our clients in the Western Cape,” said Keck. INSERT & CAPTION 1 Zacpak and CFR Freight are looking towards the next phase of growth. – Sean Petzer INSERT & CAPTION 2 Our airfreight growth in the region has been phenomenal. – Martin Keck