Alan Peat
WITH THE acquisition by Safcor Panalpina of Bidvest Group sister Renfreight - and the highly-developed relationship between the new entity and the global network of Swiss-based multi-national Panalpina - a new giant has been formed in SA forwarding.
“This,” said Philip Womersley, chairman and m.d. of the combined operation, “is something bigger than the addition of the two parts.”
On the local front, it’s tying together Safcor’s muscle in airfreight with Renfreight’s seafreight expertise, and blending the former’s operational strength with the recognised commercial marketing and sales skill of the latter.
The strengths in each supplement the other’s weaknesses, is how Womersley sees it.
It creates a critical mass, which Womersley intends to use for “new levels of industry-specific focus in our SA operations”.
The overall service spread across the supply chain is greatly strengthened by the acquisition, allowing the new company into areas of business from which it was previously excluded. “We will now accelerate the roll-out of additional third-party logistics (3PL) and 4PL skills on an in-house basis,” he said.
This raises the question of what will happen to Bidlog - which, up to now, has supplied the 3PL function to both the companies as separate entities.
“I’d be surprised if Bidlog exists in its current format in 12-months time,” Womersley told FTW. “We are likely to absorb it back into Safcor Panalpina.”
Staff numbers for the new company at the moment see “a topside of 1000”, he added. To page 11
“Obviously, we are working very quickly to finalise the management team and the staff structures underneath them,” said Womersley.
There will “probably” be retrenchements, he added.
“This is subject to the consolidation process. We will review the structure as soon as possible.”
The office network for the new company will also be a rationalisation of the currently duplicated structure.
“We will select the better/more flexible of the two premises and combine them under one roof.
“This within three months.”
Questioned on whether the new entity could just provide sufficient incentive for a Panalpina take-over, Womersley repeated what he told FTW some months ago.
While the Swiss company has no shareholding in either of the two Bidvest companies, “to all intents and purposes it’s no different from being a wholly-owned subsidiary of Panalpina”, said Womersley.
The companies all work on the same IT (information technology) systems, can swop staff around within the group, and have the same operational policies.
“We are even listed under Panalpina’s Ôowned offices’ - not as agents,” Womersley said. “And we operate more like a daughter company than an agent.”
Pushed on the possibility of Panalpina taking a shareholding, Womersley added: “Explicitly - no.
“But if it was Panalpina’s intention, this current move would facilitate an exchange of equity.”
It’s all part of “a thread of logic”, according to Womersley.
And the immediate future? “Industry specialisation,” he said. “Watch this space.”
Philip Womersley . . . chairman and m.d. of the combined operation
