SA the most painless P&O NEDLLOYD is currently shedding 20% of its staff complement of 1400 people worldwide.
Agency cessations are also part of that process, and are effectively taking place right now.
Bijvoets says that staff morale is high. All retrenchments and redeployments have been dealt with, and staff are excited about the scope of the new company.
In South Africa the synergy worked well.
We were complementary, with Nedlloyd involved very much in the Far East trade and P&O in Europe.
We are of course restructuring here, and there have been some changes, but not as painful as they were in the rest of the world. In South Africa Bijvoets believes that the newly merged company can look forward to growth on the Europe trade following the recent review of the SAECS agreement, creating two marketing blocs with Safmarine and P&O Nedlloyd in opposing camps. With the process moving along at a steady pace, P&O Nedlloyd is already looking at its post-merger objectives.
In the highly competitive industry in which we operate, we will have to make further improvements in terms of scale, productivity and efficiency. And Bijvoets believes that the merger trend in the industry will continue, with others following their lead. We feel that we are lucky to have been the first, which means others will have a lot of catching up to do.
