Refrigerated container supplier wants bigger slice of SA market

Ray Smuts SUBSTANTIAL INVESTMENT in Cape Town by several major shipping lines says it all about their expectations and provides a sound barometer for those in ancillary industries, says Dick Gilhuis of refrigerated container supplier Carrier Transicold. In the Mother City recently for a one-day meeting of the company's African service centre representatives - a first of its kind - Gilhuis, Carrier Transicold's Rotterdam-based manager for sales and services in Africa, pointed to investments in warehousing and equipment by lines including Maersk Sealand and MSC, all of which augured well for Cape Town and indeed companies such as his. "The product we supply is market-driven, but reefer sales depend on world demand which is reliant on the global economy. As expectations in the latter regard are not good for 2002, we think the total market will be somewhat less." Carrier holds about 65% of the global market and around 85% of the African market in refrigerated container supplies. Gilhuis has high hopes of increasing South African market penetration by at least 50% over the next two years. "We see South Africa itself as holding particularly high potential; it's a market far ahead of others in Africa in my opinion." Carrier has been operating in Africa for some eight years now and has nine service centres on the Continent including five in Southern Africa. From an outsourced warehouse at Airport Industria near Cape Town International Airport, the company holds $1 million worth of stock for the Southern African market at any given time. Dean Bouch, Carrier's Cape Town-based manager for sales and services responsible for the whole of Africa, explained his mission as developing further the company's global service centre network which entails the establishment of reefer repair companies (mostly depots) as Carrier agencies. These create an environment of service support for warranty repairs and parts sales on Carrier reefer and generator equipment. "We also run reefer training courses annually in Africa and provide day-to-day product support to shipping lines using reefer equipment in order to ensure excellent product exports." Under the umbrella of US parent company United Technologies Corporation which also includes Pratt and Whitney (aircraft engines), Sikorsky (helicopters) and Otis (lifts), one of Carrier Transicold's successes in 2001 was a global, 14 500 unit, sale estimated at $130 million to P&O Nedlloyd.