Restructured company will be up
and running by the end of March
IN THE nine months since the Renfreight-Circle merger in SA was announced, a careful integration programme has been taking place, according to Barry Middleton, m.d. of the combined company.
The first phase - until the end of October - was converting the existing customer bases of the two operations to continued support of the new operation. And this, Middleton added, has probably recorded the best ever conversion figures in SA - with 87% of the airfreight, and 92% of the seafreight clientele offering continued allegiance.
During this exercise - worked under the code-name Global Storm - there was no change or merger of the sections of the two entities.
This gave us time to look at how to put the two companies together to maximum effect, said Middleton, without affecting the service levels being offered.
We also had a chance to look at the way the industry was going, and what the international trends were. This because, in restructuring, we needed to prepare the best fit for this scenario.
One of the primary trends that was identified was a demand by the most competitive of manufacturing companies for effective supply chain management. But with a parallel trend to reverting to core business - and outsourcing non-core activities.
We obviously had to be looking at being able to offer our clients this outsourced shipping function, Middleton said, thus effectively acting as a third-party, in-house logistics service provider. And not only for the large companies. We must be able to offer the same service dimensions to smaller clients as well.
By the end of November, the management teams for each of the sections were selected. With the experience gained during Global Storm, said Middleton, and after a full interview process, we felt we were able to choose the best parties, and for which jobs they were best suited.
Since then, the new management team has been looking at their own internal management structures - with a deadline of end-February for announcing the whole new company structure.
By the end of March, Middleton expects the Renfreight Circle operation to be up-and-running in its completely restructured form, able to offer the broad range of freight management solutions to suit individual client requirements.
