Rohlig Perishable
Cargo Agents
is excluded, writes Alan Peat
A JOINT-VENTURE between Rohlig and Co and Grindrod Freight Logistics - in which both
companies will have an equal shareholding - has just been announced.
It forms a more-than
R2-billion turnover operation, and slots the new company - Rohlig Grindrod - firmly into the top three in SA's freight forwarding league.
The new entity is represented by the Grindrod network in Southern Africa, and will form its international web through Rohlig's five-continent office network.
It merges the general cargo operations (air and sea) of the two shareholders - excluding Rohlig Perishable Cargo Agents - forming a 500 staff company with a current combined customer base of over 1 600 shippers.
We are creating a new company, with all the existing assets of the two businesses being sold into Rohlig Grindrod, said Walter Grindrod, executive director of the merged operation.
With the muscle of the combined client list, Grindrod expects the new company to have economies of scale as leverage - and to be able to offer its users greater value. Peter Krafft, managing director of Rohlig Grindrod, spoke to FTW before the announcement, and stressed that the merger would result in a company which would be able to compete with all the multi-national majors in the international logistics arena.
It would provide a global identity for the current Grindrod operation, and would give Rohlig a strong network in South Africa and the surrounding region - a market area on which Rohlig International places a great deal of focus in its wordwide perception.
It will move Grindrod from its previous, uncertain dependency on international agency partnership agreements - with the current agreement being terminated by partner, Danzas International, on the mutually-agreed date of April 15 - into a truly multi-national role.
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