Skilled depot staff cater for growing bulk wine exports

The continued shift from bottled wine exports to bulk will require specialised training for the industry, according to Sean Menzies, managing director of ZacPak Cape Town Depot, a Customsfranchised container depot that provides groupage packing and unpacking services to the freight forwarding industry “The export of bulk wine is proving to be a cost-effective way of moving product out of the country for merchants who are trying to save shipping costs,” he told FTW. “We believe it is a trend that will continue for some time. The fitment of flexibags for carriage of bulk wine is very specialised, and requires training that is very specific to the type of bag used.” He said ZacPak had been fitting flexi-bags for many years, and in that time had seen quite a few technical changes made in order to enhance reliability. The company, in addition to its OS bond, recently upgraded its SOS bonded facility to enable it to handle beer and spirits in addition to wine shipments for export. At ZacPak good service levels, however, are about more than infrastructure. “The Western Cape remains a relationship-driven market where communication is imperative to maintaining good service levels,” says Menzies. And despite huge electronic strides, he believes verbal communication still plays a large part in daily business. CAPTION Sean Menzies ... a relationship-driven market.