Supplying virtual warehousing to any of its clients Homing in on specialist markets

ALAN PEAT
A PRIMARY factor in effectively providing supply chain logistics is a comprehensive package of products, according to Don Fraser, MD of Worldwide Logistics.
“When we first started in this business,” he told FTW, “we identified that, although logistics service providers claimed to have suitable packages, this was seldom the case.
“We saw that there were so many products to market, but no one package - so we devised our own.”
The end result has been a comprehensive package that allows client access to any of Worldwide’s chain of offices and warehouses around the country - based in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and two warehouses in Johannesburg.
“We supply virtual warehousing for any of our clients,” Fraser said.
Worldwide has adopted a tactic of aiming at specialist industries in which to sell its supply chain logistics function - offering a full range of forwarding, clearing, warehousing and distribution.
“This is supported by an information technology (IT) system giving full electronic data interchange (EDI),” said Fraser, “with all our clients being able to access us through the Internet.
“It’s a very powerful system, and gives clients access to full cargo tracking facilities, allowing them to conduct full inventory control through our system.”
Because the industry is now order driven, according to Fraser, all this client contact is accessed via individual order numbers.
“That’s very pertinent in the efficient handling of the supply chain,” he said.
One of Worldwide’s main projects of the moment is also a community project - with the company operating a storage and distribution chain for all the literature brought into SA by the humanitarian development body, the Love Life Organisation.
It combines a high-powered media campaign with nationwide adolescent sexual health services, Fraser told FTW, and community-level outreach and support programmes for youth - all implemented by a consortium of leading SA public health organisations.
Major funding is provided by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - with additional funding by the SA government, The Nelson Mandela Foundation, The Global Fund for HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria, The Anglo American Chairman’s Fund and Vodacom.
“To logistically support this project,” said Fraser, “we have devised a complete pick-and-pack centre and a distribution service to every nook and cranny in SA.”