WHEN BAYGEN Power Manufacturing line up with the other seven contestants for the Exporter of the Year trophy, they will look back on a short but highly successful relationship with Union Transport as their export agents.
It dates back to March 1995 in their first days of operating in South Africa, says U-T export director Ron Meredith.
You might say we have been through all of Baygen's pains and joys in establishing themselves as one of South Africa's premier exporters. Meredith points out that in the early days Baygen focused all their attention on setting up their factory, and the Union Transport role at that stage was to manage the movement of their parts into the country as rapidly and efficiently as possible.
The Baygen radio was to be manufactured under customs rebate in terms of item 470-03 for re-export.
There were many hours and days spent around the desk exploring various possibilities and ways of doing things quicker and better, says Meredith. We always felt as if we were true partners of theirs and out of a very professional business relationship a number of very strong personal relationships have evolved. Baygen are today a fully multi-modal exporter with markets in central and north Africa, USA, Europe, Far East, Australia and South America.
The ability to provide a true door-to-door Ôdelivered duty paid' service has always been a big issue for Baygen and our global network has always facilitated this, he says.
We have always aggressively pursued providing a competitive rate profile for them, but Baygen are very much driven by high performance service levels and won't sacrifice service for price. Final word goes to Baygen director Brian Barrett.
Union Transport have provided services far and away above what is available in the market. They have a very willing team of people who have bent over backwards to help us through some really tough times. What they often do for us is way outside the realms of normal service.
