Unitainer embarks on sub-Saharan expansion drive Windhoek depot opened this year

KEVIN MAYHEW
GOOD AND getting better. That’s the assessment of Unitainer’s general manager, Michael Fry, when asked about the performance of his division of Grindrod Freight Investments.
Grindrod Freight Investments is a division of the publicly listed Grindrod Limited.
Unitainer specialises in the sale and leasing of second hand shipping containers within South Africa.
From its headquarters at New Pier in Bayhead, the company has major plans to expand its sub-Saharan presence, which began this year with the opening of a new depot in Windhoek, Namibia, to complement its existing depot in Walvis Bay. A further three countries are earmarked to link with the extensive South African operation which has depots in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg as well.
“We have been experiencing major growth, with work obviously coming in from divisions within our Group, but much of it from outside as well,” he says.
A further string to its bow is the conversion of containers into easily transportable commercial space. They are used as site offices, spaza shops, ablution facilities, telephone shops, classrooms, butcheries and other applications. This element of its business has stretched as far as the Cameroon in West Africa where it supplied over 100 conversions for the site of a major capital works project.
It also offers depot and transport services and surveys.