Responding to changing
market conditions,
Woods Warehousing
– which offers
30 000 sqm of storage space
– is repositioning its service
offering to focus on specialised
warehousing services.
“In these difficult economic
times, many of our freight
industry partners have taken the
decision to establish their own
general warehousing and storage
facilities in order to offer their
clients a comprehensive end-toend
service,” said director Pieter
Joubert. He told FTW that he
had decided to invest further in
the specialised 10 000-sqm bond
facility.
“We are also equipped to do
the complicated and high-risk
work which includes rigging
and heavy lifting, packing
and unpacking, as well as
transloading shipments,” he
said, adding that the company’s
heavy lifting capacity was up to
50 tonnes. “Our 30-tonne and
10-tonne overhead cranes are
under cover and can operate
across the entire length of our
bond facility,” said Joubert.
Investment in rigging and
heavy lifting equipment is
extremely costly, which is
why clearing and forwarding
agents that need to offer
their customers specialised
handling in addition to general
warehousing refer their business
to Woods. “We are strategically
located within Zone 1 of City
Deep in Johannesburg and
offer very easy access from the
highways. This, coupled with
our large capacity cranes and
heavy-duty forklifts, means a
quick turnaround time even on
major projects,” he noted.
A challenge Woods has
faced recently is that a
number of customs duties on
foreign imports has dropped,
eliminating the need for a
large bonded facility. “We have
addressed that by bringing
f lexibility into the space with
cages that can be expanded or
decreased and mobile racking
that can easily be added to the
facility as the need arises,” said
Joubert.
He told FTW that the
f lexible solution and the large
warehousing capacity allowed
the company to cater to a wide
variety of storage needs, from
small powdered drinks to heavy
machinery or motor vehicles.
“We have had exclusive sports
cars such as Lamborghinis
in our bond warehouse,”
Joubert noted, adding that the
only thing Woods
Warehousing could
not store was
chemicals and
perishables.
“As part of
our growth
strategy,
we are
intensifying
our
marketing
efforts and
strengthening
relationships
with importers
and clearing and
forwarding agents. We
are hoping to establish
ourselves as the first port
of call for specialised
warehousing services
in Gauteng,” he said.
INSERT & CAPTION
We are also equipped to do
the complicated and highrisk
work, which includes
rigging and heavy lifting.
– Pieter joubert
CAPTION
The 30-tonne overhead crane, situated under cover, lifts a
container of heavy machinery. Photo: Shannon Van Zyl
