There’s a new brand on the SA logistics scene – Allport Cargo Services – but it comes with an established pedigree that helped to clinch an international supply chain contract with major retailer Woolworths. Set up in January last year, the first year has been about establishing the business and bedding down the processes. The year ahead will be about growth, Cape Town-based managing director Patrick Duffy told FTW. “Partners in the joint venture – Allport Limited (UK) and Cargo Services Far East Limited (Hong Kong) – are well-known brands in several major markets, servicing nine of the top 20 UK high street retailers and three of its top four supermarkets,” said Duffy. “The local office was set up primarily to service Woolworths, looking after the retailer’s international supply chain from China, India and niche markets like Bangladesh, Mauritius/Madagascar, Vietnam and Bangkok.” According to Duffy, Hong Kongbased Cargo Services is a significant player in the Asian market, employing over 1 700 people in 28 offices throughout the region. “This was a big advantage for us – that all facilities are owned whereas several competitors tend to use agents in the region. “We also scored well on the solutions side,” he added. “It’s a very sourcing-focused system, – based on the end to end purchase order critical path and not purely freight – it’s not simply a freight tracking system. Our critical path process manages the purchase order and all the upstream activities like PO confirmation, currency purchasing, production and quality approval issues, consolidation planning and the like.” Duffy believes that it is this level of visibility that facilitates better planning. “Consolidations are over 30%, which is a huge improvement on where they were, and container utilisations are around 89%, which generates significant savings and efficiencies.” Because of the size of the organisation, the customer also benefits from its bulk buying power. “In total, the network moves 250 000 teus a year. “We have implemented a direct carrier arrangement with Woolworths which means that we negotiate the carriage on their behalf with no markup – we’re not in the game of earning revenue from freight.” According to Duffy, the costs to Woolworths are down from around 17% to 8% of FOB – although he points out that part of that is attributable to lower freight rates so Allport Cargo Services can’t take all the credit. And while Woolworths may be its biggest client, the company has already diversified its customer base. “Many large importers supply multiple retailers within South Africa so we’ve managed to grow our client base that way.” And despite the global economic crunch, the company is in bullish mode. March saw the opening of a Durban office and a Johannesburg branch is on the cards for later this year, focusing largely on airfreight. “We see massive airfreight potential to and from China and the UK,” he said. “We’re also getting involved in wine exports to the UK, Europe, China and the USA.” Duffy believes his company can make a difference to any retailer’s business. “We can save money, provide visibility and ultimately improve efficiency – and that makes the sale easier.”