The GEFCO Group continues to expand its international presence by anticipating new territories with logistics needs
The GEFCO Group, a European leader in automotive logistics and a world leader in industrial logistics, opened its South African subsidiary in 2012. Having operated out of Johannesburg since 2009 via a Sales Representation Office, the GEFCO Group now has its very own logistics service in this corner of the world.
A new logistics territory to conquer
South Africa is one of the more powerful economies on the African continent and has a strong potential for growth, with a significant perspective for the development of both its automotive industry and other industrial sectors. The South African subsidiary is primarily responsible for handling Overseas import and export flows on behalf of its industrial customers.
Its operations include services such as door-to-door carriage, all the necessary customs formalities, storage management, quality control and distribution. This new subsidiary, which is managed by François Van Wyck and has its head office in Johannesburg, the economic capital of the Republic of South Africa, employs 17 members of staff and plans to expand its workforce to 30 people in 2013. GEFCO South Africa currently has three depots located in the cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
Focus on Overseas Despite its extensive Atlantic façade and its equally great Indian Ocean coastline, logistics experts have so far invested relatively little in South Africa, which sits at the maritime crossroads of many routes to and from Europe and the United States, as well as Asia, and China in particular. South Africa also shares borders with a number of countries, meaning that it offers good road and rail links to the rest of the African continent. December 2012 saw GEFCO launch a new weekly LCL solution, a container-groupage maritime transportation service, for goods travelling from its European hubs and destined for the South African ports of Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth. This door-to-door service also takes care of all the necessary customs formalities and targets a wide range of industrial customers. GEFCO has been strengthening its commercial relations in the region since 2007 by organising a triangular logistics flow of automotive parts between Portugal, Botswana and South Africa. Since 2009, GEFCO has been importing, managing the storage of and distributing Peugeot spare parts both in South Africa and some of its surrounding countries, namely Swaziland, Namibia and Botswana. This traffic accounts for some 750-1,000kg of spare parts transported by air and 4 to 6 containers per month by sea. Due to its commercial interest in the region, GEFCO launched and helped to develop Overseas activities as well as the transportation of Overland goods such as the transportation of new cars and even an urgent groupage service run by the GEFCO Special division.
GEFCO supports its industrial customers in their internationalisation efforts Having established a presence in South Africa over 10 years ago, operating via a series of partner companies, GEFCO notably supported PSA Peugeot Citroën in establishing its presence in the country by importing vehicles and exporting spare parts. 2013 will see GEFCO take responsibility for overseeing Transport and Logistics operations for both Peugeot and Citroën, including the receipt, storage and distribution of around 12,000 vehicles for dealers located in the country. GEFCO is also set to export 30 sea containers of parts per month in 2013 to supply Ford in Argentina. Industrial diversification is a cornerstone of the South African subsidiary’s strategy, and the expertise GEFCO has acquired in the field of automotive logistics is easily transferred to other sectors as varied as capital goods, aeronautics and electronics.
