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IMPERIAL LOGISTICS

A leading experienced provider of unique end-to-end solutions

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PHARMA FOCUS FOR AN

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Imperial Logistics’ ongoing acquisitional drive has ventured into new industry territory over the past two years as it continues to diversify its supply chain offering and footprint Writer Matthew Staff Project Manager Arron Rampling

mperial Logistics continues to lead the way in Africa’s supply chain market as a strong 2014 and a concerted focus on further strategic acquisitions prepares the renowned logistics and outsourcing specialists for varying market conditions across Africa. While its influence in South Africa remains dominant – realising six percent real organic revenue growth, as well as minor growth through acquisitions – the business also achieved 23 percent revenue growth for the year ending June 30, 2014 across its entire continental operations; an achievement which Chief Business Development Officer, Cobus Rossouw attributes to the diversification of Imperial Logistics’ operations. “2014 has been another great year for Imperial Logistics in Africa, where revenue, excluding Africa, increased organically by 17 percent in real terms and a further 14 percent from acquisitions,” he says. “Given the scale of our operations, including South Africa as well, overall revenue exceeds R22 billion which is very rewarding.” Roussow is confident now that the vast array of services within the organisation leaves the company in a prime position to overcome any foreseeable challenges moving forward into 2015. He continues: “The slowdown in growth in some markets is concerning and we need to adapt to that. The increasing cost of logistics, driven by fuel cost and currency devaluation, is placing our clients under even more pressure. The challenge is to find even more gains in efficiency to counter these costs.

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“By combining logistics, sales and even marketing services, we mitigate some of the risks and constraints through the end-to-end ownership of the value chain onbehalf of our principals.”

Pharmaceutical Drive

Forming a key component of the company’s overall risk management and proactive continuous improvement strategy, much of 2013 and 2014 has revolved around a drive into the pharmaceutical industry, bringing its world class logistics capabilities to yet another sector of

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We entered the pharmaceutical industry through the acquisition of RTT Medical at the start of 2013, which provided an excellent footprint across Africa

African business. “We entered the pharmaceutical industry through the acquisition of RTT Medical at the start of 2013, which provided an excellent footprint in Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana and Malawi as well as established industry leadership in South Africa,” Rossouw explains. “Subsequently, we have acquired Eco Health in Nigeria and Ghana, Fine Chemicals in Botswana, Imres based in The Netherlands [providing humanitarian services in various African countries], and Pharmed, a leading distributor in South Africa.” The combined attributes stemming from these acquisitions cements

Imperial’s position as the clear industry leader across sub-Saharan Africa, as the company continues to leverage synergies to service its brand-owner principals. Rossouw adds: “Our service offerings now span traditional logistics, distributorships, procurement and wholesaling which provides comprehensive alternatives to enable the routes-to-market of our principals. “The different healthcare stakeholders - brand owners, donors, governments, etc. - all have different requirements in different countries and regions, and we are able to assist

“Since we are in the business of outsourcing, we recognise the choice our clients make to entrust us to perform some of their business processes

them to achieve their objectives. “We will continue to expand our network, specifically in the regional clusters of sub-Saharan Africa where we do not have a footprint yet.”

Competitive Edge

Complementing all acquisitions and growth strategies is Imperial Logistics’ unwavering focus on improving the competitiveness of its clients, customising its services through the business’s vast experience in outsourced value chain management. “Since we are in the business of outsourcing, we recognise the choice

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WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT TOTAL COMMUNICATIONS

any multinational corporations have a patchwork of different wired, wireless and cloud service providers around the world. This patchwork can grow every time a new office is opened or an additional market foothold is gained, and new suppliers, contracts and bills are negotiated to support the communications needs of the growing enterprise. The result can be time, money and resource wasted on managing an unnecessarily complex infrastructure. The complexity makes it tough for CIOs to gain insight into critical resources and harder for CFOs to monitor usage and expenditure to see precisely where savings can be made. Having a spread of communications service providers also makes it difficult to break down the barriers between different devices and communications methods. When united into a single, intelligent and completely configurable service, businesses can benefit from increased productivity and overall business process streamlining. When communications platforms arenâ€™t united it can negatively impact the end user experience, turning what could be an intuitive and contextual experience into something altogether more disjointed. Working with one single global service provider to provide total communications - fixed line, fixed data, mobile voice, mobile data and broadband, as well as cloud and managed services - across every office and in every market, means only dealing with one supplier, one bill, one single global contract and one global point of contact. This not only takes away the pain of expensive, patchwork communications, but means that game-changing services and applications, such as CRM systems and cloud-based unified communications can be embraced to help provide a competitive advantage.

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To avoid a fragmented and complex communications landscape, businesses should adopt a consolidated strategy that addresses the total communications needs of the enterprise.

WHY HAVE BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS BECOME SO FRAGMENTED?

New market footholds are certainly adding to the fragmentation of enterprise communications, but changes closer to home are making things just as complex. Hunger for cloud services and applications across departments such as marketing and human resources has meant that a growing number of people now have a say in procurement decisions. This is creating a bigger patchwork of providers, less centralised visibility over the communications environment and more potential vulnerability for the business. This is further confounded by needing to cope with the demands of four generations of people in the workplace. While the Baby Boomers and Generation X are generally more accommodating to the commands of the IT department, Generation Y and the Millennials are more fearless technology users and less inclined to comply with tight corporate control over how they work, where they work and the devices they work on. These are generations that want to use social media and cloud-based applications to communicate, collaborate and share. They expect to be able to bring personal consumer devices into the workplace. And with limited responsibility they are less concerned over the security implications for the business.

A ROADMAP TO CONSOLIDATION

Businesses can untangle this web and reconcile these competing demands by consolidating their

By Deon Liebenberg, Executive Vice President: Vodafone Global Enterprise Africa

connectivity and communications services. Put into practice, this means that if a business wants to keep expanding into new markets, but needs to keep the cost of its network and ICT spend down, it can establish one single Wide Area Network across all of the countries it operates in. The business can consolidate the management of its network, which provides greater visibility of cost. This also enables the business to establish a standardised operating model to support faster, more efficient deployment of critical business applications. By streamlining communications infrastructure into one strategy a business that wants to meet demand for flexible working without impacting team collaboration, can integrate fixed and mobile communications into a single, intelligent and completely configurable service. This ensures calls and messages can always be routed to reach employees and it enables teams to use a range of collaborative tools such as instant messenger, video conferencing and enterprise social media apps on any device, through the same unified application. By bringing all communications together, a business seeking to improve internal processes or create better customer-facing products and services can deploy technologies such as Machine-to-Machine (M2M) using one global SIM card and one single supply chain across all markets.

CONNECTED WHENEVER, WHEREVER, WHATEVER TO WHOEVER

Enterprise communications needs arenâ€™t going to get any less complicated.

vodacom.com/africa

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processes,” Rossouw explains. “We are building the Imperial brand as an end-to-end service provider, specifically focused on the consumer products and pharma routes-to-market across sub-Saharan Africa. “Evidence of this lies in our ability to retain, expand and gain engagements with our strategic partners and other clients alike. We have been very successful, despite increased competitive pressure.” Competitive pressure comes handin-hand with the tag of market leader, but Imperial has never been one to rest on its laurels, as its 100 South African acquisitions over the past 40 years testify. “The proven Imperial acquisition model is to retain management and link their rewards directly to acquisition performance. We add some specific skills and capabilities to the businesses to ensure that we leverage our experience and extract synergies.” On this basis, Imperial Logistics is acquiring businesses of all sizes, with the total revenue from acquisitions in the pharmaceutical environment alone set to surpass R5 billion over the coming months.

SUMITOMO RUBBER SOUTH AFRICA (PTY) LTD

umitomo Rubber South Africa (Pty) Ltd (SRSA) produces tyres in passenger, SUV/4x4 and light truck applications and will introduce its new range of Truck Bus Radial tyres in January 2015, which will be distributed both locally and internationally.

Cobus Rossouw, Chief Business Development Officer

Diversified Solutions

The company’s pharmaceutical drive derives from a continuous monitoring and adaptive philosophy regarding industry trends and fluctuations, and subsequently identifying the most profitable areas of business moving forward. This ethos also comprises the ability to customise its own service offerings for each client, catering for a general rise in customers requiring multiple

This new range, under the well-known Dunlop brand, is a highly acclaimed range that has tested well under trying conditions around the world. SRSA is very confident that this new range will provide the company with a competitive advantage through the excellent quality and improved cost per kilometer advantage it brings. At a time when the industry faces challenges from high manufacturing costs and imported tyre competition, SRSA has taken a long term view of both the African and South African tyre market potential. As part of this view, SRSA is confident in making further investments, including a recent R1.1 billion plan to support its Original Equipment (OE) business and African expansion. The investment includes plans to initiate local production of the Sumitomo Tires brand as well as range extensions and quality enhancements to the iconic Dunlop brand at the company’s South African manufacturing plant in Ladysmith. SRSA is sure that this investment will have a hugely positive effect on the country’s tyre industry and local employment and will serve to facilitate the company’s future growth and development on the African continent.

www.srigroup.co.za

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IMPERIAL CARGO

mperial Cargo adds 60 MAN longhaul trucks to fleet.

Imperial Cargo, a division of JSE-listed Imperial Group, has procured 60 MAN TGS 26.440 truck-tractors to service its line-haul operations in southern Africa. Imperial Cargo fields a mix of truck brands and deployed its first MAN trucks in 2012 following successful infleet trials on the TGS 26.440.

“We are expanding our exposure to our clients through additional services,” Rossouw says. “This follows on from the maturing of our relationships and our developing capabilities in non-traditional logistics operations. “Most notably is the convergence of logistics planning and execution. Traditionally companies either perform planning internally or use a separate provider from logistics execution. We have been able to secure multiple engagements where we perform integrated logistics planning and execution services.” This diversification has been largely driven by the demand for enhanced logistics efficiencies, and Imperial has managed to tick all the relevant boxes in reducing costs, through transport demand management. The same considerations are also made in dealing with regional differences throughout its African operations; the company’s South African model is not always literally transferable to the rest of the continent. Rossouw explains: “The SA market is quite mature, where clients tend to have established markets. Service providers have strong capabilities and I believe we are on par with the rest of the world.

The SA market is quite mature, where clients tend to have established markets. Service providers have strong capabilities and I believe we are on par with the rest of the world

“Companies tend to outsource more logistics planning than developed markets, where internal capabilities are quite well established. The challenges for integrated logistics planning are bigger in SA, given our relatively small scale and long distances, compared to western markets. “In other countries in Africa, consumer demand and

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Geoff du Plessis, Managing Director, MAN Truck & Bus SA, comments: “Being chosen by high-profile fleets for our superior technology and customerfocused aftersales service is hugely significant for MAN and proves that we not only have the right product for longhaul applications in Southern Africa, but also the right people to service both the trucks and our customers in a manner that builds their business. All of us at MAN are proud to be associated with Imperial Cargo and we look forward to a partnership that continues to grow in strength.”

www.man-finance.co.za

infrastructure is still developing, albeit at a rapid pace. Service providers are quite fragmented and/or specialised. Cross-border transport remains a key focus for most 3PLs, but Imperial is focusing on the integrated route-tomarket solution.â€?

Skills Development

Adding a further string to Imperialâ€™s bow has always been its dedication to not only its profit margins and business success, but also to the care it provides to the people surrounding the company, whether they be employees or the local communities. The international presence of the company makes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) all the more prevalent and is something that

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“Compassion for the communities in which we live and work is one of the keystones at Imperial. We focus on giving back to the communities in which we live through active involvement and investment in education and wellness funds that supports black South Africans. “We recognise the shortage of skills as a key constraint to GDP growth and infrastructure development and we are therefore actively involved in various skills development initiatives. “Imperial is responsive to the needs of our community and during these times we roll up our sleeves, put our intelligence to work and strive to really make a difference.” This same difference infiltrates the internal structure of Imperial too, epitomised by the company’s inhouse training offering, The Imperial Logistics Academy.

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Imperial is responsive to the needs of our community and during these times we roll up our sleeves, put our intelligence to work and strive to really make a difference

Established in 2013, the academy is accredited by the Transport SETA (Sector Education and Training Authority) in South Africa and comprises programmes customised to reflect the Imperial way and Imperial Logistics’ best practice. “Subject matter expertise from within the organisation contributes to the training programmes by way of content development, guest lecturing and/or mentorship,” Rossouw explains. The main focus areas surrounding people management include learnership programmes aligned to National Qualifications; higher education qualifications in logistics and supply chain management offered through an institutional partnership; skills development programmes; short courses; and work experience programmes for students.

Future Growth

Having systems in place to engrain sustainability and consistency within the organisation complements the flexibility of Imperial Logistics’ supply chain operations, making the resulting combo a formidable one for industry competitors, and critical for the future aspirations of the company, also. “We entered the market as a transport business. This remains critical today, but is now only part of the requirement,” Rossouw concludes. “Customers want services across the supply chain spectrum, including integrated and end-to-end services. “Moving forward, we will continue to expand into Africa through leveraging our capabilities, partnering with the appropriate in-country specialists and acquiring businesses. Much of our growth has been in pharma, but we continue to expand our consumer products businesses in southern Africa; and we will grow similarly in West and East Africa.”

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Imperial Logistics Cnr. Geldenhuis Road & Van Dort Street Germiston Gauteng Tel: +27 11 677 5000