Frans Maas extends network to South Africa
Frans Maas, the Dutch freight forwarding and logistics company, has announced that it has entered into an exclusive franchise agreement with a South African freight company which will extend its global network into the market. The 40 employees within the company were previously employed by Airborne Express in South Africa prior to its takeover by DHL. Frans Maas has also taken a 10% stake in the company.
South Africa has become an increasingly important market for freight and logistics companies over the last few years. As reported in yesterday’s Logistics Briefing, UTi Worldwide is in the process of acquiring a South African healthcare logistics company which has 450 employees and five distribution centres throughout the country.
A year ago Exel acquired Eagle Freight, which considerably increased its capacity in the South African FMCG, petrochemicals, automotive and textiles industries. Prior to that in 2001, Tibbett & Britten had acquired a pharma logistics company, called Kinesis, Also in that year UPS Supply Chain Solutions entered into a joint venture with local company Unitrans to create an international 4PL business.
As the main economy in sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is an important market for logistics companies. Many Western multi-nationals are present in the market which has the potential for a high degree of out-sourcing and the introduction of increasingly sophisticated supply chain management practices.
