Unifreight Africa expands depot footprint
UNIFREIGHT Africa Limited says it increased its depot footprint countrywide to 35 in 2020 as part of efforts to widen market reach and customer convenience.
Mr Robert Kuipers, the company’s chief executive officer, said the total footprint is complemented by satellite depots and nine convenience outlets throughout the country.
“In Harare we increased our depot footprint, answering the call from many of our customers to have a presence in the suburbs, so they wouldn’t have to travel into town or the industrial sites to collect or drop off consignments.
“Joining our Arundel convenience outlet established last year, we opened the new Borrowdale, Westgate and Chitungwiza outlets,” he said in the company’s annual report. The group’s revenue for 2020 grew by 94 percent to $1,5 billion and sales volumes increased by 35 percent in the prior..
Mr Kuipers said the Covid-19 induced shutdowns did have a downward effect, but despite expecting a dramatic decline in volumes and a bleak economic outlook for the country as a whole, the company’s sales remained on budget in real terms.
“But what is really pleasing is that we clawed back a cumulative historical profit before tax of $246 million,” he said.
He noted that EBITDA was on budget and 17 percent up on Prior Year in US$ terms, and was still at a solid 26 percent of revenue indicating that costs were under control. In US$ terms, net profit percentage was a very healthy 19 percent compared to industry norms below 10 percent.
Mr Kuiper’s said the tobacco transport model in 2020 had to change due to the pandemic with the restrictions on inter-provincial travel, but this actually worked in the company’s favour with tobacco volumes amounting to 28,4 million kg, a 17 percent increase on the previous year.
He said during the year, the company faced challenges of foreign currency shortage for their foreign procurement needs and the continuous exchange rates which required a constant review of pricing rates to keep up with the increasing costs.
“Being able to keep our rates viable enough for our own customers to stay in business in this environment has also been a challenge- but we still maintain that with our consolidation service, we can offer our distribution services to all of our customers more cost effectively and more efficiently that they could do for themselves if they were to
operate their own fleets,” said Mr Kuipers.
He said that the company is still taking a view on doing cross-border work in the region to earn additional foreign currency.
“However, the mileages that can be achieved are half of what we can achieve running locally and the margins are very thin. Our other big challenge is the availability of fuel which so far has been sufficient although stocks are very low, and we anticipate that we will be required to pay for fuel in forex going forward,” he said.-The Herald
