West African Group has moved to new warehouse premises in Cape Town where it will be able to better serve its customers in the Cape region.
As part of its long-term strategy, West African Group (WAG) has been planning to establish its own warehouse in the Western Cape and move away from third party warehousing. It had planned to make the change in 2020 but the timeline was sped up when the landlord at the previous premises instructed that double-stacking of pallets would no longer be possible. Not being able to double-stack would have resulted in substantially more space being required to store material and would have virtually doubled rental: in other words, a direct additional cost to the bottom line. So the move became inevitable and the process then started with WAG Cape regional manager Myles Ryan heading up the project.
With the decision to change operating structure and establishing their own warehouse, it means Tony Stopford ceases to be involved in the warehousing or distribution activities of WAG. WAG has had a long-standing and very successful partnership with Tony and sincerely wishes him all the best in his future endeavours.
Myles was originally at Safripol before a short period out of the industry with Hilti, a Liechtenstein-based power tools manufacturer, but was happy to return to the industry with WAG a few years ago. Myles relocated to Cape Town from Johannesburg earlier this year and has considerable experience in the polyolefins area, however the same dynamics apply for all the materials and goods going through the warehouse.
Suitable premises were found near the N7, a freeway linking the N1 and N2 freeways in Cape Town, and the move was on. Transport is being contracted out, but Myles believes WAG Western Cape is well positioned to control and maintain its service standards to it’s customers.
WAG supplies the range of ExxonMobil polymers and performance polymers, Safripol PP, polystyrene from Innova, Supreme and Trinseo, Taghleef BOPP films, natural and synthetic rubber and rubber chemicals, as well as desiccant and dunnage bag products … in other words, there is quite a substantial quantity moving through the warehouse and high-level control is necessary in order to supply convertors consistently.