Own-managed warehouse improves controls and delivery times

Craig attributes this growth and success to Bordic’s strong focus on service delivery and ability to foster long-term partnerships with global leaders in their respective market sectors for each of the product offerings, which enables the team to ensure consistent quality and strong technical support. 

‘Generally, our approach to the market has been to import the raw materials and warehouse them in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban to be as close to our customers as possible, and then deliver these materials on an as-needed basis to provide them with as much flexibility and the fastest turnaround times possible,’ he states.

Another key component of its customer-centric business model is continually adding value, which prompted Bordic to diversify into the distribution of paper and polymer raw materials targeting its existing market segments as well as any new opportunities that may arise.   

This additional growth and diversification resulted in Bordic outgrowing its primary warehousing and dedicated slitting facility located at Maydon Wharf in Durban. Secondly, as Craig explains, it created significant challenges for the warehousing service providers, who were no longer able to handle the raw material volumes and transportation requirements to Bordic’s high customer service delivery standards.

‘To gain additional storage and slitting space as well as improve the lead and delivery times to our customers, we changed from an outsourced and serviced warehouse to an owner-managed facility located three kilometres south in Clairwood Logistics Park,’ he says. ‘Bringing these functions in-house means they are now under our control and we can deal with any customer queries directly rather than having to first consult our service providers for answers.’ 

To be operational at the beginning of January, the Durban team used some time in December 2021 to establish and kit out the new offices and workspaces. In mid-January, they moved the two existing slitters across from Maydon Wharf and recommissioned them. In mid-February, they commissioned a new additional slitter to help ease capacity constraints. 

‘As the first occupants, we can take advantage of the 7 000m2 modern warehousing facilities, which are a good fit for our business requirements. Furthermore, the dedicated yard and split warehouse has enabled us to separate our cargo into polymers and papers in warehouse two and filmic materials in warehouse one,’ Craig explains. ‘The latter also includes a 1 000m2 temperature- and humidity-controlled slitting facility for the shrink film master rolls (up to 1 600mm wide) that keeps these sensitive substrates at a constant 24°C. This carefully monitored environment maintains our suppliers’ high standards and Bordic’s market reputation for consistently handling and delivering high-quality rolls slit to customers’ requirements.’ 

He lists additional benefits as the park’s dedicated container depot, which means Bordic doesn’t get charged more per container for being outside of a certain delivery zone radius from the harbour and direct access to the highway. ‘It’s easy to service customers in Pinetown, and our drivers can also reach those up the North Coast within 30 minutes,’ Craig notes.  

The role of this warehouse team, which has increased significantly in size and is measured as an internal service division, is to service each of Bordic’s teams – films, polymers and paper – as best as humanly possible. The slitting facility staff operate two shifts every day and are supervised by manager Carla Coetzee, who is also responsible for engaging with the sales and logistics teams plus prioritising and scheduling the jobs.