Four years driving the sub-Sahara’s engine

0
208


In the four years since HAE Group started operating in South Africa, growth has continued at double digit rates says director Neville Karai.

HAE entered the South African market in 2015 through wholesaler subsidiary Groupair, and Karai says it has been a big success story. As a wholesaler, Groupair offers consolidation, airport to airport, and airport to door services to and from South Africa.

This year it has also developed an authorised reseller programme for express services called online express.

Karai says: “With the launch of our online express product we look forward to strong growth in our exports and via our solutions activity from China and the US. We believe the second half of 2019 will be equally as strong as previous years.”

HAE’s South African office is in Johannesburg, the heart of South Africa’s air cargo market.

Karai says: “We have customers in Durban and Cape Town, who hub traffic via Johannesburg and use it as the main intercontinental gateway to and from the rest of Africa, Europe and the US.”

Karai says HAE is actively working on expansion into Cape Town. He says: “We are interested to support the smaller forwarders on the Western Cape and offering services directly from Cape Town and also operating truck services to Johannesburg for onforwarding.”

Looking ahead, Karai says South Africa will remain the engine driving growth in sub Saharan Africa with engineering, other industrial and consumer products.

He says: “This continues to drive growth in regional services to west, east and Central Africa. On an intercontinental basis many airlines are returning or increasing capacity and frequency and this should help support the growth we see and give options.”

Despite the size of South Africa’s economy, there are challenges such as the high unemployment rates and unstable electricity supplies.

Karai says the main challenges for HAE are financial due to volatility of the currency, the Rand, making forecasting a return on investment difficult and margins also fluctuate.

There may be challenges but HAE is committed to the South African market.
Karai says: “HAE through Groupair remains a key strategic growth opportunity for our company and we are committed to continued growth and market share in South Africa.”