Flying on southern winds
Anti-cyclical Portuguese investment in South Africa.
The Southern Africa region presents the logistics industry with economic challenges. The Portuguese enterprise Rangel Logistics Solutions has nevertheless been steadily expanding its network in the hot spot since 2020.
Rangel Logistics Solutions has already offered its services in Southern Africa since February 2020, and is now investing another EUR 2.1 million (ZAR 37 million) in the region. At the same time the firm officially inaugurated its new branch office in Johannesburg (South Africa).
The funds have been earmarked for a lorry fleet of its own, the expansion of Rangel’s staff to 100 employees by 2023, and the extension of its warehousing space in Johannesburg, from 2,500 to 5,500 m². New offices will also be opened. These investments will fortify Rangel’s presence in Southern African markets.
New locations will open in 2022 in Zambia; in Nakop, on South Africa’s border with Namibia; and in Zeerust, close to the frontier with Botswana. Further new centres will be established in South Africa itself in the course of 2022 / 2023, including branches in the port cities Durban and Cape Town.
A network for the SADC
These network extensions complement the company’s regional development so far. Rangel entered the South African market in 2020, by taking over its own local clearing agent. Its first office came up in Johannesburg, followed by facilities in Komatipoort, Musina and Globlersburg in 2021, on RSA’s borders with Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana respectively.
“Our investments in South Africa have outperformed our expectations for the first two years,” said CEO Nuno Rangel. Manuel Carvalho, Portugal’s ambassador in South Africa, underlined the fact that “the company is celebrating quite a success story, especially in the light of the difficulties of the past two years. We have a saying in Portugal – ‘when a storm is brewing, some people seek refuge; others go out and build windmills.’ Rangel is one of the latter, getting the wind to power its sails.”