September 6 - Spedag East Africa is amalgamating with Interfreight East Africa and under the name of Spedag Interfreight will become one of the largest logistics suppliers in East Africa.

In an official statement, the companies say that with the combined forces of these two former competitors, there will be a concentration of logistics and project transport competency in a growing market.

"The worldwide customers of both companies will get added value through the combined strength of the two market leaders", claims Daniel Richner , majority shareholder in the new company group. The amalgamation is a further important step in the business strategy of the M+R Spedag Group towards concentrating on expansion in East Asia, India and Africa.

"The volume of transport from Europe, as well as from eastern and southern Asia towards Africa has risen rapidly in the past ten years, and will continue to do so in exceptional scales", Richner elaborates.

Spedag East Africa is one of the market leaders for project logistics in the East African region. The co-founder,Joseph Lenherr , has headed this division since 1999 and will in future be responsible for Spedag Interfreight as its managing director at the HQ in Muttenz/Basel. Spedag East Africa is also a member of the Worldwide Project Consortium (WWPC) network of project freight forwarders.

Interfreight East Africa was founded in 1998 by Heinz Mueller , and is one of the largest suppliers in the sector of warehousing and distribution, as well as a significant logistics partner of the export trade. The company is a specialist in the oil and gas industry, and will support this sector in its expansion in Uganda and South Sudan. Heinz Mueller becomes managing director of Spedag Interfreight in Mombasa, Kenya.

Spedag Interfreight employs 700 staff in Switzerland, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, DR Congo and South Sudan. Moreover, Spedag has had its own offices in South Africa for the past 50 years. The group has its own terminals in Mombasa, Kampala, Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg, runs 32,000 sq m of storage area and 60,000 sq m of trucking/container yards.