GAC Logistics can expect to better serve its existing clients and gain new customers following an expansion to its logistics complex at the Jebel Ali Free Zone.
The expansion, set for completion by the end of 2004, will raise the area of the facility to 60,000 sq m with more than 65,000 pallet positions. Currently there are 55,000 pallet positions in a 50,000 sq m complex.
Planned for the enlarged area are a container freight station, multi-purpose warehousing, value-added services and additional office accommodation.
GAC’s clients come from diverse sectors such as retail, fast moving consumer goods, high-tech spare parts, hanging garments, automotive, pharmaceutical and frozen food.
The Jebel Ali facility is home to over 100 companies, including such high-profile customers as Gillette, 3M, Reckitt Benkiser, L’Oreal, a+e, Nestle, Cadbury, Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil and Marks & Spencer. GAC is also engaged in value-added services which include sampling and testing, quality checks, component assembly and special promotions packaging.”
The expansion comes on top of a logistics centre the company opened at the burgeoning Dubai Airport Free Zone (Dafz). In the last two years GAC has opened offices in three South African cities as well as in Brazil, established a joint venture in Dubai to boost business with Japanese firms and set up a logistics partnership in Indonesia.
GAC’s Dafz centre is helping meet the needs of a number of international and local companies that have set up operations in the free zone and require fast turnarounds for their high-value fast-moving products such as IT hardware and software, pharmaceuticals, automotive parts or machinery components.
It is boosting GAC’s capability to offer end-to-end supply chain management solutions encompassing sea/air/courier freight, consolidation, road transportation, warehousing, cross docking, retail distribution and value-added services.
The company is also keen on further developing its capabilities in semi-manufacturing and component assembly.
In another development, it opened GAC Marine Logistics (GML), a specialised logistics service which covers the entire supply chain management of ship spares and marine parts.
The GML team has expanded with three new positions, based in Dubai and Singapore and created to meet the needs of a growing business which has jumped five-fold since operations began in June 2003. Tony Gennadopoulus has been named regional sales manager based in GML's global headquarters in Dubai. He will be responsible for promoting GML to ship owners and management companies in the Middle East and Mediterranean areas.
