Zim – Unifreight sells Tredco

UNIFREIGHT Africa Limited, the listed transport and logistics firm, said last week it had offloaded its tyre production unit, Tredco, as directors refocused on core operations to arrest mounting losses.

The disposal of Tredco is part of a restructuring programme underway at Unifreight, which merged with Pioneer Africa Corporation Limited just over a year ago to form a broad logistics company with operations in Zimbabwe and Botswana.

In Zimbabwe, Unifreght would emerge as one of the largest transportation firms, with tentacles in both passenger coaches and cargo.

In May, Unifreight said it had completed the restructuring exercise and would now focus on local transport.

The group closed its Botswana subsidiary last year and disposed of Pioneer Transport to its employees through a management takeover.

Pioneer Coaches, a division of Pioneer Transport, started trading separately from the group in January.

Unifreight’s operations include Swift Transport, Bulwark, Unifreight Engineering & Heavy Haulage, Skynet and Tredcor Zimbabwe trading as Trentyre.

The tyre production sector has been among the worst hit by an influx of cheap imports into Zimbabwe.

Competition is high in the tyre trade business.

Large players have been feeling the heat from smaller players, who have been selling at cheaper prices.

And with the continuing liquidity crisis rocking the country, consumers have switched to lowly priced products.

This could be the major factor driving the sale of Tredco by Unifreight, which says it is going through one of its worst times.

“The board decided to sell its majority interest in Tredco, which has not performed well and was not considered part of the core business,” Unifreight said last week.

“The group has not had a good start to the year…the overall results have been, it said, noting that revenue for the reporting period from continuing operations increased to US$13,8 million, from US$13,3 million during the previous period.

Unifreight reported a US$1,2 million loss before tax from continuing operations, after reporting a US$619 000 profit at the same time the previous year. Source: Financial Gazette