COMPANY PROFILE
2014
Logistics Support Services
The holistic approach to logistics
company profile
The holistic approach to logistics Editorial: Tim Hands Production: James Clark Logistics Support Services believe your supply chain is a key enabler of success hence this Namibian company looks to get your supply chain working harder for your business. The company has a wide-ranging selection of services on offer and Operations Manager, Quintin Simon tells IndustrySA that not many companies can offer the portfolio that LSS has at its disposal.
With its revolutionary holistic approach to supply chain solutions, Logistic Support Services (LSS) has crafted its very own optimised methods that integrate projects, vessel agencies, clearing and forwarding, transportation, and warehousing systems and processes. Specialising in the offshore, gas and repair service industry, LSS seeks to link supply chains to business strategies, ensuring a company has the right operations, resources and capabilities to implement its strategy and realise its central vision. Quintin Simon, Operations Manager at LSS, details the extent of the expertise on offer from the company, with its operations teams well established in the Namibian and international shipping industry for many years. “Most businesses will concentrate on two key areas – clearing and forwarding in and out of the vessels, and
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then the normal imports and exports, such as ships’ spares for the vessels. We, as LSS, have got our own department dedicated to ships’ agents, one dedicated to clearing and forwarding imports and exports, as well as a department which focuses on procurement – on technical food stores, on servicing of life equipment.” That’s not all the company can look after, as he goes on to explain: “Our own set of buses cater for the transport of the crew, and we even take care of the work visas for the country. These are personnel that work specifically within this department that only concentrates on that segment of the company, dedicating themselves to that area.” Being able to offer such a complete service results in a huge range of benefits, not least in the turn-around time of a given project. “We also have, in house, our own trucks and forklifts. So, when we have to deliver or collect spares, or collect
Logistics Support Services
purchased goods, we don’t have to rent in the necessary equipment – it’s all there ready for us,” he says. It is, to a certain extent, the all-encompassing nature of what LSS can offer which has turned the heads of considerable names and drawn them to entrust the company with their business. “The major players within the oil and gas industry are people like SubSea 7, Global Offshore, Seacor Marine, and then on the international dredging side you have the likes of Jan Der Nul and Boskalis. There are also the agents for Maersk Drilling and Maersk Supply, both of which are becoming big, big players within the offshore industry. These all make use of our full portfolio of services,” details Simon, “while we also have a group of companies affiliated with LSS. These also provide services within the oil and gas industry, all the way from load testing right through to diesel purifying, recycling and plant rental. All of that is utilised by these
companies, and what we need to ensure is that when a client brings us this business, we can provide all the services he needs.”
“We look for people with experience, but equally we look for go-getters” Testament to the comprehensiveness of the service provided by LSS was its ability to successfully fend off any threat resulting from the economic frailties of recent years, which saw a massive downturn in outgoings by all the big-name companies. “There was a lot of slowdown that we saw, so where clients might once have spent X amount of dollars when they brought their vessels over, this was skimmed down to the absolute minimum. But, what helped us was that
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company profile we still had a constant flow of clients coming in, because offshore vessels have to be serviced either every two or five years, while the bigger clients have even more stringent specifications to be adhered to. “Clearly this was a benefit for us, because these clients were needing to keep their vessel at a certain standard in order to remain in a certain class and carry on getting work, so, although the amount of money that the client was spending on a dry docking was drastically reduced, we still had that flow of vessels coming in and out,” Simon explains. It is a revolutionary approach that LSS has worked to create since its relatively recent inception (2008), and it matches this with a forward-thinking and locallyfocussed policy of recruitment. “We look for people with experience, but equally we look for go-getters,” explains Simon. “It’s very important, especially in the Namibian economy with the country only having been independent for 11 or 12 years, to offer development within the company. We tend to appoint people who don’t have the money or the luxuries to go off and study for the
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relevant industries and start them on a training process. We then develop them into a ship’s agent or a clearing or fording agent – something down that route.”
“We’ll be looking to integrate the entirety of our group of companies into that specific project” There is a balance here between the need of experienced, older heads and a more dynamic, raw set of skills: “When it comes to key positions and we’re looking to appoint management we will look for experience within the industry, but for those mid-level or starting positions we look to develop as much as possible.” As a company, LSS is now perfectly placed to begin looking towards its future, with seemingly boundless opportunities available given the foundations it has constructed.
Hatch Goba
Metrotech is focused on providing mass, pressure, flow and temperature calibration and metrology services to laboratories, industry, government, non-governmental organizations and other clients in Namibia and Africa. Our scope of work includes: mass metrology, temperature metrology, pressure metrology, flow metrology, load testing, pressure testing, bollard pull and infra-red thermography, and instrumentation testing and repair.
New Metrotech Calibration Services (PTY) Ltd will be open 10th of March 2014 in Cape Town, for all load test needs CC/2004/1299
Tel: +264 64 277 600 Fax: +264 64 277 601 Cell: +264 811272 578 E-mail: dawid.c@metrotech.com.na PO Box 1416; Corner of John Newman and 2nd Street East,Synchrolift Industrial Area, Walvis Bay, Namibia, Africa
“Within our group of companies is one called iLogistics, which is mainly shore-based, around mining. They are busy with the tender process to provide project management on the logistical point of view of the Kudu gas project. We’ll be looking to integrate the entirety of our group of companies into that specific project, to see where we can assist with it – be that with steel supply, weight lifts - so we’ve got the onshore side very much covered too now, within a different segment of our group of companies.” This, of course, could not be achieved by the company without an integration into the community around it, something LSS has accomplished fully as it looks to continue its expansion. “We feel it is imperative to have a very good relationship with the government, especially on the customs and immigration side, but LSS has also had a big impact on the local economy. It’s a very small, close community – there are only about 65,000 people within it – so we strive for a relationship whereby we all assist each other where we can. In contrast to the larger towns elsewhere with 30 or 40 suppliers all vying for the same business, weNgqura work together and make the very best of Port of
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this smaller, more localised set-up, and the community feel it engenders as we all continue to work towards these bigger projects.”
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+264 64 276 603 www.lssnamibia.com
(0)1603 618 000 info@industrysa.com East Coast Promotions Ltd, Ferndale Business Centre, 1 Exeter Street. Norwich, Norfolk NR2 4QB