Ronnie Kingwill . . . Building up a new company means introducing into the quayside terminals a change culture
Getting goods to market speedily is the focus, writes Ray Smuts
HE'S NEVER tried his hand at sculpture but Ronnie Kingwill's plans to mould Fresh Produce Terminals into a cohesive and profitable enterprise rather reminds one of a Rodin or Michelangelo about to tackle a new masterpiece.
The appointment of Kingwill, Portnet's former general manager in charge of container terminals, as first managing director of fledgling Capespan subsidiary FPT, has come as a surprise to some and a disappointment to others. His departure from the parastatal is described as regrettable by Tau Morwe, chief executive of the Port Operations Division.(POD)
In conversation with FTW last week, the soft-spoken 48-year-old debunked a suggestion that his resignation was in any way linked to major restructuring by POD which would effectively have left him with only one container terminal, that in Durban.
He stressed the resignation had been tendered while the restructuring process was still underway and linked to "personal circumstances" beyond the workplace.
"I am a change agent. I move in and move on and hopefully leave some thought with the people behind who have been developed to carry on without me."
Kingwill said that the established leadership at the FPT terminals in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, Durban and Maputo was of such a calibre that it should be left to get on with business.
He would surround himself with a small handful of strategic thinkers at his Cape Town base and his approach to terminal management would be more hands-off, but more hands-on with regard to customer interface which was where the challenge lay.
"Building up a new company means introducing into the quayside terminals a change culture while at the same time bringing together all those multi-components like changes in the logistics industry and full supply chain philosophy and making them (those at the terminals) aware of the dependency on each other rather than the competitiveness of each other.
"The focus will be pretty much on getting the vessels in and out and the fruit into the marketplace as fast and as efficiently as possible.
That will be the challenge, to utilise resources in the best possible manner in order to give a real return to the shareholder." (FPT is now 50% owned by the British Mersey Docks and Harbour Company).
