Interview with Stéphane Eholie, Chief Executive Officer of SIMAT (Société Ivoirienne de Manutention et de Transit)

You have recently partnered up with Nile Dutch, which is one of the top 25 maritime companies. Can you describe this partnership a bit? What does it mean for your clients?

We take care of purchasing, the ship's operation, deliveries, and booking operations. Nile Dutch has about 4 or 5 boat shipments per month, and they go from Europe to Angola, and also to Pointe-Noire.

As you said, they are among the 25 best companies in the world. It's the Dutch armament, headquartered in Rotterdam, very, very dynamic and, for them and for us, the partnership is really groundbreaking. It's groundbreaking for Côte d'Ivoire: to have a multinational company come and work with a local company like ours. It could bring knowledge of the markets, it could bring more. It's important to note that they used to be in Côte d'Ivoire a long time ago but with the crisis they had to leave in about 2005 and couldn't come back. So, for them, it's now a resumption. And for the past 2 years that we've been working with them there is good market penetration. Moreover, the quality of service is satisfactory for the clients.

What do the clients appreciate about it?

The price-quality ratio is there, Nile Dutch is well known. It's up to us to offer good service and to make sure we stay competitive. As I said, Nile Dutch had left and came back, so the first ship arrived with a couple boxes, the activity worked out, and we were able to diversify the clients. At the start it was about 30 or 40 boxes per shipment and now we're doing 300 boxes a shipment. So that well proves that we are having, if not exponential growth, at least very strong growth.

The partnership, I would say, is a mutually beneficial partnership. I am satisfied and they are too. I think the growth will continue to be good as the growth in Côte d'Ivoire has been good, around 9 or 10 %. As I always say - it comes in through the ports. With the ports we get our turn, we have our card to play. It's a great success.

Can you talk now about the new service, SIMAT Express, which has been launched? What does this mean to clients, how was it put in place?

We launched SIMAT Express because we wanted to offer a full range of services. I think there is horizontal and vertical integration, and we are trying to be involved in all these services on an aerial and maritime level. But, especially for SIMAT Express - when we hear “express” we think of someone in a hurry, trying to get their products the fastest way possible. So this service is dedicated specifically to cater to the urgency of the situation.

We tried to kick off SIMAT Express with our existing clients, who use the aerial or maritime services, who needed a package delivered really quickly. For a year we have been trying this service and it's working well but, remember, we are still watching it. Now, it is an area of the business that is not generating a lot of numbers. But in the future, maybe with this partnership, and maybe tied with European or other global companies, that are dedicated to it, I think we will really have a lot of thing to do.

As I said, the Express is dedicated to aerial transport, to fast orders, as relating to the service and the client's expectations. All serious shipping companies should have an express service, and SIMAT has started this now. Again, it is not generating a lot of numbers but it has a big potential and we are going to give it a year to grow.

What are the plans for the future, how do you plan to attract and keep business? Is there anything planned, in theory?

I find myself to be a very positive person. I want to see growth in a couple years, in a couple decades.

We need to have new professional transport services to accommodate this growth. We are investing in having the material and having solid enough infrastructure to do this. I think in Africa, in West Africa particularly, in terms of oil, in terms of gas and mining operations, there is really important activity going on. So, in the next couple of years, we will invest a lot in the activities that we call logistics activities, in oil and gas activities, in order to be involved in this volume of business that is growing and will grow even more dramatically.

I have always said that we are in constant motion, with the highs as well as the lows, but right now we are really in an upswing. We have invested enormously in different platforms, in gas and oil, in stores, in specific materials, etc. Because, it's important to note, the two Côte d'Ivoire ports; the needs of the client lead them here, and I repeat: there is room for everyone.

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