FAW Vehicle Manufacturers South Africa recently delivered 20 FAW 28.460FT (J6) truck tractors to Universal Trans-Logistics LDA (UTL) Mozambique, part of the Capital Foods Ltd group, headquartered in Lilongwe, Malawi.
This is the latest cross-border delivery for the company, which is growing its customer base in sub-Saharan Africa. The deal value is estimated at around R20 million.
To coincide with the expanding operational requirements of the Capital Foods Ltd group, it started to diversify operations to include warehousing and logistics in the UTL portfolio. “While UTL commenced operations in 2010 only we’ve had a constant need for fleet expansion. Malawi and other countries such as Zimbabwe which are landlocked rely heavily on road transportation for essentials such as food and medicines to name a few of our cargo requirements. FAW South Africa proved to be the best choice because of its proximity and its proven record for robust and reliable vehicles, which sanctions their suitability to operating in the harsh African terrain,” says Juber Shaikh, UTL Operations Manager.
“While this is our first investment into the FAW truck brand, we are satisfied with our choice following the very favourable reports we had from other fleet owners and our due diligence indicating reasonable costs of operation. The FAW brand is reputed for providing vehicles which are ‘more than tough enough for Africa’. This gave us the assurance that FAW is the definitive African-based truck manufacturer to take us forward in our expansion.”
