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Manica Group Namibia remains industry leader

Iréne-Mari van der Walt







Freight logistics and marine services provider Manica has a long history stretching back to the early pioneering years of cargo shipping when Theodore Woker and his partner Maertins founded a shipping and forwarding agency called Maertins & Woker. In the decades that followed, Manica underwent a myriad of name changes as the two partners acquired stakes in other companies and the business grew. Eventually in 1995, more than 70 years after it was founded, the company would come to be known under the name Manica Group Namibia.

Today, Manica is well-established in the marine services, materials handling and logistics industry. At the core of their work is the movement of goods from where they are to where they need to be.

“Think of how a can of beans end up in a shop, or how those big yellow mining trucks get from Germany to a mine in Namibia. That’s logistics,” said Trudi van Rooyen.

However, Manica is much more than simply moving beans. The group offers a wide range of marine, freight and logistics services for all types of vessels and freight cargo to any destination worldwide. In order to keep their promise of cutting-edge, professional service, Manica utilises a well-established international network of logistics partners to ensure all local and international freight reaches its destination on time.

Manica specialises in the full scope of logistics including clearing and forwarding, ships’ agency, cargo-handling, warehousing, intermodal transport, cross border and project freight, airport ground-handling, shipping, industrial lubricants, bunkering, stevedoring, launch services and shore-based logistics support for the oil and gas industry.

The group’s portfolio stretches even longer than its services list, boasting experience in providing critical logistics services to sectors such as mining, retail, infrastructure development, energy, fishing, construction, manufacturing, agriculture, marine, pharma and hospitality, to name but a few.

As part of its driving aims to strengthen the Walvis Bay Port as the leading logistics hub in Africa, Manica invested in two state-of-the-art mobile ship-to-quay bagging plants. On their maiden deployment, the bagging plants handled a record-breaking 20 000 tonnes of sulphur from the vessel’s ship-hold to quay to storage in six days.

Manica believes in being a solution-seeking and results driven group of companies with a strong commitment to creating lasting relationships, ensuring excellent customer service, the development of the local logistics industry and the promotion of the ports of Walvis Bay and Lüderitz.

The secret to its success may lie in its agility, flexibility to adapt to changes in the market, its people and the passion they have for logistics.