Kuehne + Nagel Bags Three-Year Contract From BMW South Africa

For automotive parts and accessories warehousing and distribution

Kuehne + Nagel has been awarded a contract to manage the BMW South Africa parts and accessories distribution centre in Midrand. From the facility, parts are distributed to the whole of South Africa as well as to five neighbouring countries.

The company said that at the end of 2008, it was awarded a contract to manage parts of the BMW-operated logistics facility in Midrand. After the transition, the decision to outsource the entire Midrand distribution operation was made by the management board of BMW South Africa. Following a rigorous tender process, Kuehne + Nagel was awarded a three-year contract to manage the entire national parts distribution centre.

Kuehne + Nagel will be providing services such as receiving, inventory control, picking & packing, handling of dangerous goods and value-added services, such as pre-packaging and returns handling of BMW automotive parts and accessories.

The 16,500 sqm facility is owned by BMW and holds around 50,000 stock-keeping units. After the current implementation phase, Kuehne + Nagel will co-operate with BMW on the continuous improvement of the car manufacturer’s supply chain processes in order to increase productivity and improve cost efficiency, introducing new tools such as the Kuehne + Nagel Production System.

Andre van Rensburg, national manager of Kuehne + Nagel South Africa, said: “We are honoured that BMW has awarded the complete outsourcing of yet another of its facilities to Kuehne + Nagel and has placed its trust in our portfolio of integrated services. We believe these services will greatly benefit the continuous optimisation of BMW's supply chain.”

Kuehne + Nagel currently provides services from inbound to production and aftermarket logistics as well as reverse logistics in five countries at 12 different locations, for the BMW Group.