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From the Chief Executive:
A New Focus for Success

“We will be successful in this endeavour. We are a vehicle to bring the private and public sectors together.”

This is the mantra of Saxen van Coller, Dube TradePort Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and the daily focus for staff. Van Coller was appointed CEO in March 2013. The Dube TradePort Corporation Board says van Coller’s strength lies in her ability to turn around battling businesses and to take thriving businesses to new levels of success. Her secret lies in her talent of bringing operations, strategy and people together.

In terms of Dube TradePort Corporation, van Coller stresses that her appointment was more about taking a great existing business model and 10 years of planning and turning Dube TradePort into a serious player and key stakeholder in KwaZulu-Natal’s business environment.

Since taking up the reins, van Coller has focused on the precinct’s 60-year Masterplan and positioning Dube TradePort as KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government’s flagship project, illustrating that private-public partnerships do work.

Theoretically the Government-owned Dube TradePort is playing in a private sector business space. The challenge for van Coller has been to instil in all members of staff a private sector business approach to their every action and activity.

“Vital for a successful and sustainable public-private partnership venture are sound business principles, good corporate governance, water-tight procurement processes and clean audits,” says van Coller.

From a business point of view, Dube TradePort offers a number of competitive advantages. A major differentiating factor is that this is a purpose-planned ‘Greenfield’ project. It enjoys excellent positioning surrounding King Shaka International Airport, is a 10-minute drive to two burgeoning areas - Ballito and Umhlanga - and has excellent infrastructure. This, coupled with an organisation’s intent on fulfilling its mandate and focused on facilitating development, has to be an ideal business proposition for any investor.

“It is precisely this competitive advantage that Dube TradePort is selling and that businesses and investors are buying into,” says van Coller.

Dube TradePort’s five business focus areas, Dube City, Dube TradeZone, Dube Cargo Terminal, Dube AgriZone and Dube iConnect have, in varying degrees, all enjoyed a successful 2013/14 financial year.

This period, in particular, has realised significant private sector business uptake in both Dube TradeZone and Dube AgriZone, effectively beginning the overall precinct’s transformation from an infrastructural development to a highly competitive business operating environment.

“The TradeZone has been an absolute catalyst and a win for Dube TradePort,” says van Coller. Phase one of the TradeZone is expected to yield as much as R1 billion in private sector investment. All this has been achieved within the space of just 24 months.

Its success and the demand for industrial land have resulted in Phase two of Dube TradeZone being brought forward by as much as a year. Although not yet launched, Dube TradePort is already in talks with potential developers, which has resulted in 40% of the zone being reserved.

Dube AgriZone, described as a forward-thinking agricultural business model by van Coller, includes a mix of tenants and infrastructure that positions it as an end-to-end facility from laboratory plant propagation and greenhouses, to on-site produce packaging and refrigerated air and road transport.

It is, therefore, not surprising that AgriZone Phase one is almost sold-out and Phase two, set to be an energy-efficient zone, is already at an advanced planning stage.

The local business community is showing tremendous appetite for the A-grade office space on offer in Dube City. About 60% of the available development sites have been taken up and, as soon as the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process is complete, earthworks will start.

Business take-off at the Cargo Terminal, a singular cargo hub housing all the state entities required to process and protect import and export cargo, has until the 2013/14 financial year, been somewhat slow. However, a new focus, combined with competitive and cost-effective pricing and an aggressive search for freight partners is now paying dividends. Cargo revenue has grown 8% and, during the next three years, new African cargo routes will open, while efforts to encourage international carriers continue apace.

A three to five-year window exists for Dube TradePort to see real results that will enhance its position as a major force in the economy. Its success is about service delivery and the execution of world-class infrastructure.

In the longer five to 10-year time-frame, the goal is to ensure that Dube TradePort is at the heart of a successful aerotropolis and that the facilities that have been built are an excellent match for the environment. To achieve this, van Coller is categorical that the facilities need to be sustainable, synergistic and supportive of business, while being environmentally sensitive and capable of enhancing the local communities within the Province’s northern development belt.

Dube iConnect, Dube TradePort’s infrastructure data centre providing cloud storage, is unique to KwaZulu-Natal and keen private sector use of the facility has placed it in an improved financial position in 2013/14.

Ms Saxen van Coller
Chief Executive Officer