Imperial Logistics is planning to retrench about 1,000 of its employees in South Africa due to the negative impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the company’s operations.
The company says the move forms part of its restructuring and cost-cutting exercise to curb the damage inflicted by the COVID-19 lockdown.
Just four months ago, Imperial Cargo retrenched 591 employees having lost one of their biggest clients. Of those affected 330 were code 14 truck drivers.
Imperial has about 25,000 employees across all its operations globally.
The retrenchments will primarily impact its transport and warehousing businesses.
The group says it’s also looking for opportunities that present themselves after the pandemic.
This includes strategic acquisitions.
Imperial has lost about R4-billion in revenue because of the impact of COVID-19, which translated into lost operating profit of about R1-billion in the March to May period.
Its logistics business was severely hit because it services the tobacco and liquor sectors that were closed for most of the lockdown period.
According to the company, the logistics division contributes about 20 percent of its revenue in South Africa.
