Cold Link Africa May/June 2016 Vol 1 No 5 | Page 11

NEWS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN

Smart energy, smarter business
A

broader look at energy use in South
Africa’s manufacturing sector
and related supply chains – which
saps a quarter of global energy annually
– could lift businesses away from fiscal
watershed. How has UTi Pharma optimised
its operations and reduced its energy
footprint?
Even though new levies and rising tariffs
peck at what little fat remains of business
resources, cost-cutting options related
to energy use are far from exhausted.
Producing energy efficient buildings
and operations, and replicating the
supply chain structures, holds enormous
potential.
Ralton Moses, divisional director of
operations at UTi Pharma and speaker
at the upcoming SAPICS Conference for
supply chain professionals, explains that
while warehousing has remained largely
static with operations being somewhat
consistent in South Africa over the last
two decades, the associated costs are a
different story altogether now.
“For most major corporates, the socially
responsible aspect of going green can no
longer stand in isolation or be ignored and/
or avoided; it needs to be aligned with the
profitability strategy of the organisation in
order to provide the required benefits to all
stakeholders,” warns Moses.
“Organisations should address the
impact of carbon on their supply chain,
as a significant percentage of a product’s
value is derived from it. When a consumer
purchases a product they are also
buying the supply chain that delivers that
particular service.
“Increased labour costs also add
inflationary pressure to operations and

UTi Pharma’s green facility in Meadowview, Gauteng.
continually forces companies operating
warehouses to reduce their carbon
footprint in order to not only take care
of our planet, but also to cut costs,” says
Moses. “Organisations can significantly
reduce their running costs through
technology that measures and mitigates
carbon dioxide.”
In building their new state-of-the-art
green facility in Meadowview Gauteng,
UTi Pharma managed to consolidate
eight of its nine operations into one. The
healthcare distribution giant delivers
around half of South Africa’s temperaturesensitive pharmaceutical products in the
private market and had to incur significant

expenditure on energy to monitor, control
and regulate the temperatures of its
storage and distribution facilities.
The new facility has an annual energy
demand of 60% of that of the preceding
facility.
Turning the lights off during weekends
is no longer enough; an energy conscious
strategy should incorporate everything
from motion sensors and zoning systems
for lighting, to grey water harvesting
techniques and thermal storage systems.
A key point identified by Moses as a less
cost intensive solution is that businesses
should select the most accessible,
well-connected facility possible, one

COLD LINK AFRICA • May | June 2016

that’s optimally located in terms of the
organisation’s demand and supply
base. Transportation contributes more
to a company’s energy footprint than
warehousing, which means the choice of
venue has a significant impact.
Ralton Moses will describe in more detail
the UTi Pharma hub’s green credentials
and process followed at the 38th Annual
SAPICS Conference and Exhibition for
supply chain professionals, to be held at
CLA
Sun City, 12-14 June 2016.
For more information, or to register, visit
conference.sapics.org.

www.coldlinkafrica.co.za

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