BERRY & DONALDSON: Quiet Fortitude in Turbulent Trade

For South African logistics veteran Berry & Donaldson, established in 1963, staying ahead means combining deep-rooted values with proactive innovation. With around 95 employees and multimillion Rand revenues last year, the company’s quiet strength lies in mastering the complexity of freight forwarding and ensuring clients’ trust in volatile times.

Berry & Donaldson has spent six decades refining its reputation as a full-service end-to-end logistics partner. As Managing Director Paul Waldburger puts it for Enterprise Africa: “We are a forwarding and clearing company and we specialise in moving freight into and out of South Africa. As a country that imports more than it exports, we focus on the import side of the business, but we can work on both.” Its broad offering—from sea and air freight to local transport, warehousing and marine insurance—allows the firm to oversee every leg of a shipment’s journey, from overseas docks to clients’ doors.

The company handles sea and air freight predominantly, facilitating exports like flowers to Europe and Asia, bulk shipments to the USA, and fast air freight into Europe. “Sea freight and air freight is our core. We don’t do too much cross-border land freight into Africa right now, but we can if required.” This flexibility positions Berry & Donaldson to serve a wide range of sectors—renewable energy, general and secondary retail, omni-retail, and more—especially as demand spikes heading into the lucrative August-to-October season.

LOGISTICS UNDER PRESSURE

The company’s operational edge matters. South African ports consistently rank among the worst-performing globally—Cape Town, Durban, and Ngqura often feature at the bottom of the World Bank’s Container Port Performance Index. Such inefficiencies are not just statistics. In late 2023, congestion deepened: an estimated 79 vessels and more than 61,000 containers were stuck at anchorage outside Durban, Cape Town, and Eastern Cape ports, stalling goods worth millions. The South African Association of Freight Forwarders blamed the crisis on underinvestment, equipment breakdowns, and bad weather, estimating the daily cost to the economy at R98 million in direct and indirect losses.

These bottlenecks aren’t easing. Equipment failures, rail and port infrastructure decay, and security vulnerabilities continue to constrain operations. Delays of days—even weeks—can derail supply chains, especially during peak months.

That’s where Berry & Donaldson’s service model shines.

FINANCIAL, OPERATIONAL STRENGTH

At the heart of the business is solid financial stewardship. A chartered accountant by training, Waldburger began his journey at the firm as financial manager sixteen years ago.

“This business is, as much as it is about freight, about money. Strong financial acumen is a prerequisite in terms of running this type of business.” Indeed, the firm often fronts large sums for VAT and duty, managing sensitive financial flows for clients.

That sound footing has enabled the company to plan strategically for growth.

In response to logistics fractures nationwide, Berry & Donaldson is expanding its value-add offerings—particularly insurance and warehousing. “Warehousing and marine insurance is a big project for us. We have our own cell captive marine insurance policy and we encourage our clients to use that. The advantage there is that we have strong leverage impacting the speed of payouts and the quantity of claims, as well as reducing the admin involved.”

This emphasis on risk mitigation matters because even seasoned players face threats—weather events, crime, infrastructure breakdowns and more. Berry & Donaldson’s three warehouses in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban help clients keep goods local rather than stuck in congested port queues. “Warehousing is seeing a slight move from shop retail to online retail… we are well aware of that.”

Furthermore, its solid balance sheet allows the company to support clients with expenses like duty, VAT, and financing when timing is tight. “We have a capital base within our own business to carry that. We have built a sizeable balance sheet which allows us to carry some of our clients in that regard,” says Waldburger.

PARTNERSHIPS THAT PERFORM

Another differentiator is the strength of their relationships. International shipping lines and airlines remain key contracts, while their local trucking network—made of owned vehicles and trusted partners—secures movement from dock to doorstep.

“We are only as good as our partners. When things go wrong, we want to get on the phone to senior managers and take action quickly—that is what we do ourselves and that is what we expect of our service providers. Pricing is also always important, but we do focus more on quality of service and cultural alignment,” says Waldburger.

In a turbulent logistics environment, being small enough to care and agile to react matters.

The result is a unique sweet spot: large enough to manage complex logistics infrastructure, but compact enough to deliver personalised service. “We big enough to do the job but small enough to care. If you want to phone and speak to someone, you can do so and you don’t have to go through a call centre or start a ticket.” That mix of size and relational agility is rare and powerful.

South African logistics will likely improve in time—World Bank loans are funding infrastructure upgrades, private-sector rail and port investments are under consideration—yet the timeline is long. In the meantime, businesses like Berry & Donaldson matter most; their stability, adaptability and client focus make them indispensable partners.

As the freight sector claws back from crippling congestion and ageing infrastructure, Berry & Donaldson’s strategy—marrying traditional customer care with financial resilience and forward-thinking services—positions it as more than just a logistics provider. It’s a trusted ally for South African businesses navigating some of the toughest trade terrain on the continent.