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Abrie de Swardt
Abrie is a well respected thought leader in the logistics and supply chain management industry in southern Africa. He has extensive general management experience and his functional experience encompasses the entire supply chain discipline from the buy to the sell side. He has > 22 years experience in the fields of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, including Manufacturing, Procurement, Warehousing and Distribution. He holds various management qualifications (MComm), won numerous awards and received recognition for achievements attained during his career.
Show profile Hide profileAbrie is a well respected logistics and supply chain management thought leader in southern Africa and has > 22 years of experience gained from his employ with Sasol, ABB, Simba, Kraft Foods SA, IMPERIAL Logistics and Capespan. He has extensive general management experience and his functional experience encompasses the entire supply chain discipline from the buy to the sell side. He holds various management qualifications (MComm from University of Stellenbosch) and won numerous awards and received recognition for achievements attained during his career.
He pursued his passion for talent management, acquisition and retention at the end of 2012 convinced that the country needs more entrepreneurs.
Prior to his appointment as MD of Capespan SA he was Marketing Director for IMPERIAL Logistics and played a leading role driving classic marketing and brand management activities ensuring top of mind awareness and repositioning the brand to being recognized as a leading logistics and SCM company in southern Africa.
IMPERIAL Logistics grew significantly, won various new contracts and several awards and accolades, including the Best Managed Company in South Africa award. Abrie was the winner of the Industry Leader Award at the 3rd Annual Green Supply Chain Awards in 2011 for "far-reaching work on bringing green to the supply chain both within IMPERIAL Logistics and by spreading the message broadly throughout the supply chain and business communities."
Abrie spent > 10 years with Simba and Kraft Foods SA. He started the Procurement function at Simba before moving into the role of National Logistics Manager. He was then appointed as Plant Manager: Parow where the plant became a high performance unit and also produced the first Doritos in SA. He spent his last 2 years at Simba as National Supply Chain Manager and transformed its supply chain. He then moved to Kraft Foods as Director Customer Service & Logistics being responsible for the full order to cash cycle of the supply chain.
His team was awarded the "Most Outstanding Supply Chain Achievement in PepsiCo International EMEA for 2003" at the Ops Conference held in Paris in Feb'03. He also won the "PepsiCo Chairman's Award for the launch of Doritos, the Regional "Passion for Performance" award and the most improved quality performance during 1999 at the Quality Academy for Frito-Lay EMEA Region. His team won the 2005 national Spar retailer DOT competition at Kraft Foods SA.
Membership: Board member of the Council for Logistics & Transport South Africa (CILTSA), Retired member of South African Supply Chain Council Leadership Team, Served on the board of the Federation of Supply Chain Management Associations (FSCMA). Joined the Board of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) - Africa.
Articles / papers in various publications: "Logistics Cost Drivers" in the 5th Annual State of Logistics™ survey, "Converting Logistics Value into a Competitive Advantage" in the 6th Annual State of Logistics™ survey, a leading and authoritative research project in southern Africa and an "Extra Distance Case Study" article in conjunction with Cardiff University in the 7th Annual State of Logistics™ survey.
Abrie is a well respected logistics and supply chain management thought leader in southern Africa and has > 22 years of experience gained from his employ with Sasol, ABB, Simba, Kraft Foods SA, IMPERIAL Logistics and Capespan. He has extensive general management experience and his functional experience encompasses the entire supply chain discipline from the buy to the sell side. He holds various management qualifications (MComm from University of Stellenbosch) and won numerous awards and received recognition for achievements attained during his career.
He pursued his passion for talent management, acquisition and retention at the end of 2012 convinced that the country needs more entrepreneurs.
Prior to his appointment as MD of Capespan SA he was Marketing Director for IMPERIAL Logistics and played a leading role driving classic marketing and brand management activities ensuring top of mind awareness and repositioning the brand to being recognized as a leading logistics and SCM company in southern Africa.
IMPERIAL Logistics grew significantly, won various new contracts and several awards and accolades, including the Best Managed Company in South Africa award. Abrie was the winner of the Industry Leader Award at the 3rd Annual Green Supply Chain Awards in 2011 for "far-reaching work on bringing green to the supply chain both within IMPERIAL Logistics and by spreading the message broadly throughout the supply chain and business communities."
Abrie spent > 10 years with Simba and Kraft Foods SA. He started the Procurement function at Simba before moving into the role of National Logistics Manager. He was then appointed as Plant Manager: Parow where the plant became a high performance unit and also produced the first Doritos in SA. He spent his last 2 years at Simba as National Supply Chain Manager and transformed its supply chain. He then moved to Kraft Foods as Director Customer Service & Logistics being responsible for the full order to cash cycle of the supply chain.
His team was awarded the "Most Outstanding Supply Chain Achievement in PepsiCo International EMEA for 2003" at the Ops Conference held in Paris in Feb'03. He also won the "PepsiCo Chairman's Award for the launch of Doritos, the Regional "Passion for Performance" award and the most improved quality performance during 1999 at the Quality Academy for Frito-Lay EMEA Region. His team won the 2005 national Spar retailer DOT competition at Kraft Foods SA.
Membership: Board member of the Council for Logistics & Transport South Africa (CILTSA), Retired member of South African Supply Chain Council Leadership Team, Served on the board of the Federation of Supply Chain Management Associations (FSCMA). Joined the Board of the Institute of Transport and Logistics Studies (ITLS) - Africa.
Articles / papers in various publications: "Logistics Cost Drivers" in the 5th Annual State of Logistics™ survey, "Converting Logistics Value into a Competitive Advantage" in the 6th Annual State of Logistics™ survey, a leading and authoritative research project in southern Africa and an "Extra Distance Case Study" article in conjunction with Cardiff University in the 7th Annual State of Logistics™ survey.
