UNITRANS FUEL & CHEMICAL (PTY) LTD
Chemical in Durban

Unitrans is a diversified supply chain company that has been serving the needs of select Sub-Saharan African markets for over 50 years. Our highly successful business model incorporates the design, implementation and ongoing provision of supply chain solutions for our customers. 2011 TOTAL SA Two awards in recognition of Safety, Health, Environment and Quality initiatives. Unitrans has been in business as United Transport since 1962, our company is one of South Africa’s most recognisable transport and logistics brands, with fleet on roads all over Southern Africa. Now well over 50 years old, Unitrans continues to grow and innovate. The original core of the business was Thornton’s Transportation, a solid and respectable family transport business founded in 1892 by native Californian Samuel Thornton. Thornton’s steady growth through the acquisition of other transport companies eventually resulted in a major buyout by the United Transportation Company. In turn, the United Transportation Company had started life as a bus operating company in the United Kingdom in The bus company evolved into a diversified freight and bus business which, prior to the Thornton acquisition and the entry into SA, successfully operated in several other African countries. In the same year the newly incorporated business acquired the well-known Greyhound passenger bus business, which is to this day a Unitrans company. Greyhound had itself grown from humble origins in 1944 in Port Elizabeth, and matched the United Transport company’s ambitions to develop a passenger side to the business as well as diversified freight transportation. It had also branched out into a car hire business with some 900 vehicles. This response to sophisticated changes in the supply chain market saw the existing operations of Unitrans Freight, Fuel and Chemical, Agriculture and Mining Services and Roadway Logistics grouped under the new holding division. An important new function, Unitrans Customer Solution Development, was created to deliver new business to these operational divisions. Unitrans represented a major component of the shares in the deal, and was a major industrial asset for KAP. In the same spirit of constant innova t ion and sustainable business growth, a new business model was successfully implemented at Unitrans late last year. Unitrans has firmly changed gears, embarking on a new phase of development for the company. Unitrans now operates as one business and function as one team.