GRW Engineering, South Africa’s leading liquid tanker manufacturer, and Transport and Equipment Engineering Company (TEE), South Africa’s leading manufacturer of dry bulk aluminium tankers, are now a combined force under the ownership of GRW Holdings through the outright purchase of TEE. 

This deal makes a lot of sense as it extends GRW’s product offerings into the pneumatic dry bulk and animal feed auger bulker tanker arena with quality tankers manufactured by TEE under licence to Feldbinder Germany and Warren Manufacturing USA, both leading product specialist companies. 

“As GRW, we have been very successful in the liquid tanker market. However, with the acquisition of TEE, who have over 30 years experience in the local market and with their strong license agreements on dry bulk, this deal now extends our footprint across a broader segment of the market,” says Wentzel van der Merwe, chief financial officer of GRW. 

“Many blue chip clients such as Unitrans and Imperial have always been part of the GRW client family. Through this deal, this family has now grown with the inclusion of companies such as Barloworld Logistics and Haulcon, to mention but a few,” he adds. 

For these clients, the synergies arising from the deal will be welcomed news. Unitrans, for example, runs feed from Epol to the Rainbow Chicken outlets in Worcester. Up to now, the service and back-up facilities for the dry bulk tankers used on this contract were based at TEE’s Aeroton service centre. Unitrans is now offered a back-up facility closer to the operational area of this contract via GRW’s Worcesterbased operation. 

According to Van Der Merwe, GRW will also soon be opening a branch in Cape Town bringing to three the number of outlets it has in the country. The third is in Johannesburg. TEE’s head office and manufacturing plant is also based in Johannesburg. 

Founded in 1996, GRW has been a phenomenal success with huge inroads made not only into the local market but also into overseas markets. This is the company’s first major outside acquisition and based on its past record, the combined operations will grow into a giant on the South African tanker market.