Murray Grindrod: Doyen of shipping
MURRAY Grindrod, who has died at the age of 79, was the doyen of the local shipping industry and a Springbok golfer.
He was the chairman of the South African shipping and freight group Grindrod for 21 years and retired in 2007. He was with the group for 50 years.
He was the grandson of the man who founded the group in 1910, Captain John Grindrod. His father, Walter Grindrod, ran African Coasters, and Murray showed an early interest in ships and shipping, frequently accompanying his father to the docks as a boy.
Born in Durban on November 11 1935, he attended Hilton College and read engineering at Cambridge University in the UK, where he captained the university golf team.
In 1960 he won his South African colours. He represented the country in golf three times.
In 1957 he joined Grindrod Gersigny, the managing agents for African Coasters.
His father insisted he learn the industry from the bottom up and sent him down to Maydon Wharf in Durban to work as a tally clerk.
Wharfside, Grindrod was involved in the hiring of personnel, stevedoring and general ship husbandry.
He went to sea to experience what life was like aboard the old coasters for the deck officers, engineers and crew who earned the company’s revenue.
This stood him in good stead when he became a senior executive and then the boss.
His care for his staff’s wellbeing and his ability to talk knowledgeably to those on board his ships earned him respect and loyalty.
In 1960 he was appointed alternate director to his father.
When African Coasters needed an urgent capital injection to replace its ageing fleet, Grindrod persuaded his father of the need to seek finance elsewhere.
He led the team that secured financing from the mining house Union Corporation, paving the way for the modernisation of the fleet, its subsequent takeover of arch rival Smith’s Coasters and Thesen’s Steamship Company and the
CAPTAIN OF THE SHIP: Murray Grindrod and longtime colleague Ivan Clark formation of Unicorn Lines, a household name in local shipping.
While still in his early 30s, he was invited to serve on the transport advisory committee of the Department of Transport and was later the president of the South African Shipowners’ Association.
He led the acquisition of the majority shareholding from Union Corporation’s successor, Gencor, in 1986 and listed the group in the same year with himself as the chairman.
In 1998 he sent two top executives, the future chairman Ivan Clark and current CEO Alan Olivier, to Athens to negotiate the purchase of Safmarine’s 40% shareholding in Unicorn. This gave Grindrod full control and his company became the leading shipowner in South Africa with extensive coastal and international tanker operations.
In 1999, Grindrod moved into ship chartering with the acquisition of Island View Shipping from Tiger Oats. The price tag was R15-million, which was a steal, but at the height of the Asian financial crisis and the collapse of the shipping market it seemed exorbitant. It was a bold move and typically farsighted.
When there was a surge in bulk shipping from 2003, the group was perfectly positioned to make the most of it and Island View Shipping became a lucrative source of revenue.
Grindrod stepped down as chairman of Unicorn in 1999.
Under him the group had expanded its operations into port terminals, ships’ agency operations, investments in railways, vehicle transporting and a bank.
Grindrod was a quiet, almost shy, man. He did not say much but what he did say was carefully thought through and unambiguous.
He was not the life and soul of any party and difficult to draw out. Even the legendary and voluble shipping editor of the Cape Times, George Young, found it an ordeal to have a conversation with him. Grindrod, he said, was one of the most difficult people he ever interviewed.
Occasionally he would make a jovial remark, always carefully considered and usually profound.
Grindrod did talk to his employees. At all levels. Having done many of the jobs they were doing, he spoke to them from a position of knowledge and was genuinely interested in what they had to say.
He took a keen interest in the state of his ships.
He wanted constant assurances that they were well maintained, safe and seaworthy. He spared no expense when it came to this.
When the company was building ships in Durban, he frequently went down to the shipyards to check on progress.
He even went to Poland at the height of a particularly cold winter to check up on ships that were being built there for the company.
For him, as an engineer, this did not mean talking to some manager in a warm office. It meant going down to the yards, clambering over the scaffolding and interrogating the welders and electricians.
When the ships were built, he asked for a thorough tour.
And he went everywhere. Into the galley, where he spoke to the cook, up to the bridge where he made sure the ship’s master was happy and down to the engine room where he quizzed the engineers.
He showed an intelligent interest in every aspect.
He was always polite, never spoke down to anyone and inspired great respect and loyalty.
He was as unostentatious in his dress and lifestyle as he was socially.
It was said he rarely bought a new car. He drove top-of-theline Mercedes-Benzes, but they were second-hand. When he was chairman of Grindrod, his wife drove an ordinary Golf.
He is survived by his wife, Pauli, and four children. — Chris Barron