Trina Solar has opened its first warehouse in the Republic of South Africa. The warehouse, which is located in Pretoria, is the next logical step for the company in entrenching its local footprint and providing improved service and greater support to its South African customer base.

Trina Solar entered the South African market three years ago, importing stock for local clients on a container basis. "This method has allowed us to provide support to customers who can wait for the shipment," says Ben Hill, Head of Europe and Africa.

"With a local warehouse and distribution centre, our country wide team will be able to provide faster deliveries to customers as we will now be able to have quantities readily available."

This is an important step in cementing Trina Solar's South African presence, which already counts with a local office in Johannesburg and a sales and marketing team in place, and the Company will be able to service both current and potential clients on a more targeted basis.

The investment will also allow for enhanced collection and delivery processes as customers will be given the option of collecting stock themselves, or having it delivered directly to their own sites.

"We chose to locate the warehouse in Pretoria in order to solidify our partnership with a local logistics company that runs a fully integrated service organisation from port to supplier and that was well established in the country. In addition to the distribution centre in Pretoria we are able to leverage our suppliers satellite warehouse operations in Durban and Cape Town for direct deliveries in these areas or cross-dock to other African counties" explains Hill.

South Africa is an exciting market for Trina Solar.

With the cost of energy increasing at the same pace as the reduction in the cost of solar, the latter is becoming an increasingly viable option and not only for commercial users. To this end, Hill anticipates double-digit growth in the African market over the next five to 10 years.

Trina Solar is ideally placed to take advantage of the opportunities present on the continent, with the company manufacturing the best solar modules on the market at a competitive manufacturing cost. It is also one of world's largest manufacturers of crystalline solar modules and was recently awarded the PV Quality Award for considerably reducing waste.