GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT

Strategy

The GLOBAL FORWARDING, FREIGHT division is well positioned in the relevant markets thanks to our product offering in air, ocean and road transport. The goal is to achieve steady, organic growth in excess of the market average. To this end, we pursue three approaches:

Bolstering our presence in growth markets

We are fine tuning our network in areas where we see the greatest growth opportunities, particularly in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. 

• In 2009, for instance, we added four countries to our African network and opened 19 new locations in China and our own offices in Pakistan.
• We are also adding transport and charter agreements to our range of services on the expanding trade lanes that connect these regions.
• In our ocean freight business, we are enlarging our tightly woven LCL network, which at present offers approximately 1,000 routes per week.

Creating sector-specific solutions

We develop transport solutions that meet the needs of specific industries. In 2009, these mostly focused on the fashion and apparel, oil and gas, wine and spirits, pharmaceuticals and technology industries.

• Together with industry experts, we have set up competence centres for the fashion and apparel industry in key Asian markets such as India, Vietnam, Cambodia and Hong Kong.
• We maintain similar facilities for the oil and gas industry in Singapore and Houston.

Modernising our infrastructure

We are investing in a networked IT infrastructure and new technologies. We offer customers in the retail sector and consumer goods industry a complete overview of their procurement and ordering processes at every link of the supply chain.

• Based on economic fundamentals, we expect to see growth in intra-Asian traffic and on trade lanes between Asia, the Middle East and Africa as well as between Asia and Latin America. As the market leader, we will participate in this growth by investing in infrastructure and innovation.
• During the economically challenging year of 2009, we convinced small and medium-sized businesses in particular of our competence as a reliable logistics service provider. This enabled us to keep the impact of the recession in check and gain market share. We intend to build on this success in 2010 and make our portfolio of transport products even more attractive to this target group as well as our other customers.
• We also plan to enhance our product offering for certain industry sectors in 2010, particularly for the fashion, oil and energy, perishable goods transport, pharmaceuticals and technology sectors.
• Based on suggestions by customers, business partners and employees, we have introduced a uniform "scorecard" for our branches. Now all teams have direct access to information showing their contribution to the company's overall performance as well as potential areas of improvement. We plan to implement this system in all branches of the Global Forwarding Business Unit by the end of 2010.