Top Logistics Firms honored at the 2006 Frost & Sullivan ASEAN 4 Logistics Awards

Singapore, July 20, 2006 – Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting firm today honored top logistics firms in five major sectors from Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand at its ASEAN 4 Logistics Awards based on a Voice of the Customer research. Sectors included are automotive, pharmaceutical, retail, fast moving consumer goods and IT/electronics.

“Logistics service providers which secured the highest ratings for their performance and capability from customers in a particular industry sector were named winners,” says Kavan Mukhtyar, Director of Transportation, Asia Pacific at Frost & Sullivan.

“In determining the winner, it is not the size of the company that matters, but rather the quality of service in meeting its customers’ expectation that is important,” he says.

He adds that the award recipients were judged by 25 evaluation parameters which include the range of services provided, industry expertise, speed and consistency of service, warehouse facilities, level of integration of supply chain and end-to-end process data capturing and sharing, among others.

Mr. Mukhtyar says that from the research, about 41% of the end-users surveyed are satisfied with the overall quality of service provided by the logistics service providers.

“Of these, about 16% of end-users are very satisfied,” he says, adding that about 38% of end-users are satisfied with the international network reach of their logistics service providers while 35% are satisfied with the logistics service provider’s commitment to customer needs.

He also says that about 43% of the end-users surveyed are satisfied with the data accuracy in the information service of their logistics service providers.

He adds that overall, quality and consistency of services are the main criteria that end-users look at in selecting their logistics service providers in ASEAN 4 while in Singapore, speed and consistency of service are important.

Mr. Mukhtyar also highlights that based on the research, award recipients performed satisfactorily on the range of services given, industry expertise, and infrastructure. However, most customers were not satisfied on the consistency of service quality, cost, and complaints handling by logistics service provider.

“End-users are generally satisfied with their logistics service providers but they expect further improvement,” he adds.

Mr. Mukhtyar says that functions like packing, labelling and quality assurance are likely to be outsourced more in the future.

“Logistics service providers should develop greater expertise in specialized services like order processing, transaction management, and quality assurance,” he says, adding that transportation has the highest potential to be outsourced.

He says that logistics service providers need to gain expertise in advanced transportation systems and fleet management.

Mr. Mukhtyar, who was instrumental in introducing the Logistics Awards in Asia says that the outsourced logistics market in ASEAN is expected to grow 9.9 per cent to USD14.8 billion this year from USD 13.5 billion in 2005.

The outsourced logistics market in 2005 represents about 37.5 per cent of the total logistics market, which includes the spending on logistics managed in-house by the companies.

He adds that the outsourced logistics market is expected to experience a growth of 10.2 percent in 2007 reaching a revenue figure USD 16.4 billion.

In Singapore, the outsourced logistics market is expected to grow 8 percent to USD2.4 billion this year from USD2.2 billion last year, he says.

Mr. Mukhtyar also says that the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is considered to be a strategic hub for the fast growing trade of Asia with the rest of the world, due to its geographic location.

“Apart from having highly potential growth prospects for both manufacturing and consumption of products within its own countries, ASEAN is emerging as the most preferred trade junction for As