GLS establishes start-up in Romania

Parcel network in Eastern Europe expanded: GLS Romania went into operation on August 1st. Headquartered in Sibiu, the new subsidiary will be headed by Gabor Szemkeo, Managing Director GLS Europe East. The investment volume amounts to five million euros.

From the very beginning, GLS will be offering a national regular delivery time of 24 hours in Rumania: full-area distribution will be achieved by the hub in Sibiu as well as ten depots in Sibiu, Brasov, Pitesti, Bucuresti (Bucharest), Targu Mures, Cluj Napoca, Baia Mare, Oradea, Timisoara and Deva. The start-up company is linked to GLS’ European network via regular line haul transports to the Austrian hub in Ansfelden and the Hungarian hub in Budapest. “From our European transhipment centre in Neuenstein, Germany, the hub for our international line haul transports, we are able to realise a regular delivery time of 72 hours for Rumanian import parcels”, explains Rico Back, CEO at GLS B.V., Amsterdam.

Following the growth markets

GLS already has experience in establishing start-up companies in growth markets: already a year before its entry into the EU, GLS Hungary was a hundred per cent subsidiary of the GLS Group. In May 2004, GLS Slovakia was launched; in April 2005, GLS Czech Republic began its operations. “We want to be present for our customers in eastern European EU markets to meet the increase in demand”, says Back. “Establishing our own companies has proven to be a successful strategy. We are able to achieve GLS’ high quality objectives in the first few weeks of operations and the break even point usually already in the second year.”

“When sending their goods, it is especially the international companies that insist on short delivery times, mature IT solutions, comprehensive service and the same high quality throughout Europe”, explains Gabor Szemkeo. “And this is something we are able to offer from the very beginning in our new subsidiaries.”

Quality delivered by GLS

General Logistics Systems B.V., Amsterdam (GLS), is a Pan-European company providing reliable, high-quality parcel and express services as well as value-added logistics solutions. The company offers its services through wholly owned and partner companies in 36 European states, and is globally connected via contractual agreements. The GLS system consists of 32 central transhipment points, 655 depots and 12,000 employees. Some 17,800 vehicles are on route moving 311 million parcels annually for 220,000 customers throughout Europe. In the financial year 2006/07, GLS achieved revenues of 1.6 billion euros. GLS stands for “European Leader in Quality“. This is something that everyone working for GLS strives to achieve every day.