Geodis UK start of multimodal solution
French transport group Geodis is consolidating its UK interests under the Geodis UK banner.
A new solutions department geared to serve large logistics partners will also be created, mirroring the structure and working closely with the company’s global logistics operation in France.
“We are establishing a Geodis brand in the UK so we can benefit from the pan-European strength of Geodis, ” said marketing and sales director Robin Parr-Davies.
The 11 major UK sites of its Cavewood, Gordon Leslie and Geodis Overseas businesses will be restructured into multimodal operations as part of Geodis’s new strategy.
They were developed following the closure of its struggling United Distribution parcels operation at the end of January.
“We will have integrated the legal and accounting side by the start of April, ” said ParrDavies.
“Operational integration is continuous and we are currently training our sales force, but the ultimate aim is the creation of a fully multimodal branch network.” The individual brands of the three UK companies will not be discarded, however. “We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, ” he said.
Geodis’s Dublin-based subsidiary Pan European Transport – a groupage and road logistics specialist – will work more closely with Geodis UK and will also be developed into a multimodal operation.
“There will be significant investment in our Dublin operation, particularly in logistics and air services, ” said ParrDavies.
Geodis has also signed a strategic alliance agreement with German forwarder Rohde & Liesenfeld to offer a standardised product worldwide.
Rohde & Liesenfeld, which currently ships around 25,000 tonnes of air freight and just over 1m tonnes of sea freight annually, has an established a presence in the automotive and oil exploration-related sectors.
It has a network of 72 branches in 34 countries and an annual turnover, before customs duties, of €403m.
Geodis, whose major shareholder is French rail operator SNCF, posted a turnover in 2000 of €3.4bn.
