Fortec licencees
It's been a while in coming but Fortec says its pallet service to Europe brings a genuinely new service to the export market as well as to the network's members.
Fortec, the pallet network owned by French giant Geodis, was launching its new pan-European link to its licensees at a conference on Wednesday this week. Managing director Rod Abrahams, speaking to Motor Transport in advance of the conference, said the Fortexport service will be unique in offering daily departures plus guaranteed delivery times, for example: 48 hours to Germany, Benelux and the northern half of France; 72 hours to the rest of France and parts of Italy. Fortexport may be a day or two slower than an express service, but it costs the end user a lot less money and gives a guaranteed service, with web-based track and trace and on-line PoDs; hard-copy PoDs are available within four days at most. Abrahams says his customers are his 52 licencees, only four of which are group depots (Glasgow, Warrington, Rugby and High Wycombe). He is trying to "educate" his licencees to switch from using forwarders to using the value-added Fortexport service and also to sell positively to their existing customers. That is the best potential market of all, before new customers are targeted, he says. He recalls that when he launched Target's international service he used the same approach; the 16-tonner that started the truck service in 1997 was making money by the end of the first week, with no additional salesmen employed. Fortec licensees will be urged to publish a tariff, with rates varying according to input. Abrahams says that the pallet sector also needs to educate customers to switch some traffic that is currently moving through parcels networks. Fortec is currently handling around 2,200 pallets a night – a true figure, Abrahams says, as if to suggest that some of his rivals' figures suffer from PR inflation.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Reed Business Information Ltd.
Geodis opens up; European front.(Eurofirst)
Motor Transport, p 24 03-24-2005
French giant launches pan-European freight plan in London and announces new profit targets. International dimension to benefit Fortec network members and customers.
Geodis is to launch a new European groupage servicecalled Eurofirst next month, providing customers with online tracking, PoDs and quality reports. The service will initially cover ten countries, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal and Spain; a further 15 countries will be added at the end of the year. Geodis launched the Eurofirst product at its annual results presentation in London last Friday. The main groupage business in the UK goes live with Eurofirst in April and the pallet network, Fortec, is expected to plug into the system in May. This should prove a major benefit for Fortec member companies and their customers, says managing director Rod Abrahams. Geodis reported an increase in gross operating profit of 11% to c148.1m (pounds sterling)103m). Operating profit increased by 34% to c82.4m ((pounds sterling)57m). The French group, 45.1% owned by SNCF and looking for more French shareholders, aims to increase operating profit by 30% to more than c100m by 2007. "We will do this organically, we won't be making any big acquisitions because we would rather keep our money to reduce debt," says chairman and chief executive Pierre Blayau. "We want to proceed as a managing vendor company, as we believe that is the way forward. We want to offer global solutions, to work in partnership with our customers, and engineer their supply chains to meet their needs." Blayau adds that the company will become more involved in reverse logistics and has signed a joint venture partnership with SITA for recycling products. Geodis UK reported a turnover of (pounds sterling)70m in 2004 but it is still not profitable. "The exchange rate was a huge handicap for us last year," he says. UK managing director Jamie Cuthbert says its Fortec pallet network is performing well, meeting its 20% growth target over the last three years, and is moving 2,500 pallets a night. He says the network will focus on quality rather than growth.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Reed Business Information Ltd.
