Europa on song with Benelux expansion
Europa Worldwide Services has opened a £1.7m (€2.8m) hub in Brussels, enabling it to guarantee exporters to Belgium and the Netherlands next-day delivery.
A 7,000-pallet transit warehouse will be used principally by exporters and importers trading consumer goods in the Benelux countries, Italy, Spain and the UK.
Logistics services include pick-and-pack, order preparation, packing, labelling for the fashion trade and inventory management.
“We expect volumes in excess of 200,000 tonnes a year – half in distribution, half in logistics, ” said manager Gerry Miss. He predicted take-up from a wide cross-section of industry, including the electronics, entertainment, fashion, pharmaceuticals and healthcare sectors.
Music distribution is an increasingly important niche for Europa, which now consolidates CDs and DVDs from Dutch, German, French, Swedish, Italian and UK manufacturers every Friday ready for the US market. “This business is now worth £1m (€1.6m) a year to us, ” said MD Malcolm Smith.
Traffic is strongly seasonal, but 12 or 13 tonnes typically goes via Virgin services to consignees in New York and Miami.
Europa also books regular space to Philadelphia with US Airways.
The company is also expanding its books operation. “We have carried them for many years, but have now transferred our hub from Swindon to London to cater for the growth of this market, ” said Smith.
“We now handle 1,000 tonnes a year. The dead weight sets off our high-cube traffic.” In January, the company won a contract from La Poste to take parcels and mail from UK remail houses and large business suppliers to Charles de Gaulle airport for onward distribution across France.
Two dedicated trailers a day serve La Poste and Europa also undertakes daily road movements for other European post offices.
Meanwhile Europa is investing £2m (€3.2m) to harmonise computer systems across all its operating divisions. Export processing is now fully integrated and imports will follow by June.
Smith said the company’s road operation would be fully online by the end of the summer.
Posted: 22/04/2002
