Interview with Xavier Urbain, President of Hays Logistics
Last year you announced big changes at Hays Logistics. What has happened since then?
In 2000 we launched our activities in Poland and developed them extremely quickly from the start, with a 30% growth rate per year.
We have totally restructured operations in Germany
— and things look very promising there as well. We have appointed Andreas Thier as the new head, and he is currently working on evolving a more dynamic approach in Hays' activities in Germany.
We have also entered the market in Greece, and we have considerably developed our activities in Italy
and Spain. Vc had virtually nothing in Spain about two years ago and today we make an annual turnover of approximately FRF 300 million (EUR 45.7 million) there – and this is exclusively from internal growth. without any acquisitions.
So the developments are quite remarkable — a lot of new major customers have joined us.
Are you planning to expand further in Europe, for example to the east?
We will continue strengthening our activities in the major countries. These are the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the Benelux countries. We will push ahead with our business activities in countries which only entered a short time ago, primarily Poland and Greece.
Once we have accomplished this, we will expand to other countries. This is partly in response to our customers’ requests to keep up with the development of their activities in Europe. but partly also because we may perhaps be able to acquire the odd company in certain countries where we have not vet entered the market.
But there are countries that we do not intend to enter for the time being, because we are not in a hurry, and because we do not see them as relevant to our strategy. We have no desire to he the biggest everywhere, running the risk of’ not accomplishing anything in the end.
After all, what does it really mean, to be the biggest? It means nothing at all — it is complete nonsense. We want to have the same high level of competence. service quality and vision in every country. We want to implement complex outsourcing projects everywhere we go.
We want to be able to create added value everywhere and be flexible enough to improve supply chains which have not yet been optirnised.To make it absolutely clear: we do not want to be the biggest, but we do want to he the best as far as professionalism goes. You do need a certain size to accomplish this, but size is not the only factor. Our competitors often say: we earn a turnover of EUR 2, 3. 4 billion in Europe…
But if they make 80% in one country and the remaining 20% in the rest of Europe, this statement is not
worth much. Ihe LL hardly exists for them vet. Others say: we are very European. But all they have done is buy up a whole series of companies which they have so far failed to integrate.
It is certainly true that they can show respectable figures for Europe on paper. figures which are higher than ours, hut these firms still have to be integrated, and Europe does not vet exist for them. It is only a patchwork quilt, a jigsaw puzzle that still needs to be organised and structured. We on the other hand want a thorough-going Hays logistics concept, which is clear, precise, reviewable and comprehensible for our customers – and we expect it to apply for the whole of Europe.
Last year you also reorganised Hays Logistics in Europe vertically. Has that been a success?
This is working very, very well. We have worked out a special scheme in this context. First of all, there is the level of countries where the operational organisation is handled, and then there are the cross-border key sectors. We focus on four fields of activity: retail: automobiles,
—.—–
including spare parts: techn ology, with all cell phone
sumers, with the services for the consumer goods industry. These are the four segments we are concentrating on and which Hays Logistics feels are strategic.
This does not mean that we would not be in a position to grab the chance of selling electronic components if it came up tomorrow, but this is not a strategic axis. Behind this concept is the logic of what we call <
What made you decide to divide things up in this way? Is it due to something specific to this sector?
We have made an analysis that shows that each segment of our activities needs slightly different supply chain solutions. I would not say that the means are very different, hut there are idiosyncrasies. The retail trade for example cannot be compared with the automobile sector. with cell phones or electronic components. We have endeavoured to find the right people, who arc familiar with a certain segment and have the appropriate competence. This is ver important. The people are always the decisive factor.
But you have added other activities as well?
In the meantime we have extended our logistics activities by adding two more branches.
The first one is information technology with areas that we have acquired: we employ a total of about 400 people in this field now.
Moreover, we have been set ting up and developing a consulting division since June 2000. We have a staff of roughly 100 consultants in this field, who are dealing exclusively with supply chain solutions.
So at the top of the pvramid we have the four areas of our activities with the focal accounts of the major customers. Below that we have the operational side of these segments in the individual countries.
On a more schematic note it could be said that H lays I ogistics resembles a tripod: one leg is represented by the third-party activities by country, the second by information technology. and the third by consulting activities. IT and consulting are pan-European. This matrix with its horizontal and vertical dimensions works very well.
