Dubai, 25th March 2010
In the first of three service developments this year in the United Arab Emirates, global forwarder and logistics services provider Geodis Wilson has opened a new airfreight office in Dubai to support increasing demand for this service mode as well as its advancing sea-air product.
Based in Dubai’s busy Cargo Village, the new office will employ 22 people under the direction of Geodis Wilson UAE LLC Managing Director Sascha Geiken, allowing a previous combined office and warehouse, situated close by, to focus entirely on warehousing accommodation.
“Our pace of growth meant that we no longer had any spare capacity in the old office/warehouse, and as our business is increasing, particularly with Geodis Wilson’s sea-air product, further warehousing space became essential in order to meet our customers’ requirements,” explained Mr Geiken.
The new facility will handle freight from up to ten inbound flights daily – mainly from Europe and the Far East – as well as sea-air cargo originating as ocean freight from the Geodis Wilson network in the Far East, which is switched from the nearby Jebel Ali port to air cargo on Dubai flights bound for European destinations. The new office will also be involved in customs clearance, general forwarding, supply chain management, warehousing and customs clearance activities.
Geodis Wilson, which is ranked among Dubai’s top ten forwarders, employs a total of 70 people in the Emirate and has its regional headquarters at nearby Jebel Ali, where ocean freight activities are also carried out.
The company is bucking the trend as many competitors in Dubai are forced to reduce their organisations due to the economic situation. “We pride ourselves in having a personalised service offering, which our customers appreciate, and it is this focus on relationships that has led to our success, supported of course, by the global Geodis Wilson network,” added Mr Geiken. “In fact, we are in the unlikely, but enviable situation of having to recruit staff.”
Early indications suggest that Geodis Wilson’s year-on-year activity in Dubai is currently growing at more than 10 per cent across all modes. There is particular strength in the sea-air business, which allows shippers to save on the cost of a total airfreight movement from the Far East to Europe, while offering substantial transit time savings over an end-to-end ocean freight movement. Sea-air demand is particularly strong from the textile and hi-tech sectors.
The second significant milestone for Geodis Wilson in the UAE will be the opening of an Abu Dhabi office during the second quarter. Within this region, the company also has offices in Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Later this year, a third landmark event will be the opening of a new regional headquarters in Jebel Ali.
ENDS
About Geodis Wilson and the Geodis Group
Geodis Wilson is a leading global freight management company. With 5,500 employees in more than 50 countries the company delivers tailor-made, integrated solutions to customers enabling them to operate as ‘best in class.’ Geodis Wilson manages cargo across five continents by sea and air, making supply chains transparent and flexible to manage. As the freight forwarding element of the Geodis Group, Geodis Wilson grew out of the merger of Geodis Overseas, TNT Freight Management and Rohde & Liesenfeld.
In 2008 the Geodis group became part of the French rail and freight group SNCF. With its 50.000 employees in 120 countries ‘SNCF GEODIS’ ranks among the top six companies in its field in the world, is no.4 in Europe and no. 1 in France.
In Denmark, Geodis Wilson is ranked within the top three freight forwarders with an annual turnover of EUR 115 million. 210 employees specialize in its core services, sea and airfreight, express services, niche markets, aid & relief, furniture logistics, charter operations, aviation and marine logistics. Geodis Wilson Denmark provides customers with transparent and easy to manage supply chains, thus enabling our customers to be best in class.