Norbert Dentressangle looks outside its home borders


22


Leading French-owned forward- ing and logistics operator Norbert Dentressangle said that its revenues for the first nine months of 2013 had increased - but added that the growth was down to markets outside its home country. Revenue amounted to €2,959 million, up 2% (1.3% on a like-for-like basis and taking into account exchange rates. Logistics revenue rose 7.3% to


€1,409 million, boosted by the integration of the Fiege Italian and Spanish businesses and the start-up of operations outside Europe. Freight Forwarding generated revenues of €94 million; however the recently acquired Daher Group’s freight forwarding businesses in France and Russia will not be included in the group’s figures until 1 October. Executive Board chairman


Hervé Montjotin, said: “In line with expectations, Dentressangle is


But he expected the freight Norbert reporting


an encouraging increase in its business activities for the first nine months of 2013. In particular, our group is taking advantage of its now significant exposure to economies which are growing faster than that of France.”


forwarding business to benefit from the consolidation of Daher’s


French and Russian


freight forwarding businesses from the fourth quarter. Group director of


communication, Thierry Leduc said that there were signs that the modest fall in transport business seen in the first nine months of the year was beginning to reverse towards the end of the third quarter. Full load transport had been flat, he said, mainly because of the weakness of the French manufacturing sector, although volumes on ND’s two pallet offerings were strong as 50% of their business is in the retail sector. ND offers a domestic pallet


service in France, the UK and Spain which, said Leduc, “is doing rather well because industry and


smaller consignments, but more oſten.” The other offering is Red Pallet, the pan-European product which is also doing well. Unlike the services offered by some of the other pallet networks, this is principally an in-house rather than a franchised operation, although ND does work with “carefully selected partners” in some countries. “We certainly plan to add new countries and improve the network – for example in Poland, where we are are already well established in the full load transport sector,” Leduc explained. Having started its forwarding


retailers want


operation from scratch as recently as 2010, Leduc says ND is satisfied with the €220 million turnover already achieved. “We are now focusing on optimising this network and we will now be concentrating on this rather than acquiring more companies,” he says. Office coverage, in China, the UK, South America, Europe and India is more than sufficient and there is no reason why the forwarding sector cannot go on to emulate the transport and logistics sectors in achieving a turnover of around €2


was France, but this has now been rectified with the Daher acquisition, which has also given the group a strong forwarding presence in Russia too. Leduc said that ND welcomed


the postponement of the Ecotaxe, “which was nothing to do with ecology - only a new tax on the French economy.” The group has in fact been one of the most active in France in developing alternative transport solutions including rail services – for example between Spain and Italy - and it also uses rail for some of its pallet deliveries. Now it has created a possibly unique barge-based urban delivery service for central Paris. Around 100 small


convenience stores are served daily by a barge link from a distribution centre in the east of the conurbation up the Seine to a point close to the Eiffel Tower using specialised containers, with trucks covering the last mile to the stores. The system has taken an estimated 4,000 truck movements a year off the roads of the French capital. Similar systems might be


considered for other locations, including possibly London, as well as other large French conurbations


such


billion or so. “Our ambition is to be a top tier player in the supply chain market so we’ll be expanding our geographical presence and widening our service offering, to achieve a size that will allow us to be a first-


rung player. Remember, aſter all, that we started our logistics operations from nothing


1998.” Ironically, the


one


where ND lacked a network of freight forwarding offices


as Lyon, in region


said Leduc. (Supermarket Sainsbury’s did try something similar for London a few years ago but the experiment was dropped.) The Paris scheme has some financial backing from a French government department and there was also assistance from the port of Paris.


Issue 8 2013 Freight Business Journal


///FRANCE


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