'Big wheels' keep on turning for Frigo Group
Logistics clients.
by Saulnier, John M.
With almost a year of on-the-road performance to measure, the
wheels of Houten, Holland-based Frigo Group Logistics were turning like
clockwork and the transmission was gearing up to cover more territory in
2008.
"In our first nine months of operation, 40 million euros worth
of contracts were signed up," beamed a satisfied Gerard Hermsen,
managing director of the Frigo Group BV member company.
It would thus appear that the European logistics specialist is well
ahead of schedule to become a 100-million euro operation within the
first five years of its existence, as contemplated from the get-go by
Mr. Hermsen.
Frigo Group Logistics' first major client was Lamb
Weston/Meijer, which hired it in 2007 to handle the forwarding of frozen
potato products from point of manufacture in Holland to wholesalers and
distributors in Spain. Distribution to other countries may follow in the
early spring.
New business starting up in 2008 includes the distribution of
McCain Foods Holland products as well as the Ben & Jerry's ice
cream line in the Netherlands.
How has Frigo Group Logistics moved so quickly out of the starting
block to win the confidence of blue chip accounts in such little time?
"First, of course, the Frigo Group has a solid, well
established reputation in the cold storage sector," explained Mr.
Hermsen. "Second, we have done it by proving to clients not only
why we are worth being paid more than basic transport companies, but
also how we can save them substantial money by guaranteeing correct and
highly efficient logistics instead of just moving goods from point A to
B."
Reinier van Elderen, a Frigo Group partner and managing director of
the Frigo Breda coldstore (one of five in the Holland-Belgium-France
network), added: "Our warehouses work very closely with our
logistics team to make sure clients' products reach their
destinations on time or ahead of time. This is done, in part, by first
meeting face to face with our customer's customers to determine
what their needs are."
All along the start-finish line of frozen food distribution,
truckers engaged by Frigo Logistics--many of whom haul for the company
on an exclusive basis--are rolling with GPS systems that provide real
time tracking of payloads every kilometer of the way. Furthermore,
interactive on-board computer software programs allow a driver or
dispatcher to instantaneously chart alternate routes that enable the
bypassing of traffic jams or road closures to overcome potentially
costly delays.
This March, the company's independent owner-operator fleet
will be joined by two double-trailer LSV trucks spanning 25.5 meters in
length. That is almost twice the length of standard-size 13.2-meter
trailers.
Look for Frigo Group Logistics to soon supplement its growing
activities in the south of Europe with a surge of "Northern
Exposure" following the opening of an office in Norway on Feb. 1.
"We aim to offer timely services to the Norwegian fish and
seafood sector, which moves vast quantities of salmon, whitefish and
king crab throughout the EU," said Mr. Hermsen. "And still
further afield, we hope to assist a leading frozen concentrated orange
juice producer from Florida with distribution in Europe."
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From the USA's "Sunshine State" to Holland, over the
Pyrenees into Spain, across to Italy and up to the north country of
Norway--Frigo Group Logistics' big wheels are set to keep on
turning big-time ha 2008.
COPYRIGHT 2008 E.W. Williams Publications,
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