S - Geis Group

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9
Eastwards expansion continues
The Geis Group is continuing to gradually expand its East-West traffic, with customers being
the main beneficiaries. Below is an interview with Geis Managing Director Klaus Stäblein about the
network in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and the strategy of the Geis Group.
Klaus Stäblein,
Managing director
Hans geis gmbH + co
mr stäblein, the geis group claims
to provide also full-coverage transport logistics
in cee countries. how do you manage to
do this?
Klaus Stäblein: It‘s all in the mix. First of all, the
Geis Group has its own full-coverage networks in
the Czech Republic and Slovakia. With 13 sites
in the Czech Republic, Geis CZ covers the entire
country, while Slovakia is covered by the 7 sites of
our local subsidiary TEN Expres. Secondly, we use
strong local partners. Thanks to this setup, we can
choose the best partner for each country - to the benefit
of Geis customers.
Which benefits and services are offered
to Geis customers with respect to traffic to
central and eastern europe
Klaus Stäblein: We offer daily services to all the
countries of Central and Eastern Europe, with defined
delivery times directly from our German sites
and via our CEE gateway in Nuremberg. This applies
in relation to both cargo and groupage freight,
as well for direct journeys, express journeys and parcel
shipments. In total, there are 75 regular services
each week from Nuremberg to the CEE countries.
The important thing for many customers is to be
kept constantly informed about the current status of
their shipment. In Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech
Republic, Bulgaria, and the Baltic countries we offer
systematic Tracking & Tracing. IT integration on
the basis of EDIFACT/IFTMIN is also possible.
are these services available in the opposite
direction as well?
Klaus Stäblein: Yes they are. We not only distribute
goods in these countries but also organize the procurement
logistics for goods being sent to Western
Europe. As a result, the customer has just one service
provider and one central contact for incoming
and outgoing goods. Combining procurement and
distribution is sound practice – we, for example, take
care of all the transport logistics for the Schaeffler
Group on the west-east axis route (see article on
page 10).
what role do the geis companies
in the czech republic and slovakia play in this?
Klaus Stäblein: They enable us to offer our customers
more extensive logistics services.
what does that mean exactly?
Klaus Stäblein: It means that we can offer customers
the full range of services we offer them in Germany,
including contract logistics projects for local
customers as well as national and international procurement
and distribution. One example is the new
Eastern Europe Central Warehouse for Husqvarna
in the east of the Czech Republic (see page 12). This
is where we warehouse and distribute Husqvarna
goods throughout the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
are there also customers who use the
geis group for their transport logistics from
eastern europe to germany?
Klaus Stäblein: Yes, and their numbers are in-
creasing. For example, at the beginning of the year
we took on a project for fittings manufacturer VAG,
which is based in Mannheim. The Czech company
JMA, based in Hodonin, is a subsidiary of the VAG
Group. JMA manufactures fittings for water management,
e.g. hydrants, sliders and valves. Geis CZ
is now responsible for distributing their products
across Europe. The most important market for the
company is Germany, and accordingly, just for this
customer we have established a new daily service
between our Rajhrad logistics centre near Brno and
Nuremberg, enabling us to offer a 48-hour delivery
service throughout Germany, and a 24-hour service
in Austria. The project also makes full use of our
direct services via our Czech network to Slovakia,
Poland, Hungary, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland.
Thank you very much for your time!