News 2-2008 E NEU:News 2/05.2 - Panopa

10 I M P E R I A L R E E D E R E I
Imperial Reederei Group Extends Business on
the Danube – Multinaut Donaulogistik GmbH is
the New Partner in Austria
Multinaut Donaulogistik is the
youngest member of the
large family of the Imperial
Reederei Group. As a typical chartering
company in inland waterway transport,
Multinaut organises transports –
mainly on the Danube – and renders
also freight forwarding services before
and after the ship transport. Handling
of goods and commodities itself is also
a part of the Austrian company's portfolio.
The company was founded in Vienna
in 1995. At this time, Multinaut was
the first enterprise to transport goods
from South-East and Central Europe to
the ARA-harbours (Antwerp, Rotter -
dam, and Amsterdam) at the North Sea
with privately owned barges and
motor barges. Today, Multinaut has 15
of its own ships and also a number of
privately owned ships. “Our fleet ranges
from small, 600-ton ships with a load
volume of less than 1,000 cubic metres
right up to large ships with a loadbearing
capacity of more than 2,000
tons and a load volume of more than
3,500 cubic metres”, explains man -
aging director Peter Jedlicka. For industrial
companies, trade houses, plant
constructors, breweries and freight forwarders,
Multinaut moves about
300,000 tons a year. Raw materials,
agricultural goods, feed, fertilisers as
well as coils or even gener ators are
amongst the most frequent products
transported by Multinaut.
Imperial News 2/2008
Retroactive to 1st July 2008, the Imperial Reederei Group has acquired 75 per cent of the shares
in the Austrian inland waterway transport enterprise Multinaut Donaulogistik GmbH.
Karl-Heinz Bellmer, Chief Executive Officer of the Imperial Reederei Group, says: “This is the
first step towards our target of increasing our activities on the Danube.”
Karl-Heinz Bellmer, CEO of the
Imperial Reederei Group
Peter Jedlicka, managing director of
Multinaut
By purchasing Multinaut, the Imperial
Reederei Group is distinctly enlarg ing
its range on the Danube. A total of 30
further inland barges will be on the
waterways of Europe for the Reederei
Group. And the Austrians also profit
from the new partner quite distinctly:
the Imperial Reederei Group is runn -
ing an internet-based ship and consign -
ment exchange, to which only the en -
terprises in this group have access.
The locations of all the barges and the
free load capacities can be seen and
processed with this software at any
time by all the subsidiaries.
As the managing director, Peter
Jedlicka, the previous sole owner of
Multi naut, will continue to pull all the
strings of Multinaut in Vienna. “Mr
Jedlicka and his employees know the
business and the peculiarities of the
Danube and the customers”, Bellmer
confirms. He adds that Mr Jedlicka
was predestined to further extend the
business on the Danube with the
financial support of the Imperial
Reederei Group as a result of his experience
and knowledge. Peter Jedlicka
adds: “With a strong partner like the
Reederei Group, we can im plement a
lot more ideas and projects than up to
now. This is a considerable advantage.
And together, we have a lot of ideas.”
Above all, these ideas re volve round
the extension of transports on the
Danube. Especially, the lower Danube
and its seaport of Kons tanza will noticeably
gain influence in the coming
years – a fact from which the Imperial
Reederei Group can now profit
together with Multinaut. Amongst
others, Multinaut will be working very
closely with Donau logistik GmbH, a
further subsidiary of the Reederei
Group, in the future.
“With an annual transport volume of
55 million tons and a turnover of 400
million Euros per year, we are already
the largest inland water transport company
in Western Europe. Now, we also
wish to grow further in Eastern
Europe”, Karl-Heinz Bellmer explains
the corporate strategy of the Imperial
Reederei Group.