GEODIS is a global supply chain operator ranking among the top companies in its field in Europe and the world. Part of SNCF Logistics, which in turn is a business line of the SNCF Group, it is the leading transport and logistics operator in France and is ranked number four in Europe. It has its direct presence in 67 countries and a global network covering over 120 countries.
With its five lines of business (Supply Chain Optimization, Freight Forwarding, Contract Logistics, Distribution & Express and Road Transport), the Levallois-Perret-based company provides end-to-end solutions.
MOTORINDIA caught up with Mr. Martijn Tasma, National Sales Director, GEODIS India, who has the overall responsibility for sales and marketing of GEODIS in the country. During the interview, he affirmed that India is an incredible country with a huge growth potential.
Please tell us about GEODIS’ journey in India so far.
I have been working for over 10 years with the company and with GEODIS India for almost 2 years. We have already forged relationships with big companies at a global level and are allying with them for overcoming their challenges in Indian operations. We have 14 offices throughout the country to support our business. We are relatively a young company having been here for eighteen years now. Going forward, we intend to differentiate ourselves from competition by offering more value to our customers like warehousing, contract logistics and last mile distribution. For example, with the introduction of ‘Final Mile Delivery’ we want to actually offer solutions like combining LTL (Less than Truckload) solutions like freight from different customers in a single full truck and delivering it to the shopping mall rather than providing a full truckload continuously. We want to help our customers save their resources in their supply chain. We would also like to offer value added solutions to them like quality check, labelling, stickering, etc. Apart from that, as a responsible corporate citizen, we also want to conserve the environment by ensuring that the least number of trucks are moving on the roads.
Do you intend to offer a full scope of services in India?
Yes, that is right. We just don’t want to offer this to any customer but to have a strategic structured approach for our solutions in India. So we will be focussing on specific verticals like Fashion and Lifestyle, Industrial and Automotive for now. When you talk specifically about automotive, we offer aftermarket solutions to one of the Europe based biggest global names in OEMs (both trucks and cars) in India. We offer solutions to them specifically for their market segment and based on the requirements. However we are extending our services to other major OEMs in automotive sector.
How do you really differentiate among your peers? What are your company’s key USPs?
When you look at the automotive market in India, we are able to do more than our peers because we have the capabilities for a global supply chain fulfilment. The requirements for automotive clients are not just linked to JIT solutions. They are looking for Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) solutions apart from a secured and safe supply chain. We can offer solutions for a complete supply chain, which includes door-to-door freight, warehousing, trucking, value-added services and customised solutions.
Do you have your own fleet of vehicles?
We are an asset-light organisation. As per our business model, we have long-term contracts with various qualified operators and vendors as per our global quality standards and policies. These all performs various tasks in the supply chain as per GEODIS standards and requirements including in global freight, local transportation and warehousing services.
How important is the Indian market for you?
Globally, we are amongst the top ten service providers of supply chain solutions. In India also, we figure among the top five players and are continuously growing much ahead to the industry average on a yearly basis. We have our ‘Ambition 2018’ strategy wherein we have earmarked four countries where we will grow our business and India features prominently in that. That implies that investments and strategies of GEODIS are very much linked to India as it is one of the future growth destinations for us. Also with the GST role out in the offing, we do believe that for companies like us there is a huge potential for growth in the coming years.
What are the growth drivers that will propel your company and the logistics industry per se?
India is an incredible country and there are several growth drivers, including largest consumer base, one of the largest economies and top of line growth rate. For us, we see everywhere there is a requirement of providing logistics and supply chain services – right from the consumer goods and automotive to a highly customised b2b market like infrastructure development. These all makes a potential customer base for us. For example, when we talk about infrastructure logistics, we have a specific division for industrial projects that helps the global companies to transport and deliver odd dimensional cargo, even factories and other infrastructure equipment.
Now with many multi-national companies in consumer, automotive, telecom and other sectors which are coming to India because of the immense potentialities, it will give us good opportunities for international and domestic transportation, contract logistics, warehousing and value-added services that we are capable of and offering in India. Secondly, we believe that GST is going to entirely change the shape the way goods are being delivered in India. GST will help to have a single overall tax throughout the country which will make it even easier for overseas companies to come to India.
So we can leverage on this like a double layered programme – the government is all set to make India a manufacturing hub with initiatives like “Make in India” which will give boost to export as well as the domestic consumption. So the first step is to ensure that companies are able to start growing here. With the huge consumer base and rise in the disposable income of the customers (like in China) it will be an ideal opportunity to the organisations which already have India on their growth plan. It will then be a more interesting trend for companies to start selling and investing here in India than ever before.
Will your ‘Last Mile Delivery’ strategy be a game-changer for you?
We believe that this will be a game-changer not only for us but for the entire industry. As we see at present, most of the fashion and lifestyle customers have a full truck delivery on a daily basis to their stores. Unfortunately, most of the trucks are nearly empty. What we would like to accomplish is that we will pick the cargo from customers’ warehouses in the morning and bring them into a particular location. We will combine everything into a one full truck using our cross docking solutions and deliver them to the final destination. So by reducing the number of trucks, we are able to better optimise the supply chain and reduce the cost apart from conserving the environment in a big way.
What kind of green trucks are you utilizing for this strategy? Are they customized for the Indian market?
We have developed this innovative concept in transit logistics in many countries. We have done such projects in China, Mexico, France, etc., for the betterment of the environment. For example, we have deployed fully-electric trucks for picking goods from the warehouse and delivering them to the final destination in these countries. We aspire to do something similar here. So we have been already talking to various channel partners on this front and think that we can do it in the future. At present, we have taken the baby steps by deploying trucks which are the most environment-friendly (CNG-run) in the country. These 17-feet side-opening vehicles, where cross-docking can be done easily, are deployed as per our globally defined parameters. Once we successfully implement this in Delhi/NCR region, we will introduce this concept in other parts of the country like Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Calcutta, etc. We continue to innovate in this direction and will consider deploying vehicles which would be the best for the environment.
What is GEODIS’ global sales turnover and how much does India account for out of the total pie? Could you also share your vision for the company?
GEODIS is a part of SNCF Logistics, which in turn is a business line of the SNCF Group, is the number one Transport and Logistics operator in France and ranked number four in Europe. Transport and Logistics branch (GEODIS) produces an 8 billion euros with the SNCF Group turnover of 31.4 billion including last year’s acquisition of OHL (2015 figures). With our five Lines of Business (Supply Chain Optimization, Freight Forwarding, Contract Logistics, Distribution & Express and Road Transport), we manage our customers Supply Chain by providing end-to-end solutions enabled by our people, our infrastructure, processes and systems.
In India, we are anticipating a 15-20% CAGR for GEODIS over the next few years. Our vision is to be the growth partner of our customers by overcoming their logistical constraints. Our aim is to deliver the best service to our customers, whether this be ‘out of the box solutions’ or tailor-made ones to customer requirements. We want our company to be seen as a company which is offering the most innovative ideas to our customers. Of course, our customers will be the ones to judge it, but if we can achieve that in the next three to four years, we think we would have significantly contributed the way India moves its goods – from a transportation service provider to be a strategic partner in their supply chain and consequently in their growth.