IJS Global having relocated, to re-focus on India, China and Australia

FOLLOWING the relocation of forwarder IJS Global from Connecticut to Amsterdam, its chief commercial officer Rene de Koning said that restructuring in Asia, and beyond, has made the company "more lean and mean", particularly in sales.

Speaking at the sidelines of the IATA forum in Atlanta to Air Cargo World, Mr de Koning said its development of a purchase order system, ID Visibility, allows for customer access to its shipment from factory to dock, to aircraft and eventually customs alerted by text or email message or a EDI message from its system. It is currently training its sales force at its global offices to sell this on.

"It's actually what you do; everybody can ship a box. But not everyone can make the supply chain," he added.

It has experienced strong growth in Brazil, China and Australia to offset a slackening of demand in shipments in Europe, particularly evident in pharmaceuticals. "We don't lose customers but they tend to do fewer shipments. And what you see is where they had, sometimes, once a month a very large shipment, they now have, once a week, a smaller shipment."

Its Asian customers are reticent to export to countries like France, Netherlands and Germany for fear they will go the way of Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, Mr de Koning said, and a slowdown in projects for its customers from China and Taiwan with warehousing plans postponed.

The shift from air freight to ocean freight has grown, he said, particularly for those able to plan and do a pipeline of ocean freight over a period of 28 days.

However its fashion customers, such as Michael Kors, is increasing demand for shipments out of Asia into Europe and from the US for its store openings. In contrast, demand from big high-tech firms is declining, he said.

Mr de Koning's focus is now BRIC countries with a particular interest in India supported by a forecast of it reaching a certain wealth rate within a five year period.

Mr de Konin said it holds importance on a good team for expansion such as it has in Australia where it sees steady growth. "You can have a strategy about where you want to open up offices, but you can better have a strategy about where you have a good team. They can grow the business."

Mr de Konin's additional role as head of air freight business development at Leipzig/Halle Airport will support a goal to alleviate capacity bottlenecks at western European airports to encourage additional goods from Europe and attract new airlines.

It will focus on the main areas of textiles, pharmaceutical products, perishables and goods associated with the automobile sector. But will also provide services for niche markets like large animal transport and outsize cargo, along with a greater intensification of charter traffic.