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Russia - France
active in the major transcontinental
goods transport corridors. To only
mention a few countries, the United
States, Mexico, South Africa, Algeria,
Greece, Serbia, Australia, Taiwan
and New Zealand are some of the
markets that GEFCO did not cover
until recently.
GEFCO has been established in
Russia for a long time
For 15 years, we have been operating
in Russia, a country that has a huge
growth potential for logistics, with
vast distances to cover and with a
transport infrastructure that is still
developing. Today, GEFCO is present
all over Russia, avec 10 strategic
facilities that are located as close as
possible to our markets. At the
beginning, PSA and General Motors
were our main customers. Then, like
all over the world, we diversified
our portfolio, with leading national
industrial companies in the sectors
of steel, energy, oil, etc. such as
SUEK, Severstal, Gazpromneft, and
Ferronordic Machines. And of course,
international industrial companies
such as the PSA Group, Toyota and
Talgo.
2012 was a pivotal year for the activities
of GEFCO in Russia, with the change
of its main shareholder. Its new
status as a subsidiary of RZD gave
GEFCO a ma j o r c omp e t i t i v e
advantage, and the partnership
with RZD contributes greatly to the
development of the company in the
Russian market and the 1520-gauge
region*. This is particularly precious
to us, with the perspective of the
development of new ‘Silk Roads’
between Asia and Europe.
What are the upcoming challenges
for GEFCO and how do you intend to
tackle them?
We operate in an environment that
is changing very quickly, with new
cus t ome r requ i remen t s , new
geographies of markets, ever-stricter
environmental and corporate social
requirements and general digitization,
which are shaking up our ways of
producing and consuming. These are
all challenges which are also growth
opportunities for GEFCO, and reasons
which have clearly put us on the path
towards innovation.
We have always innovated to find
the best possible solutions for our
customers, and now we are clearly
changing from a culture of responsi-
veness to a culture of anticipation,
to meet the major technological,
corporate social and environmental
challenges.
We have set up a policy of innovation
which is based on three approaches.
The first is the stimulation of the
spirit of innovation. We are setting up
an Innovation Lab in the Company to
develop innovative projects supported
by our 13,000 staff members and
support them in terms of financial
and human resources. We have adopted
a test and learn approach, which
enables us to test technologies such
as the 3D printing of spare parts for
automobiles, using robots to manage
vehicles in a fleet and drones in ware-
houses. Finally, with a slogan such as
Partners, unlimited™, we absolutely
must apply a policy of innovation that
is shared with accelerators, such as
Techstars, with which we have just
signed a major agreement, and
directly with start-ups, research
centres, schools and universities.
Our ambition is to ceaselessly the
push the boundaries of the supply
chain and develop new territories
wh i ch wi l l enab le our f u t ure
growth.
©DR
*The track gauge of the Russian railway network is 1,520 mm. It is used in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia,
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine,
with over 225,000 km of railway tracks.
GEFCO
77 rue des Lilas d'Espagne - 92400 Courbevoie - Tél : +33 1 49 05 21 21
GEFCO manages the multimodal flows of the heavy equipment of Volvo Construction
Equipment and Terex trucks to Russia for the Russian company Ferronordic Machines.
