GRAVELEAU is following its OVERSEAS expansion with the opening of a 10th office in France.

• Strasbourg Destination

With already 9 offices in France (at BORDEAUX (33), PARIS / GOUSSAINVILLE (95), LA VERRIE (85), LE HAVRE (76), LYON / MIONS (69), MARSEILLE / VITROLLES (13), NANTES (44), PAU (64) and TOULOUSE (31)), GRAVELEAU will open, on 2 January 2003, a 10th OVERSEAS’ office in STRASBOURG. “The opening of this new site – tells Vincent Touya, the OVERSEAS’ Manager of the Group – will enable us, thanks to our two products “Masterfly” and “Mastersea” to develop an air and see freight offering alongside the intercontinental logistics service catering to their customers’ supply and distribution needs of the East region of France, by creating a closer commercial relation with them”. Remember that GRAVELEAU has already 5 offices with a road vocation in the EAST region of France (at STRASBOURG (2), MULHOUSE, NANCY and METZ).

• Leading position in Asia

If it is right that the road provisions are dominating in the global turnover of the Group (306 millions in 2001) with a leap forward of 60% during the last three years, the OVERSEAS’ activity has also managed to assert on the world market. Favourite continent : Asia, where GRAVELEAU and the german operator DACHSER – its majority shareholder – are listing among the first freight providers in HONG-KONG, precisely with its own presence in HONG-KONG (since 1991) - and, for DACHSER, with a joint-venture form – and also in HO CHI MINH City (since March 2002). On these markets, the know-how of GRAVELEAU is based on a perfect knowledge of the ground, with regular trips of the teams in most of the asian countries.
If GRAVELEAU is the partner of many industrial branches, the Group has a strong positioning on core business ; import traffics of textile and shoes. “During the last years – carries on Vincent Touya – we have effectively seen a particularly significant development on this market segment, with relocation’s movements in this area”.

• OVERSEAS’ offices in France but also in Belgium, Portugal, Morocco, Tunisia, Hong-Kong and Ho Chi Minh City

With an offer for a long time marketed exclusively from France, GRAVELEAU carries on today, with the goal, which is to put its know-how to the scale of its foreign subsidiaries. In 2001, some OVERSEAS’ offices were created in 3 subsidiaries of the network : Portugal and also Morocco and Tunisia. In the same logic, still in 2001, GRAVELEAU took the control at 100 % of the belgian company BOULANGER Air Freight SA, based in ZAVENTEM in the airport area of BRUSSELS. We have to note that, since 1995, GRAVELEAU was already shareholder of the majority of the road activity capital of the BOULANGER Transports. “This acquisition – precises Vincent Touya – has enabled us to enlarge our intercontinental network, by taking advantage of a significant development basis from Belgium. To accelerate our growth, we are ready to repeat such an operation and we are of course attentive to the acquisition’s opportunities on the market”.

• Strong synergies of development, which result from the union with the german operator DACHSER

GRAVELEAU leans also on the DACHSER’s international network, which has in CHINA – via a joint venture – offices in HONG-KONG and also in SHANGAI, in SCHENZEN and in GUANGZHOU. Remember that DACHSER is also present in the United States with offices in NEW YORK, LOS ANGELES and since 2002, in PHOENIX in the ARIZONA State.
Among the development possibilities, GRAVELEAU bets also on the opening, at the end of September, by DACHSER, of an EURO-HUB in SAARBRUCK, which will be the pivot of the European logistic of the two brands. By allowing a strengthening of the air-export traffics for a direct delivery on Frankfort, the EURO-HUB will be a development’s springboard for all the OVERSEAS’ teams of the network. The EURO-HUB has already a transit agents’ team to fulfil the formalities and the management of 100 to 150 weekly main deck pallets intended to the big export.
It’s also by relying on the commercial and operational synergies of the whole network (155 direct offices in the world) that GRAVELEAU and its 150 OVERSEAS’ collaborators want to give more importance to the international activity of the Group.