‘Big Wheels’ Keep on Turning
For Frigo Group Logistics Clients
Reported by John M. Saulnier

Gerard Hermsen is smiling for good reason, as Frigo Group Logistics has logged a stellar start-up year of operations under his leadership.

With almost a year of on-the-road performance to measure, the wheels of Houten, Holland-based Frigo Group Logistics were turning like clockwork and the transmission was gearing up to cover more territory in 2008.

“In our first nine months of operation, 40 million euros worth of contracts were signed up,” beamed a satisfied Gerard Hermsen, managing director of the Frigo Group BV member company.

It would thus appear that the European logistics specialist is well ahead of schedule to become a 100-million euro operation within the first five years of its existence, as contemplated from the get-go by Mr. Hermsen.
Frigo Group Logistics’ first major client was Lamb Weston/Meijer, which hired it in 2007 to handle the forwarding of frozen potato products from point of manufacture in Holland to wholesalers and distributors in Spain. Distribution to other countries may follow in the early spring.

New business starting up in 2008 includes the distribution of McCain Foods Holland products as well as the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream line in the Netherlands.

How has Frigo Group Logistics moved so quickly out of the starting block to win the confidence of blue chip accounts in such little time?

“First, of course, the Frigo Group has a solid, well established reputation in the cold storage sector,” explained Mr. Hermsen. “Second, we have done it by proving to clients not only why we are worth being paid more than basic transport companies, but also how we can save them substantial money by guaranteeing correct and highly efficient logistics instead of just moving goods from point A to B.”

Reinier van Elderen, a Frigo Group partner and managing director of the Frigo Breda coldstore (one of five in the Holland-Belgium-France network), added: “Our warehouses work very closely with our logistics team to make sure clients’ products reach their destinations on time or ahead of time. This is done, in part, by first meeting face to face with our customer’s customers to determine what their needs are.”

All along the start-finish line of frozen food distribution, truckers engaged by Frigo Logistics – many of whom haul for the company on an exclusive basis – are rolling with GPS systems that provide real time tracking of payloads every kilometer of the way. Furthermore, interactive on-board computer software programs allow a driver or dispatcher to instantaneously chart alternate routes that enable the bypassing of traffic jams or road closures to overcome potentially costly delays.

This March, the company’s independent owner-operator fleet will be joined by two double-trailer LSV trucks spanning 25.5 meters in length. That is almost twice the length of standard-size 13.2-meter trailers.

Look for Frigo Group Logistics to soon supplement its growing activities in the south of Europe with a surge of “Northern Exposure” following the opening of an office in Norway on Feb. 1.

“We aim to offer timely services to the Norwegian fish and seafood sector, which moves vast quantities of salmon, whitefish and king crab throughout the EU,” said Mr. Hermsen. “And still further afield, we hope to assist a leading frozen concentrated orange juice producer from Florida with distribution in Europe.”

From the USA’s “Sunshine State” to Holland, over the Pyrenees into Spain, across to Italy and up to the north country of Norway – Frigo Group Logistics’ big wheels are set to keep on turning big-time in 2008.