Opportunities on the waters
Forwarder Marinair expanding in sea freight. In conversation with CEO Pavlos Poutos.
Change sustains Greece. Pavlos Poutos, founder and CEO of Piraeus-based Marinair, tells Christian Doepgen all about his growing business.
I’ll start with the question of questions, Mr Poutos – has the war in Ukraine had a big impact on your company?
No, the invasion has only affected us to a very limited extent. Russia and the CIS aren’t big markets for Greek products. Our shippers’ exports go more to the Middle East, the USA, Canada and Latin America, as well as to Europe, of course. Rising prices in the fuel sector, on the other hand, have caused us some problems, however. In Greece we now pay as much for fuel as in the countries of the Benelux region, for example – despite Greece’s much lower purchasing power.
How important are sea freight activities for Marinair?
We’ve offered sea freight services in our portfolio since 2011. These activities have continued unabated for the last two years. We work with all the shipping lines that operate in Greece – Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM, Evergreen, amongst many others.
What proportion of your overall activities do your sea freight services account for?
In the meantime they account for approximately 30% of our overall business. We’ve experienced a lot of demand and are focusing on further growth in the segment.
What about Marinair’s overall portfolio?
Marinair set out in the Greek market fifteen years ago, in 2007. We started in airfreight, and now also cover rail options between Greece and Europe, in addition to our sea transport and freight forwarding services.
How strong is your position internationally?
We’ve run international operations since 2011. We first added forwarding options for India, where we now have four offices. We’ve been present in China (Hong Kong) since 2014. The opening of our Shenzhen office has been delayed again, on account of lockdowns in various regions of China. We hope to be able to commence operations there in May 2022. In 2017 we set up an office for the Benelux region in Amsterdam (Netherlands). We currently have a staff of 23 people in Greece, 34 in India, four people who work in Hong Kong and three in Amsterdam.
How are you coping with the ongoing maritime bottlenecks?
In view of the lack of capacities in the maritime shipping segment, we’ve increasingly turned to combined transport logistics solutions. In addition to Piraeus, which has experienced a significant upswing since the Chinese investments of 2008, Thessaloniki has also scored highly with its good rail connections to the hinterland. The gateway has established itself as a transhipment hub not only for the entire Balkan region, but also for shipments headed for Western European countries via Budapest.
Will this continue?
As an alternative for supply chain routes for European imports and exports, Greece will remain the first European country to permanently assert its role as a gateway on key maritime routes between the Far East, the Middle East and Europe. We’ve reacted to ongoing port congestion by developing new LCL and FCL solutions for the requirements of international corporations, including options from Greece to Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Czechia and Poland.