Creating local services
Many a medium-sized forwarder suffered a substantial decline in 2020. Dachser Switzerland, however, managed to keep its sales figure at last year’s level. It believes in opportunities in the Suisse Romande – also on account of the international network.
The distance from Kempten, Dachser’s headquarters in the southern German region of Allgäu, to the Suisse Romande may be a bit further than a stone’s throw. That’s not the point, though – the family-managed firm, established in 1930, has always focused on regional specialisation. The group, which generated sales of more than EUR 5.6 billion in 2020, has expanded extensively in Europe and the world, and has thus been a Societas Europaea (SE) since 2015. Dachser Switzerland, which has been operational since 1967, contributed net sales of CHF 99 million in 2020. This result was roughly on a par with 2019’s – despite the pandemic.
Dachser’s European hubs in the German federal state of Saarland, in Clermont-Ferrand (France) as well as in Bratislava (Slovakia) form the backbone of its pan-continental activities. Every national, regional or local branch office represents an important element of the overall mosaic of the pan-European general cargo network for the large SME Dachser. This also applies to the branch office in the Suisse Romande, as well as to the group’s 68 branches in France, for example.
Services and networks
Dachser’s operational logistics heart in western Switzerland beats in its Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne branch office, where it runs a handling hall and offers about 3,000 m² of warehousing. Its catchment area mainly covers the cantons of Vaud, Genève and Valais. Local director François-Xavier Van Elslande, branch manager, European logistics, lays great store by the personal contacts his employees have with the customers, most of whom are also SMEs. “Our clients include firms from the life sciences, chemicals and mechanical engineering segments,” Van Elslande elaborates.
Besides global airfreight and maritime cargo solutions, Dachser also offers daily road groupage links between Cheseaux and Dachser’s French and Iberian networks. Offices in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, namely in Lyss, Birsfelden and Regensdorf, offer daily departures to Germany and northern and Eastern Europe. By combining direct routes with a hub-and-spokes system, Dachser can offer pan-regional options, including customs clearance options, in North Africa, parts of the Middle East and Europe – in 48 to 72 hours.
Regional manager Van Elslande believes in growing market shares for his firm. “We’ve ascertained plenty of potential demand for an international forwarding specialist such as Dachser in western Switzerland.”
