Expansion in southeastern Europe progressing apace
The Albanian capital Tirana is set to serve as a hub and complete the forwarding company’s network of offices in Southeastern Europe.
The Gebrüder Weiss Holding, which is headquartered in Lauterach (Austria), has started the year 2023 with good news – it has opened an office in the Albanian capital Tirana. The family-owned company, which has around 8,000 employees on board at its 180 company-owned locations, and which generates an annual turnover of around EUR 2.5 billion in 2021, is one of Europe’s leading
transport and logistics enterprises.
The new location is intended to consolidate the corporate network in Southeastern Europe and close a geographical gap between Montenegro, Greece and North Macedonia. Albania’s economic prospects for 2023 are quite positive, with economic growth of approximately 3% expected. A free trade agreement with the European Union has been in place since 2009, and the country became an official candidate for membership in 2014. Its most important exports to the EU include clothing, food, iron, steel and various other raw and construction materials.
Good prospects for the new office
“Transports to and from Albania have increased strongly in the past ten years. With our new Tirana office, located in the country’s most important transport hub, we’ll be able to offer customers from industry and trade direct connections to Albania, as well as from there to the EU,” says Thomas Moser, director and regional manager for the Black Sea and the CIS at Gebrüder Weiss.
The plan is to strengthen connections to Albania’s main trading partner, Italy, as well as to neighbouring countries in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Our first step will see us expand an existing groupage line running in both directions between North Macedonia (Skopje) and Albania. New links to Italy are also in the pipeline,” according to Dorina Islami, country manager for Albania at Gebrüder Weiss.