Netherlands: Eimskip Reefer Logistics shifts focus to fruit and vegetable industry

Eimskip established itself in the last 99 years as the oldest shipping company in Iceland. The logistic service provider has its own offices in seventeen different countries now, as well as agencies in several strategic locations. Peter van der Woude (general manager) and Martijn van der Velden (sales) concern themselves with the Eimskip Reefer Logistics unit from the Rotterdam office located at the Waalhaven. "Traditionally we are mainly specialised in seafood, but we have taken to fruit and vegetables like fish to water!"

Martijn van der Velden and Peter van der Woude

Eimskip Reefer Logistics started in 2004 and the unit has grown rapidly since then. The company offers specialised services handling any type of temperature regulated cargo, frozen or cooled. This service covers the whole of the logistics chain, including unloading ships, transportation, warehousing, distribution, stock management and customs formalities. "Traditionally, 98% of our cargo consisted of seafood. We shifted our focus to the fruit and vegetable industry from the perspective of spreading risk. About 20% of our cargo consisted of fruit and vegetables this year. Eventually, we want to get to a 50/50% ratio," Peter van der Woude tells us.

As an Icelandic company, Eimskip has been through some tough years. When the Icelandic bank Icesave went bankrupt in 2008, Eimskip had enormous debts. They recovered thanks to good financial restructuring. All purchased companies were sold off again and new management came. The company was debt free again in 2009, and they've been going forward ever since. "Our group is very profitable as a whole, with a net profit of over 12 million Euros in the last year. We are one of the few profitable shipping companies in the world," Peter says.

The total Eimskip reefer unit started in 2004 with 1,200 TEU, but expanded to 90,000 TEU last year, of which 18,000 from Rotterdam. Eimskip Reefer Logistics focuses on Costa Rica (pineapple/melons) and West Africa (potatoes/onions) at the moment. "Our advantage is that we have a big network of shipping companies and agents. We are also familiar with cooled and frozen cargo, and we have our own ships and transport company at our disposal, so we can ship our cargo as quickly as possible. Those can be decisive factors to customers," Martijn knows. "We want to grow step by step. Costa Rica is well on track after two years, and we've started transporting papayas and fruit juices from Mexico. Colombia is on our target list too, but we only look at neighbouring countries once an area is secure."

The growth of container shipping as opposed to conventional shipping will only increase, according to the gentlemen. "There is still a considerable amount of conventional shipping to Africa, but container shipping is becoming more interesting. The product is safely stored in containers and can be transported directly to its final destination upon arrival in a country. Cost wise, container shipping is virtually the same as conventional transportation." Even though feeder lines distribute more and more containers throughout Europe, that doesn't mean that the Netherlands loses its role as a distribution country, according to Peter. "The Rotterdam trade still has a pivotal function as the first port of call. Nine out of ten containers from Costa Rica arrive here and import goes through Rotterdam port for German buyers as well."

Eimskip obviously also has to deal with the cut throat competition between container companies. "We have to purchase tonnage for our areas of operation. The larger carriers don't want our business for areas like Costa Rica, but we are one of their bigger customers for the Far East. You can get things done because of that. We can do good business with mid size carriers," says Martin. He also has high expectations for inter modal transport. "Onions are already mainly transported to the port of Antwerp using inland shipping and we see that taking flight. It's considerably cheaper and you can also load up later with a barge."

The company is located in PortCity 1 which is the Broekman Group office building, along with other shipping companies, since December 2011. Since that time they have been looking out on the Waalhaven once again, after Eimskip had been located in a Barendrecht industrial park for ten years. The Dutch get a lot of freedom from publicly traded Eimskip, even though they have to report monthly to the mother company. "They don't know much about the fruit and vegetable industry in Iceland, but our initiatives are welcomed. Our fruit and vegetable initiatives really sprouted from local initiative, but it's spreading like wildfire through our organisation. This is evident from our participation in Fruit Logistica, where we went all out with representatives from several countries in our stand. We really enjoyed participating in the fair and it generated a good spin-off. We will certainly participate again next year."

For more information:
Peter van der Woude
Martijn van der Velden
Eimskip Nederland
Waalhaven Z.Z. 21
3089 JH Rotterdam
Tel: 010-7517777
Fax: 010-7517799
pw@eimskip.nl
www.eimskip.nl