“The decision to purchase the company GEFCO was not spontaneous, but made in line with the Company’s strategy to increase the share of transport logistics in the activities of the Russian Railways’ holding company. We have acquired a company which is among the ten largest logistics companies in the world and which has international experience and staff of 11,500, a number which speaks for itself,” said Vladimir Yakunin, president of Russian Railways and Chairman of GEFCO’s Supervisory Board, who was speaking at a press conference in St. Petersburg on 28 January 2015.

According to Yakunin, historically GEFCO has been involved in transport logistics with a focus on shipping cars, but now it is developing projects such as transport and logistic support to ship aluminium from Hungary to China.

“We are satisfied with GEFCO as a whole. I believe that we have correctly assessed market trends. The acquisition of this French company has allowed us to gain experience in the field of international cooperation”, said Vladimir Yakunin.

It is extremely important to Russian Railways that the integration of GEFCO’s operations into the Holding has not only improved the quality of services to third-party customers, but also created specific transport and logistics products for internal use. For example, spare parts logistics is a major logistics business. If previously it was the manufacturers of spare parts which handled deliveries, now with the help of GEFCO, Russian Railways will be able to build the supply chain and thus reduce the real cost of acquiring components.

(Source: RZD)