Annual Report 2005

our orange world in 2005

Gebr端der Weiss Holding AG A-6923 Lauterach Austria Bundesstrasse 110 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.70928 service@gw-world.com

our orange world in 2005

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➜ our orange world in 2005

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2005 annual report 14 18

Gebrüder Weiss Holding AG Annual Report 2005 Department Reports

working in orange 48 52 56 60 68

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Interview: Personnel Development at GW Apprenticeships: The First Rung of the Career Ladder Leadership Development the *orange way An Essay on Cultural Values Working in the Year Dot

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excellence

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Service Excellence in the GW Organisation Interview: On the Difference between Good and Excellent Service

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GW Addresses

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Austria Lauterach, Bludenz, Feldkirch, Feldkirchen, Graz, Hall, Hörsching, Leopoldsdorf, Linz, Maria Saal, Pöchlarn, Salzburg, Wels, Vienna, Vienna-Schwechat, Wolfurt, Wörgl Germany Memmingen, Hamburg, Lindau, Passau, Nuremberg Switzerland Altenrhein, Basel, Zurich Airport Italy Bolzano Croatia Zagreb, Karlovac Slovakia Bratislava, Senec, Banská Bystrica, Koˇsice, Zˇilina Slovenia Ljubljana Czech Republic Rudná/Praha, Brno-Modˇrice, Cˇeské Budejovice, ˇ Hradec Králové, Ostrava, Ostrava-Zábˇreh, Plzen, ˇ Prague Hungary Budapest, Dunaharaszti, Vecsés Bulgaria Sofija, Burgas, Kazanlak, Varna Romania Bucharest, Arad, Brasov Serbia Novi Beograd, Subotica Hong Kong Kowloon, Hong Kong China Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu, Dalian, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Tianjin, Urumqui Xinjiang, Xi’an, Xiamen, Guangzhou, Zhanjiang, Shenzhen Singapore Singapore USA Atlanta, San Francisco, Wood Dale, Cranford, Torrance, Miami, Houston Canada Toronto United Arab Emirates Dubai Ukraine Mukachevo Mongolia Ulan Bator

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Gebrüder Weiss GW agent network

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Austria 50 locations 2,512 employees At the end of January, Gebrüder Weiss joined the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC Austria), a specialist in the areas of foreign trade and law, international contract design, international dispute settlement, arbitration law and whitecollar crime prevention.

In early June, Gebrüder Weiss and 15 other founding partners from five European countries launched a powerful new LTL network named System Alliance Europe.

Gebrüder Weiss is a member of TAPA EMEA. The mission of TAPA is to raise the level of logistics chain security for high-value products.

In 2005, Gebrüder Weiss Lauterach was awarded the “Excellent Apprenticeship Company” certificate for the third time.

Germany 6 locations 157 employees Since September, the GW subsidiary Spedition Zinner GmbH has been operating under the name of Gebrüder Weiss GmbH. The Passau location was converted into a logistics area of approximately 11,500 m2.

Austria’s first company to do so, GW introduced e-Zoll in 2005. GW Vienna served as the pilot branch for the entire organisation.

Late July saw the new WelsPernau logistics centre go live. This new facility gives GW a modern high-tech centre featuring ideal infrastructure for realising efficient logistics projects.

On 2 March, the cornerstone was laid at Maria Lanzendorf for our largest logistics terminal yet. Office, handling and warehouse areas will span 105,000 m2.

GW and Kunert ink a 2-year contract: efficient logistics now connects the Bavarian Allgau region with Northern Africa.

After just five months of construction, the new handling terminal/office space in Hall is ready. GW Innsbruck moved in at the beginning of the year.

CH

Czech Republic 5 locations 303 employees GW optimises production structure Logistics, production and administration were consolidated at the two main locations in Brno and Rudna (near Prague). The Plzen, Hradec Králové, Budweis and Ostrava offices provide local customer service.

Switzerland 7 locations 164 employees Altenrhein: A robot takes over command A robot was perfected to handle order picking from pallets having various different mixtures of products.

This complex process has been running completely automated as of early February.

Extended The contract with Vauxhall was extended. GW organises the transport between Czech suppliers and the three English facilities in Ellesmere Port, Luton and Rugby.

From 23 to 25 September, roughly 85 companies presented their products and services to a large audience at the industrial exhibition in Buechen-Staad. This year, Gebrüder Weiss Altenrhein took part for the first time.

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Italy 1 location 2 employees

All employee figures are average values for financial year 2005 (consolidation precluded).

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SK

SLO Slovenia 2 locations 18 employees December saw the opening of the new Air & Sea office at the Ljubljana airport with Ziga Repovs at the helm.

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Hungary 2 locations 140 employees

Anniversary The Dunaharszti team celebrated the national branch’s 15th anniversary. After the fall of the Iron Wall, Hungary became the first GW country in Eastern Europe in 1990.

Name conformity In the course of standardising GW’s market presence, Hungaroweiss now also bears the Gebrüder Weiss name.

ICD gets a boost Direct connections between the individual GW locations were also expanded in the South. Direct, regular groupage traffic was established between Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia.

SCG Serbia 2 locations 10 employees

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Croatia 3 locations 39 employees

The Austrian Automotive Association in collaboration with the Croatian-Austrian Chamber of Commerce organised an automotive fact-finding tour to Zagreb – with Gebrüder Weiss right in the thick of it. “We achieved our goal of making contacts, getting to know new companies and raising our awareness level on the Croatian market during this event,” enthuses Croatian Marketing Director Alma Alicic.

GW becomes full-scale freight forwarder 1,500 m2 of handling terminal space was rented in the Danube port city of Belgrade, the appropriate customs office opened, and all operational activities of a fullscale freight forwarder were set in motion. Move-in day at the new Belgrade offices was in early December.

Gebrüder Weiss SCG got the Customs Broker License in 2005.

Slovakia 5 locations 55 employees The GW branch network in Slovakia grows even larger: a new branch office was opened in Banská Bystrica under the management of Alexander Kóre and the 44member GW team relocated from the Bratislava location to a new 6,000 m2 logistics terminal in the hamlet of Senec, just a few kilometres from the capital.

Romania 4 locations 53 employees Getting a handle on ever rising shipment volume at the Gebrüder Weiss branch location in Arad meant opening a new 1,500 m2 facility in early December.

The management of Gebrüder Weiss Romania welcomed the addition of André Hofer in July.

Name change CargologWeiss S.R.L. became Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L.

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Ukraine 1 location 2 employees

Bulgaria 4 locations 45 employees

Transport network extended Both import/ export scheduled groupage services as well as new direct traffic routes were established: ideal connections now run between GW Bulgaria and Portugal, Spain, Germany and Great Britain.

Name change Uniform market presence also in Bulgaria.

CargologWeiss EOOD is now Gebrüder Weiss EOOD.

Mukachevo, approximately 60 kilometres from the Hungary-Slovakia border, is home to a new GW branch office as of October. With this new presence in the Ukraine, we’ve added a strategically important Eastern Europe location to our international network.

Manfred Überfellner was appointed to Country Manager for the Ukraine.

USA 7 locations 38 employees The USA branch network has been further developed: September saw an office opening in Atlanta.

HK

China & Hong Kong 15 locations 197 employees

UAE United Arab Emirates 1 location 13 employees The GW subsidiary x|vise, with locations in Lauterach, Graz and Vienna, added a brand new office in Dubai in August 2005.

The first painted WeissRöhlig truck rolled out onto the streets of Hong Kong at the end of the year. WeissRöhlig is the first transport company in the Chinese metropolis to have more than just a company logo on its trucks.

CDN Canada 1 location 5 employees In July, Toronto became GW’s first location in Canada.

New branch offices Weiss-Röhlig not only opened a location in Shenzhen in September but also a representative office in Xian, located in China’s Midwest.

The first inter-continental marketing campaign – “Orange Dragon” – kicked off in November. Coordinated promotions in Europe and China are focussed on strengthening GW’s market position.

SGP

Singapore 2 locations 19 employees Double-digit shipment growth Whilst the volume of shipments from GW locations in Europe to Singapore increased by 10% over the previous year, traffic in the opposite direction rose an astounding 19%.

2005 annual report 14 18

GebrĂźder Weiss Holding AG Annual Report 2005 Department Reports

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Annual Report 2005

Gebrüder Weiss Holding AG Annual Report 2005 The year 2005 was an exceptional one in many ways. It will not only be remembered as the first year of the new Board of Management – without Heidegunde and Paul Senger-Weiss – but also as the year in which on the one hand continuity was maintained and rewarded and in which on the other hand numerous important preliminary decisions were made and the course for the future was set.

The economic cycle was already slowing down at the end of 2004. This trend continued in the first quarter of 2005 and is the reason why the relevant business management performance figures neither came up to the budget values nor to the values of the previous year. The national demand was low – due in no small part to the weather – and the high oil prices as well as the road pricing in Germany had an additionally negative effect on the logistics branch.

Distribution of the added value to the business areas

But to cut a long story short – the rather slow beginning was followed by strong summer months and by a record-breaking autumn and winter season. This is also the reason why Gebrüder Weiss was able to achieve an annual result which exceeded all expectations.

Despite an environment that continues to change rapidly as a result of the globalisation process and the “merger mania”, Gebrüder Weiss sticks to its principles such as independence and sustainability while adapting its strategies to the new conditions and challenges: expanding the orange network in Central and Eastern Europe, enhancing the international connections (in cooperation with Röhlig), strengthening the approved Western European partnerships and positioning GW as a provider of both standardised products and individual logistics solutions. Gebrüder Weiss is a quality trademark and the best employees ensure the highest customer satisfaction.

In this spirit, substantial infrastructure projects were planned and implemented. In Austria alone, significant investments were made to build up and/or extend the locations in Hall/Tirol, WelsPernau, Maria Saal, Graz and Vienna. Moreover, the Supervisory Board granted substantial means for the CEE countries, which are already being

Wolfgang Niessner CEO

implemented. The locations in Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Hungary were improved, extended or changed. The global expansion is being continued, and which company takeovers or joint ventures can and shall complement the organic growth in this respect.

The overseas organisation has also developed strongly in 2005 and especially in the seafreight sector substantial progress was made. The branch network was particularly tightened in China and Central and Eastern Europe, the US organisation was strengthened and in Canada an office was opened. Our close partnership with the Bremen forwarder Röhlig continues to be stable and successful and holds its ground in the global competition.

A continuously growing group of private logistics companies is developing within the System Alliance Europe. Their objective is to offer panEuropean linked packaged good service transports with clearly defined quality and process standards. Gebrüder Weiss was part of the respective committees right from the start, has formed and made decisions – together with partners of sometimes even decades – and thus played a crucial role in founding and implementing significant projects.

The realisation of a seamless organisation is and remains the prior objective. Besides implementing standardised software applications, the preparatory works for introducing the colli barcode into the orange network was intensified. The consistent implementation is already planned for 2006.

However, priorities were not only set in the technical aspect. Gebrüder Weiss makes a substantial

budget available for the further training and specialisation of its employees and fosters international trainee programmes, as the fact remains unchanged that the human factor is one of the major advantages regarding the competition in the service sector.

The values of the *orange way have to be integrated into the customer/partner relationship, thus making the Gebrüder Weiss organisation unmistakable.

In 2005, GW also managed to distinguish itself even stronger as a provider of customised logistics solutions. The exceptional consulting expertise served to draw up concepts, the implementation of which allowed reverting to the individual modules of the portfolio.

Net sales

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Annual Report 2005

It should be emphasised at this point that the parcel business in fact made a particularly notable contribution to this year’s earnings.

The success enjoyed during the year works as the incentive to confidently and consistently keep the adopted course without ever losing sight of the essential or the achievable.

With a sense of responsibility and commitment, the imposing goal of ensuring Gebrüder Weiss maintains its prominent position in the logistics market will be pursued on into the future.

A special word of thanks shall go to the shareholders, supervisory boards, customers, partners, friends and employees of our company for their support and commitment with which they have created the basis for the continuously positive development of Gebrüder Weiss.

June 2006

Wolfgang Niessner, MBA Chief Executive Officer Gebrüder Weiss Holding AG

Wolfgang Niessner

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Wolfram Senger-Weiss

Heinz Senger-Weiss

Peter Kloiber

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Department Reports

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logistics

The unusual is entirely usual “Parallel multi-customer order picking controlled by online radio, now that’s state-of-the-art processing.” GW head logistician Harry Stiastny exudes enthusiasm when he talks about the smallparts storage system set up for L’Oreal in 2005.

“After a somewhat bumpy start, the highly innovative processes are now running like clockwork. The volume of order pickings with this project is mindboggling.” L’Oreal is an excellent example of the trend seen in the company’s rapidly-growing area of logistics solutions. “We are taking on ever larger portions of our customers’ value chains. These kinds of finely-meshed partnerships lead to genuine win-win situations,” explains Stiastny. And in the process, the unusual becomes entirely usual.

What would a PC manufacturer do when an important customer wants 2,770 laptops delivered, all to feature different configurations and peripherals and each installed with customised software and coming in their own individual cases – and, of course, all 2,770 of them to be delivered on a specific day right at the stroke of 7.45 a.m.? That manufacturer would commission GW Altenrhein in the latter half of 2005. After the main memory was updated in each unit according to the customer’s specifications, each was packed in its own case with the peripherals as requested, naturally antistatic and dust-free, delivered in smaller tranches to the manufacturer’s headquarters to have the software installed, and then picked up again for final delivery. And all were delivered right on time to the customer’s numerous branch locations spread across Switzerland.

“We’ve really made important strides in our logistics infrastructure during the last fiscal year,”

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notes Stiastny. “In Maria Lanzendorf, of course, more than anywhere else. This facility was systematically designed from the ground up for maximum integration of traffic, cross docking and warehouse logistics processes. As soon as everything is in place, we will be setting new standards here – both in process quality as well as costs.”

Additional infrastructure projects were realised in Wels-Pernau, Wörgl and Passau.

Logistics facilities which are optimally conceived need people with the commensurate know-how. Here, too, Stiastny’s team came through with important developmental steps in 2005. “We’ve installed the project management for logistics at the headquarters,” explains Stiastny. “The team is made up of top-class logistics experts from various different fields of specialisation who actively support our branch offices in all phases of logistics projects throughout the entire company.” This concept meets with approval far and wide. “Our people are booked well in advance. And for competent logisticians, our doors are always open – from Basel to the Black Sea,” the GW head logistician adds with a wink.

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surface transport

weissland Optimisation pushes onward National distribution systems have long been the black sheep of freight forwarding. Extreme volume, endless work, enormous strategic significance ... and more or less red bottom lines. “It was also like that for Gebrüder Weiss not too many

, , 1 000 000 items handled in all GW logistics locations per quarter in 2005

years ago,” recalls Walter Konzett, Product Manager Surface Transport in charge of the national distribution systems. The crux of the problem: domestic freight forwarding was traditionally expected to be the Jack of all trades – transporting both 7-metre long wooden planks as well as ultra-sensitive machine parts. “We began 2003 by wholly embracing systemised freight forwarding. Weiss24 only transports that which can be efficiently processed based on weight and dimensions. Everything else we send as direct load,” explains Konzett. That this is the right way was shown by the positive development in 2004, a trend furthered in 2005. Optimisation to domestic results of a dimension unimaginable only just a few short years ago. This important component within the overall organisation went on to make a clear and definite contribution to the total end result for the entire GW organisation. The premium Orange on Time and Secure products showed particularly solid results. “Top services provide added value to our customers and are also worth more,” says Konzett on the above-average value ratios for the premium segment.

Barcode preparations The groundwork was laid in 2005 for an important step in furthering customer benefits and optimising processes – the company-wide introduction of barcode scanning at the parcel level. “Initial test runs were positive, we’ve agreed on the physical technical systems. Our employees were trained, the future procedures were documented. And we’ve kicked off an intense marketing campaign to address the technical necessities at the customer’s end,” says Konzett in summing up the activities behind the barcode introduction scheduled for mid-2006. Beaming, he adds: “The pilot projects conducted in the spring of 2006 were extremely successful. It will go off without a hitch.”

ICD: +46.5% since campaign start Achieving a seamless connection between all GW locations in Europe in the mid-term and thus realising a cross-linking which guarantees fast, costefficient and high-quality transport operations – this is the strategic target as per management mandate. For the past five years, the response from product management has gone by the name of “ICD – Intracorporate Destination” – an integrated product development, sales and marketing campaign in all European GW countries.

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Department Reports

The bottom line for 2005: 300,000 ICD shipments – 12% higher than the previous year – and some 10% higher gross return. “And if we look at the whole since the campaign began back in 2002, we’ve had a 46.5% increase in shipments,” adds a satisfied Konzett.

Transport security – new product launch Valuable cargo, including such items as IT equipment and consumer electronics, is at particular risk. In order to make an effective counter-impact, GW developed a transport product called “Secure” in 2004 which incorporates special security precautions including video-monitored security cages in all terminals and full process documentation. In 2005, Secure was introduced in Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic; Croatia and Slovenia to follow in 2006. The Vienna, Prague and Budapest locations received TAPA certification in 2005 – independent of the product – and now reflect the highest security standards in the field.

western europe Stronger in Europe through Alliance Establishing the SAE (System Alliance Europe) was the focal point of 2005 activities for System Management Europe (SME).

“The System Alliance Europe has organised a powerful European network, especially for the groupage product,” explains System Manager Oskar Woisetschläger. Together with 15 leading mediumsize freight forwarding companies from across Europe, GW gave life to SAE in June 2005. The number of partner firms has since more than dou-

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bled. Both sides, member firms and customers, benefit equally from the alliance. “The SAE has set ambitious quality goals,” says Woisetschläger.

“Customers can rely on speed, reliability and punctuality across all of Europe.”

Initial barcode tests among the partners returned good results. Shipment identification per barcode will become standard within the SAE in the near future. In summer 2006, GW will be introducing a corresponding company-wide system.

“It’s a special challenge for us, especially when compared to the German SAE partners. They’ve been using this technology for quite some time now,” notes Woisetschläger.

Meanwhile, the introduction of road tax in Germany went smoothly. Woisetschläger: “Of course, we already had experience with road pricing in Austria. Plus the technical problems we anticipated with the German road tax system actually never came up.”

In partnership Particularly the Central and Eastern European countries in the GW organisation intensified cooperation with European partners in 2005. For example, GW Czech Republic and Hungary set up daily traffic with Germany’s Spedition Diehl.

GW in the Czech Republic and Slovakia established a cooperation with Poland’s Raben Group.

European surface transport also showed appreciable numbers for 2005. It was primarily the new EU countries experiencing the heaviest increases in shipments. “Import recorded a plus of 40 percent; export saw an increase of about 30 percent,” states a pleased Oskar Woisetschläger.

“Profits noted above all the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. The gross returns we realised from our relationships with European agents also showed a distinct rise.”

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payload in tonnes of the first trucks designed by Gottlieb Daimler

payload in tonnes of today’s modern trucks

average age of an orange truck, in years

central and eastern europe Upswing for the markets of the future Hungary: 85% more shipments within the domestic system, 42% higher imports, 30% higher exports: the 2005 figures for Gebrüder Weiss Hungary show nothing but solid growth, just as they did for the previous years. “Growth takes space,” stresses Country Manager Alfred Gastgeb. “We were able to purchase the neighbouring property and the Executive Board approved expansion by 9,500 m2.

We’ve been building since October 2005.” The handling depot will virtually be doubled – to a total of 5,500 m2 – and operate 50 gates. A full 4,000 m2 logistics warehouse has already been constructed.

Gastgeb: “We are well on our way to being a fullscale logistics solution provider. For example, in 2005 we took on the warehouse logistics and domestic distribution for a large goods manufacturer and distributor.” To provide optimum service to the very largest as well as the very smallest customers, a Customer Care Center was also established at GW Hungary during this past fiscal year.

Czech Republic: GW faced enormous pricing pressure from the industry here. And yet the tendering of infinite bids is not without success – a number of prestigious large customers have in fact been acquired. At the same time, the national management extensively reorganised the branch network. “Operations are now handled mainly in the two Rudna and Brno terminals,” reports Harald Prohaska, Director of GW Czech Republic. “The smaller branches now function either solely as a sales presence or as a special product outlet, an example being the full loads in Budweis and Ostrava.” 2005 also saw the GW decision to buy out all shares in the Locton Weiss joint logistics venture. The organisation previously held only a 50% share.

Slovakia: 1 April was move-in day for close to 50 employees of GW Bratislava as they settled into their new terminal in Senec which includes 5,000 m2 of storage, ADR and bonded warehouse space as well as its own customs office. Just a few weeks later, the Slovakian branch network was expanded by a new location in Banská Bystrica. The New Year was rung in by inking a new partnership with Japan’s Daikin air conditioning group. Anna Mrazova, Sales

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Department Reports

134 21

number of current GW locations worldwide

100

number of countries in which GW runs its own branch offices

Director for GW Slovakia, proudly details the positive growth in shipments: “In export, LTL and FTL shipments both rose by more than 50 percent.”

Mrazova adds that there is also pleasing news to report from the organisational side: “We’ve been running the national distribution system ourselves as of 2005.”

ices and establishing additional direct traffic with the EU countries of Portugal, Spain, Great Britain and Germany. The results for fiscal year 2005 unequivocally speak for themselves, reports Moser: “Gebrüder Weiss Bulgaria had the best operating results in the entire history of the company in 2005.”

Bulgaria; Romania: Entry into the EU is close for the future members Bulgaria and Romania. GW is accordingly making thorough preparations in these countries. Infrastructure was expanded in Romania during 2005 in order to be equal to the continuously growing volume of shipments – shipments in Western Romania actually doubled within just a few months earlier this year. “The capacities of the facilities before were already stretched to their limits,” explains Regional Director Thomas Moser. “Given the expandability of our modern facility in Arad and the enlarging of the Bucharest location, we’re now looking forward to continued dynamic growth.”

Further growth is indeed foreseen once the country joins the EU and benefits from the discontinuation of customs clearing and the simplification of transport operations. Bulgaria is meanwhile focusing on its existing scheduled groupage serv-

Croatia; Slovenia: GW Croatia worked in close co-operation with a renowned technology customer during 2005: four large-scale projects were realised. In neighbouring Slovenia, Drago Svajnzger is delighted to have been awarded the contract for the entire domestic distribution for a German selfservice drugstore. In addition, direct groupage traffic got underway to Serbia and Montenegro via GW Croatia.

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Serbia: “Upgrade” was the name of the game in Serbia. For the Belgrade headquarters, 1,500 m2 of handling space was rented in 2005 in the “Danube port of Belgrade”. A customs office was also opened. The team can now finally provide all operational activities of a full-scale freight forwarder: from customs clearing to warehouse logistics to national distribution and processing of partial and full loads.

Ukraine: The newest member to join the ranks of the GW countries, the Ukraine, saw the opening of a branch office in Mukachovo in September 2005. “The Ukraine is an up-and-coming market with enormous growth potential. The Mukachovo location is an ideal base of operations from which we can take further expansion steps in this region in the future,” states Manfred Überfellner, Country Manager for Gebrüder Weiss Ukraine.

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air & sea

Networking around the globe Exuberance was the order of the day in Air & Sea by the end of 2005. Whether in North America, Asia or Europe, reports were overwhelmingly positive.

The US undertaking is turning out to be an American dream. On the heels of the initial jump across the pond in 2003, the past fiscal year was the first to show a comprehensive balance – with

% increase in total trade value between the EU and other world regions 1999 – 2000

an extremely pleasing bottom line. “We recorded spectacular growth of greater than 100 percent compared to the previous year,” reports Devision Head and Board Member Heinz Senger-Weiss. In addition to the traffic with Europe, top-rated development was also seen on the Trans-Pacific routes with the Weiss-Röhlig network in Asia, Australia and New Zealand. “Our goal was 50 percent growth in shipments within three years,” smiles SengerWeiss. “But after such a stunning two-year balance, we’ll have to adjust this figure upward quite a bit.” The USA network now encompasses six offices; another office will open in San Francisco in 2006. In July 2005, Weiss-Röhlig additionally took the first step into neighbouring Canada with the opening of an office in Toronto.

Weiss-Röhlig meanwhile continues its explosive course of expansion in China. Shenzhen, the third location in the booming region of the Pearl River Delta, opened in the autumn of 2005. Since early December, the Asian network now also includes a representative office in Xian, located in China’s Midwest. The official figures also show superb development, confirms Senger-Weiss: “In 2005, we achieved a 40 percent increase in sales compared to the 2004 figures.” “Cathay” is blossoming into an integral component within the

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Department Reports

15 25 global GW network. “In the past, China predominantly teamed up with Europe. Recently, the country has been mainly cementing commercial relations with North America, Australia, South Africa and also Brazil.”

Jochen Uray, Air & Sea Manager for Central and Eastern Europe, reports on particularly strong growth in seafreight: “Between all our offices in the CEE countries, we now employ 85 people. A clear upward trend is seen for all of them.” A brand new office was added in the Ukraine. There have been offices in Prague, Brno and Ostrava in the Czech Republic since 2005. “Active sales here have doubled the locally-controlled business,” according to a delighted Uray. Croatia likewise records positive results. The Hungarian Air & Sea division underwent complete reorganisation in 2005.

In Dubai, the first full fiscal year following the opening of the office in 2004 was mainly devoted to structural and organisational preparations. This United Arab Emirates office is to become the headquarters for the region which extends south from the Afghanistan border up to the CIS countries and over to Turkey, and also includes all of the Arabian Peninsula. Heinz Senger-Weiss: “The economic might of this region continues to rise tremendously

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number of current GW locations in China

years of active GW operations in China

despite a certain political instability. GW was considered an expert on this region in the eighties.

We’re looking to re-establish that status now.”

In 2005, Gebrüder Weiss gained an initial foothold in another market with the opening of an office in Mongolia. “We are one of the very first transport companies to establish operations in this country.

This is truly a pioneering undertaking.”

“Wherever we have a presence, we are one of the top players in airfreight,” states Senger-Weiss.

“We intend to maintain our high ranking and even expand upon it in places. Developing GW’s seafreight proficiencies has been high on the list of priorities since 2003. The intensified commitment has resulted in clear increases in sales. While we recorded 15 percent growth in 2004, we’ve upped this to 35 percent for 2005. I’m confident that this field will continue to provide the entire organisation with reason to cheer.”

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gebrüder weiss parcel service

Return to private ownership It’s been 18 years since the freight forwarders Gebrüder Weiss, Lagermax and Schachinger founded Austria’s first private parcel service.

In 1997, the joint venture brought a strong partner on board: Post & Telekom Austria. With an expansive partnership, enormous service perspectives that had never been seen before, and under the brand name of DPD Direct Parcel Distribution, the parcel service took off at full steam.

And it’s still running at full steam today, confirms Ewald Müller, Managing Director for the Gebrüder Weiss Parcel Service (GWP). “The volume of parcels transported by GWP has increased dramatically again over the past fiscal year, from 17 million to more than 19 million. That means we’re handling about 60 percent of the DPD association’s entire Austrian volume.” The official sales figures are more than respectable as well: an 11.4% increase over the previous year to record total sales of more than 97 million Euro.

Innovative projects, foresighted product development and ongoing facility modernisation keep the parcel service on its successful fast track. The market leader in CEP is definitely no longer in need of a powerful outside partner. DPD Austria has been fully back in private hands since autumn 2005; the three partners repurchased all of the Austrian Post AG shares on 1 September 2005.

DPD is meanwhile investing in the future with the introduction of the Global Barcode System (GBS). This internationally uniform standard will afford faster and more secure parcel and data exchange within Austria, Europe and in fact all destinations around the world. “The new barcode standard is the basis for both the expansion of our

international agent network as well as the integration of expanded services,” explains Müller.

Preparations for the DPD-wide changeover are already being made at every step; the Global Barcode System will be introduced before 2006 is over. All internal systems – from handling to accounting – will have been adapted to the new requirements by July.

Rearrangement made simple The Internet platform www.neuzustellung.at began pilot testing in 2005 at Leopoldsdorf’s Depot 621.

The underlying idea is just as simple as it is sensible: after a futile attempt to deliver a parcel has been made, the recipient can rearrange the parcel online – to an alternate shipping address or on an alternative delivery day. There was a great deal of labour-intensive work behind the implementation of neuzustellung.at because the design and realisation of the platform was not all that had to be done. The project team analysed and at the same time optimised the internal clarification processes and designed new delivery notes for the recipient’s information. “But these efforts were more than justified by the positive response we received from our customers,” stresses the GWP head. “Ten percent of all company returns are already being planned via neuzustellung.at.” This service will soon be available at all GWP depots. www.bills.at Intensive efforts made in terms of information technology tend to pay off in other areas as well.

“Within the scope of the ‘Supply Chain Management Austria’ programme, we were able to secure an award from the Federal Ministry of Economics and Labour amounting to 50,000 Euro,” Ewald Müller reports proudly. The project submitted concerned the automated sending of customer invoices and accompanying weight lists.

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Department Reports

, , 31 600 000 number of parcels dispatched by Austria’s DPD system in 2005

The heart of the system is the invoice portal www.bills.at. DPD and primetime customers can access all information and services relating to their invoices here. The data is digitally signed, sent by email, and can be additionally called up from the archives for a somewhat longer period of time.

The latest DPD Shop concept meanwhile offers new, flexible options for parcel dispatch and delivery – also for private customers. Independent cooperating partners in well-frequented locations such as tobacconist’s shops, retailers, etc. serve as drop-off and pick-up points for the DPD parcels.

“And at the GWP depot, the options are even greater,” notes Müller. The first DPD shops in Austria opened in August 2005. Spirited development of a blanketing network of shops is planned for fiscal year 2006.

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Subsidiary companies and brands

primetime primetime boosts market presence New services for simplified shipping “We’ve combined the different shipping options for our customers in a way that makes sense and is in line with standard usage,” reports primetime Managing Director Andreas Winkelmayer. primetime handles a customer’s entire shipping volume.

The flow of goods is first divided: standard parcels are handled by DPD Parcel Service; express and value-added parcels are processed by primetime; pallets call for freight forwarding. The shipping process thereby becomes far more simplified for the customer company. Winkelmayer also stands behind the worth of the new added-value service.

“I’m anticipating this segment will attract a considerable increase in new customers over the next few months as well as strong customer loyalty.”

Even at this point, the primetime figures are more than acceptable, with the record result of 2004 having been surpassed. “primetime handled more than two million parcels. That puts us clearly above all set expectations,” extols Winkelmayer.

Significant increases in “cost centre supply”, “COD collections” and “chilled products” fuelled the added-value transport services.

An internal advertising campaign was kicked off to increase the level of awareness of the addedvalue product among DPD employees. Various give-aways as well as a raffle served to convey the myriad of options with and from primetime. “All in all, the campaign was a huge success,” according to Andreas Winkelmayer. “The employees gained that much more knowledge about the added value that primetime offers as well as the strategic focus of the product.” And this also benefits the market.

x|vise Perfect design from any angle Logistics consulting on the upswing Five employees became nine in 2005. In addition to the existing locations in Vienna, Graz and Lauterach, the GW subsidiary in Dubai has now also been added to the mix. “We’ve been doing intensive marketing work in the United Arab Emirates since September 2005,” reports Harry Stiastny, Managing Director of x|vise. Consulting is particularly targeted toward companies planning to operate in this region but which do not yet have their own local office. x|vise was able to further cement its position within the national market. Stiastny refers to one customer project in particular. “We successfully

negotiated a bulk order for Intersport Austria in October 2005. The co-operation is already set to continue in 2006.” x|vise provides further external consulting on transport matters for renowned Vorarlberg (Austria) companies such as Wolff or Sika. Another example is the Head sports equipment company which benefits from the field-tested x|vise know-how in warehouse logistics.

Demand for sophisticated concepts is also increasing internally. The new facility in Maria Lanzendorf secured intensive input from x|vise consultants: from the synchronising and harmonising of the various processes to the defining and selecting of warehouse and conveyor technology to the adapting of existing IT systems and integration of subsystems including goods flow control or security systems – everything had to be of perfect design down to the smallest detail. “During 2005, x|vise handled the entire project management for this large project,” notes Stiastny. “We also managed sub-projects and provided support when specific special needs came up.”

Apart from the work at Maria Lanzendorf, the x|vise team provides consulting assistance to GW on other matters such as warehousing process standardisation and frequently lends a supportive hand during bidding processes. “Last year, we also held numerous seminars for interested employees on our logistics know-how,” notes the x|vise head.

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Department Reports

inet-logistics Innovative technology leader “After largely completing product development in 2005, we shifted the inet-logistics focus to a targeted marketing offensive,” reports Managing Director Oswald Werle.

The newly-adopted focus was very quick to return results. With Flextronics, the GW subsidiary acquired its first large electronics customer and also set up two notable players from the automotive and automotive supplier branches, Porsche and SAS, on the logistics-server®. In the year before, inet-logistics had already realised a very successful automotive solution for Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik. That complex project was awarded the 2005 State Prize for Transport Logistics as well as the eBiz Award in Vorarlberg (Austria). inet-logistics continues to remain true to its image as a technology leader. Together with Gebrüder Weiss and the V-Research Centre, software solutions based on RFID technology (Radio Frequency Identification) were researched and developed over the course of the past fiscal year.

“RFID allows information saved on a chip to be transmitted without physical contact between devices. This innovative technology enables such things as the global tracking of shipments as well as uninterrupted cold chain monitoring,” explains Werle. An initial pilot project is already up and running. The inet-logistics head foresees “the demand for RFID increasing significantly over the next few years”.

Werle also sees heavily increasing demand from commerce “in the optimising of the procurement and distribution chain. With our standard logistics-server® software, inet-logistics can provide full, comprehensive support to such projects.”

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dicall Image make-over From the Call Center to the Customer Care Center – fiscal year 2005 was above all a year of redefining the image of the dicall company in Graz.

Apart from the successful acquisition of new customers from all fields, the spotlight was on customer service for GWP East during the past year.

In incremental steps, the parcel service’s entire customer telephone support was placed in the capable hands of the dicall team. Implemented with an eye to optimum service, customer inquiries are hereby handled faster and friendlier. And their volume is considerable: dicall agents processed approximately 436,000 incoming calls for GWP East in 2005.

The relatively new training division can lay on accolades as well. A survey conducted in August 2005 by the Austrian magazine Gewinn impressively documented how dicall has already established a good name for itself in this field. The GW subsidiary was listed among the Top 20 in the category of “Other, particularly recommended workshop providers”. Formidable, considering there were more than 500 service providers listed in total. “For originally starting as a hobby, this has certainly developed into a second, very successful line of business,” muses dicall Director Florian Maurer.

6 18 RailCargo Code name: Extraordinary Walter Dolezal reflects positively on the past fiscal year.

“We transported almost ten percent more goods by rail in 2005 than we did in 2004,” the Managing Director of Gebrüder Weiss RailCargo is pleased to report. A total of 890,646 tonnes were shipped by rail, corresponding to the capacities of almost 20,600 four-axle waggons. It would take 41,200 truck runs to handle this high volume on the roads.

Runs which were saved by transporting all these goods by rail.

A major factor contributing to this volume is the ongoing trend of cross-trade transports. Such transit transports, processed exclusively by the foreign railway system, continue to gain in significance: compared to the previous year, volume rose a heady 28 percent here. RailCargo builds on a strong, European-wide network – years of working together with the regional railway authorities makes it all that much easier. “Any problems that arise during any part of the rail transport are quickly and unbureaucratically cleared up by making a direct call,” says Dolezal.

factor by which the production of goods multiplied between 1950 and 2000

factor by which global trade multiplied between 1950 and 2000

In 2005, a change in business focus was caused by a number of orders which can easily be code-named “extraordinary”. The six-member RailCargo team accordingly handled chemistry and petroleum product imports from Russia and Serbia, not to mention imports of biodiesel.

Meanwhile, very specific conditions govern the handling of cigarette transports from Austria to Germany. “We use special secure waggons from the Deutsche Bahn for that,” adds Walter Dolezal.

After all, better safe than sorry.

customs competence centre Ideally prepared Austria introduces e-Zoll.

The sweeping new regulations on electronic customs processing make the entire customs process much faster and more efficient for customers.

For the service provider, e-Zoll means additional

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Department Reports

technical and organisational expenditures which, of course, will be reflected in costs.

Back in August 2005, GW became one of the first freight forwarders to embrace the new electronic dispatching system, adding it in so as to run in parallel operation. That allowed the company to optimise the new process cycles prior to their full implementation. An e-Zoll support hotline was even set up for customers and all interested parties. During 2005, GW prepared itself for the introduction of the new customs procedure. The switch to e-Zoll, planned for April 2006, is expected to take a much smoother course.

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corporate marketing sales/international marketing sales

Maximum efficiency CMS/IMS took important steps in further optimising customer support during the past fiscal year.

From revising master data accountability to implementing a new key account management system, the team headed by CMS Director Thomas Riesterer faced a number of significant challenges in 2005.

Riesterer explains: “In order to have the GW sales team be working at maximum efficiency for our existing and potential customers, we have to make sure that all back office activities are also running as simple and efficiently as possible.” That this has a direct bottom line effect is seen in numerous success stories from all different sectors. In 2005, “Automotive logistics” mainly focused its activities on the growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe. The company’s portfolio was modified somewhat. Considerable customer acquisitions both in the manufacturer and supplier sectors (pri-

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mary and secondary tiers) confirm the strategy reworking. As can also be noted from VW relying on the services provided by the GW organisation as of 2005. Business relationships with the Sony Playstation customer have also developed into quite a partnership. Even as GW was originally “only” responsible for Playstation distribution within Austria, the orange logisticians now also put the popular consoles in the hands of Playstation devotees throughout Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Croatia. Riesterer emphasises the high degree of security involved. “We worked closely with Sony in designing specific security measures.” The GW “Leisure & Sport” division also experienced an auspicious 2005 with numerous new customer acquisitions; Puma and H&M now benefit from the industry know-how as best provided by Gebrüder Weiss.

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IT services

Rollout complete The 105 employees making up the GW IT force successfully completed the rollout of the new CIEL freight forwarding software in 2005.

Since 2005, IT has been under the management of Klaus Heim, an experienced freight forwarder who is well aware of just how important information technology is to the transport and logistics industry. “Every single company operation today depends on stable and efficient EDP systems.”

Together with his team, he ensures ideal technical conditions prevail at all GW branches around the globe. This particularly includes computer programs and applications which are adapted precisely to company processes and support smooth operations.

, 2 749 Freight forwarding software is unquestionably the backbone of any freight forwarding business. The implementation of a new, company-wide freight forwarding program turned out to be the largest IT project in GW history. “CIEL” sprang to life in 2001 as a first pilot branch was chosen to test the newlydeveloped applications in daily operations. Klaus Heim: “Upon the very last branch being switched over in 2005, the old freight forwarding software has been completely replaced; surface transport now runs exclusively on CIEL.” A total of 1,400 employees now work with one of four language versions of the software at over 40 branch offices, terminals and subsidiaries in nine countries. The only step left is providing a Cyrillic script version of CIEL to Bulgaria.

“Airfreight and seafreight modules will also be switched to CIEL in the future,” assures Heim. “We actually already started this project in 2005 as well.

It’s currently in the conceptual and developmental phase with our software suppliers. The pilot run is planned for this coming autumn.”

The GW computer scientists also had their hands full last year preparing for the introduction of the barcode system. This large-scale project, which will conclude in 2006, affects all GW locations running their own transfer operations. The IT

current number of networked computers and laptops throughout the company

department designed and developed scanning functionality for the project within the CIEL freight forwarding software itself and configured the necessary wireless networks at the facilities. In conjunction with the barcode project, numerous voucherless implementations were also set up electronically for warehouse logistics customers.

Moreover, most of the EDI links with customers and freight forwarding agents were converted so as to be able to process the barcode data. Heim looks forward to the project’s upcoming conclusion with confident anticipation. “For the most part, the first two pilot branches are already working electronically. We are good to go with live company-wide barcode operations in July 2006.”

Maximum operational reliability is meanwhile guaranteed by the computer centre and network structure as revamped in 2005. “All data critical to business applications is mirrored and the systems are accordingly designed redundantly,” explains Heim. “Should one computer centre ever fail, the operationally-relevant applications will still be provided by another.”

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Department Reports

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personnel development

The joy of learning Enthusiastic, qualified people who support their customers as well as each other are an important factor in the success of Gebrüder Weiss.

It’s not hard to grasp how basic and advanced training programmes have always been a topic of great concern at GW through the years. The year 2005 was no exception. Helmut Schöpf, Head of Personnel Development, takes stock: “More people attended Orange College than ever before. 600 employees went through multi-day seminars sponsored by the Ferdinand Weiss Fund (FWF) as presented by renowned outside coaches. Another 580 people gained GW-specific know-how from internal coaches and specialists. We also put on more than 50 events and training courses at European headquarters for salespeople and handling personnel in order to bring them up to speed on the upcoming barcode introduction.”

Schöpf is already formulating new exciting ideas for the future. At present, he is considering opening up various GW advanced training courses to customers. “After all, who says we can’t learn together with our customers?”

For 15 special college graduates and 12 GW “High Potentials”, the future is certainly orange after having completed the “Orange Future” trainee programme in 2005. Over a full solid year, they learned the ins and outs of different freight forwarding and logistics departments, gained an overview of the various administrative/organisational units and further developed their professional and social skills. “The final presentation held by the trainees and High Potentials was sensational – it surpassed all expectations,” relates Helmut Schöpf. All 27 Orange Future graduates have meanwhile settled into their various positions within the

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organisation. A number of the High Potentials are now in new departments or new positions; the former trainees are employed in departments they got to know and came to value during the course of their training. The programme will start up again for the second time in September 2006.

Meanwhile, 2005 was the third year that the company took part in “Austria’s Best Employer” competition. GW consistently receives top marks in this survey and always ranks among the Top 20.

“How it works is that they survey 250 employees from all different departments and positions,” explains Schöpf. “The anonymous feedback we eventually receive about job satisfaction lets us pinpoint where we’ve already done good work and also where we need a little more attention.”

Introducing new focuses and proven ideas is the task of an entire network of personnel development specialists. All of the larger branches have their own on-site Personnel Development (VPE) people. 23 employees spend their time looking after the needs of their fellow workers. They welcome new members into the orange fold and arrange all aspects of basic and advanced training.

“We simply couldn’t do without these VPE positions anymore,” states Schöpf. “This remarkably intermeshed team has a lot to do with how comfortable our employees feel within the company and how they never stop developing themselves further.”

, 3 627 219 17 120

number of GW employees worldwide (year average for 2005)

number of new jobs created in 2005

% of all freight forwarder apprentices in Austria learn the trade at GW

number of GW apprentices in Austria in 2005

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On average, far more than 2,000 trucks are on the road each day for GW, with destinations both near and far and with experienced drivers at the wheels. Incidentally, GW’s own fleet of trucks are based on the latest technology, ensuring the lowest environmental impact and closest adherence to the strict EURO 5 emission standards.

working in orange 48 Interview: Personnel Development at GW

52 Apprenticeships: The First Rung of the Career Ladder

56 Leadership Development the *orange Way

60 An Essay on Cultural Values

68 Working in the Year Dot

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Always being on top of the very latest information is vital to fast and flexible handling processes. The introduction of barcode-supported shipment identification is poised to replace the typical lists of yore with immediate online information which is always right on target.

☛

Achieving efficient logistics necessitates working closely with the customer in synchronising the needs and prognoses of many different business units, including Purchasing, Production, Sales, Marketing and Service. Which is why‌

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‌ solid communication and negotiating skills are important tools in most Gebrßder Weiss positions.

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Global goods transport still involves a great deal of administrative effort.

Complex customs regulations must be followed and the accompanying documents must be accurate.

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Swift, streamlined processes – the ultimate objective in handling goods.

And since standardised goods are few and far between in freight forwarding, a great deal of manual labour is more the rule than the exception.

On average, a handling employee will move about 10 tonnes of goods each day. And as of mid-2006, barcode scanning will reduce the number of faulty loadings to virtually nil.

☛

At 2,749 workstations, 5,498 hands make sure that ships, planes, trains and trucks are accurately scheduled, that disbursement orders are properly orchestrated, that conceptual ideas are presented in the best light, that customer inquiries are answered promptly and properly, that employees can attend the right seminars as well as receive their paycheques at the end of the month, that invoices are paid on time, that the management team receives strategic guidelines, that the balance sheet is not late, that the broken light bulb on the third floor is changed, and that this annual report arrives in your mailbox right on time ...

Interview: Personnel Development at GW

An interview with Réka Tánczos and Helmut Schöpf

“These abilities are sensed in everyday life”

Réka Tánczos Personnel Development Manager

The focus of Personnel Development is to prepare our human resources – the actual people who work for us – to meet the current and future needs of Gebrüder Weiss and our markets. Réka Tánczos How long has GW had a Personnel Development programme?

Réka Tánczos As far as I know, some branch managers were sending some of their employees to sales seminars as far back as the 1970s. Some of these training sessions were really quite modern, including videos. I’m also sure there were other advanced training programmes going on even earlier. Personnel development is really nothing new.

Helmut Schöpf Organised personnel development was instituted at Gebrüder Weiss in the early 1990s. Peter (Peter Kloiber; GW Board Member) was the first orange Personnel Developer. Apart from structuring a comprehensive training programme – the so-called “Ferdinand Weiss Fund” – his focus was on broadening management skills within the company. The FKE Leadership Development Programme still in place today bears his hallmark. The programme puts heavy emphasis on soft skills like team spirit and communication skills, self-awareness and the ability to see the big picture.

Over the years, almost all of our upper management has been “developed” here for years.

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That sounds rather esoteric…

HS ... it’s really not in the least. Because these abilities are sensed in everyday life. For example in meetings, because we simply communicate differently at GW, ultimately more efficiently ... but it’s certainly not my invention. I’ve heard over and over again from outside people who sit in on such gatherings as guests that they have never experienced such a strong and supportive work atmosphere.

In today’s world, what can Personnel Development do for a modern logistics company?

RT The focus of Personnel Development is to prepare our human resources – the actual people who work for us – to meet the current and future needs of Gebrüder Weiss and our markets. If we were primarily a simple “seminar organiser” some years ago, today we cover it all. We recruit for many different GW divisions. A second focus is on the whole training and career planning aspect. And in Hungary, being in charge of Personnel Development, I’m also responsible for employee dismissals.

But I don’t think it’s like that anywhere else.

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Interview: Personnel Development at GW

Effective recruiting takes expertise.

Personnel Development has just the right experts for it. Helmut Schöpf

HS Don’t forget about Organisation Development! This has become really big again as of late.

Accompanying organisation development: we host workshops, we act as coaches to management and we function as activists in team development.

That sounds like a huge division at company headquarters.

HS GW is organised to be very regional and market-driven. And Personnel Development is structured exactly the same way. I have one parttime assistant working with me at headquarters.

You couldn’t really say we’re overstaffed. (Schöpf grins) RT Personnel Development experts work onsite at all the larger company locations, usually right alongside the branch manager. Like me in Hungary. Depending on need, they’re also more or less responsible for personnel development. 70 to 80 percent of my time is spent on personnel matters. I also handle all the press contact work in Hungary.

HS There are now 24 of us in the company, all working together closely in a network. Some of us spend 100% of our time on personnel development. At smaller branches, though, this work might be done by the assistant to the manager, taking up maybe about 20% of his or her time. Only very few of these assistants have a personnel development background. We use internal training courses to give them the necessary basic know-how. And 6 or 7 of our personnel specialists have since gone on to earn academic Personnel Development accreditation. They went back to school on their own initiative for 4 or 6 semesters whilst still holding down their respective jobs.

Is an assistant who devotes maybe two hours a day to personnel development work even taken seriously by the profit centre manager?

RT Okay, five or six years ago, right at the very beginning of our network, it may have been that we took some flak. But it’s since been a complete turnaround. Because our managers in the branches

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realise that the Personnel Development team helps them. In recruiting, for example.

HS Concentrating on the core processes. That what we do in logistics for our customers, we do in Personnel Development for GW management.

Effective recruiting takes expertise. Personnel Development has just the right experts for it. Managers who turned to us once to fill an open position never go back to tackling this “harrowing” work themselves.

What makes the recruitment process special?

RT When you spend all your time with applications, you end up developing a completely different intuition about people. And making a good selection is exceedingly important! This is where economising starts. Because the expertise which new employees bring with them doesn’t need to be trained. For example, in Hungary, we have a makeor-break criterion for applicants – command of English or German. After all, it’s nearly impossible to train someone in a language. Choosing employees also parallels sports: only true aptitude can be further developed. We use modern testing methods to determine such aspects.

HS Plus recruiting is a tremendous image factor. Those of us in Personnel Development are often the very first contact a person has with GW. The company receives several thousand applications every year. Forgetting to send out rejection letters used to be a common occurrence. It’s pretty obvious what that person then thought of GW. Today the process is rightly back on track. Rejection letters are suitably worded and sent out promptly.

Turning to training: What trends are seen here?

HS It’s now full steam ahead for curriculumbased apprenticeships with fixed training schedules, strictly following the basic principle: Which abilities and what knowledge are necessary for each specific position? What can the employee bring to the position? From those considerations, an individual training plan emerges. Of course, we

also have standard programmes like our very successful “Orange Future” traineeship and the FKE Leadership Development Programme. But I’m also convinced that the “Ferdinand Weiss Fund” programme for all GW employees with topics like teamwork or conflict and time management will continue to run in the future. Because life-long learning doesn’t stop at the 800 executives within the company.

Last question: What does a person need in order to have a successful career at GW? RT An open mind, flexibility and solid grounding. These are just a few of the qualities that are

important to us. High-brows don’t really fit into the GW team very well. And English is bound to become a make-or-break criterion in the future as intercultural communication simply continues to be of ever increasing significance.

HS The people who make careers at GW are enthusiastic and able to work well in a team within their individual specialisation – regardless of whether they’re in freight forwarding or accounting, logistics or personnel development. And the service chip should also be deeply ingrained in new GW employees.

Thank you for your time!

Réka Tánczos 34, manages Personnel Development for GW Hungary. She studied at the Foreign Trade University and is a certified translator for GermanHungarian and Italian-Hungarian. She joined GW Hungary in 1991 as an assistant to the branch manager.

Since 2001, Personnel Development has accounted for 80% of her time.

Helmut Schöpf 49, manages Personnel Development at GW headquarters. He has been with GW since 1985 (including external intermediate positions). A trained freight forwarder, he worked in sales for many years, eventually handling key accounts. This top-rank sales experience led to a new position in project management. From there, it was just a short leap to Personnel Development. Schöpf became an accredited Personnel Developer after successfully completing the vocationallyrelated programme at the University of Innsbruck in 2003.

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Apprenticeships: The First Rung of the Career Ladder

Apprentice training as the basis of a career in freight forwarding and logistics

“Wanted to See the World” At the time, high school was simply not his world.

In 1972 the realities of “apprenticeships in short supply” and “high unemployment among the youth” only – if at all – occurred in novels about the distant future so the acute school apathy of a 15 yearold was not that much of a problem. There were more than enough apprenticeships out there. For Roland Gander – today GW Regional Director West – there were “somewhere around 15 job offers.”

A computer centre in Vorarlberg, Austria (“Yes, I was interested in computers”), a bank (“but it seemed boring somehow”) and the head office of a large trading venture all showed interest in him.

But then an acquaintance suggested he should look into the somewhat more exotic field of freight forwarding. And back then – as today – GW was considered one of the best places to get this training. Roland had the whole thing planned out in his mind: train at GW, then go to Switzerland and earn a lot of money, and then he’d have the world at his feet.

“I started in Dornbirn on 1 September 1972, a Friday. There were 25 people working there at the time. It was like a little family, really open and modern,” remembers Gander about his first few weeks.

“My colleagues in the Import department showed me all the ropes. And – what was really important

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to me – they made me quickly feel that I was a competent and equal employee. It wasn’t very long at all before I was given jobs under my own responsibility.” He was then trained in the Customs, Export and Air &Sea departments. In retrospect, Gander regrets that, “during my entire apprenticeship, I was never sent to the warehousing and logistics deparment. That knowledge I had to acquire later on my own.”

Summing up his apprenticeship, he notes that “always being treated like a person and an equal colleague made me very motivated. At the same time, the demands they put on us were extremely high. I had the feeling they expected us 15 –16 year olds to be fully functioning as trained freight forwarders. That often stretched me to my limits.”

After Gander finished his apprenticeship, his career did not take him around the world as originally intended. He remained with GW and travelled high up the career ladder instead. First honing his skills in the Export department and then being put

Roland Gander Regional Director West

... they made me quickly feel that I was a competent and equal employee.

Roland Gander

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From left to right: Marcel Petritsch, Rebecca Madlener, Nina Forster, Roland Gander, Rainer Zengerle,

Apprenticeships: The First Rung of the Career Ladder

in charge of an entire department by the time he was 30. He became Lauterach operations manager in 1995.

“I always had a good eye for the overall flow, for the big picture,” explains Gander. He kept taking on work from other company divisions including development work at GW Vienna and adding his two cents to system management for Europe.

He completed the GW Leadership Development Programme (FKE) in 1997. “These two years were very important to me.” In 1999, Gander was put in charge of the Lauterach branch. In 2005, he became Regional Director West.

Today, forwarding merchant/logistician is still seen as an exotic profession by many young people, as the 2006 list of top apprenticeships in Austria shows: 14,260 retail salespeople, 5,491 hairstylists, 7,094 automotive technicians. According to the Austrian Chamber of Commerce, there are only 692 young people being trained right now as forwarding merchants/logisticians (120 of them at GW, incidentally). As it was the case with Roland Gander, these young people often catch the freight forwarding bug from family members, acquaintances or friends. Nadine Cäsar, now in her ninth month of training, came to an open house at the urging of a friend already working at GW. For Rainer Zengerle, in his second year of training, it was an uncle who got him to look into this career option more closely.

“Today we train our junior generation according to structured training schedules,” explains Wolfgang Krank, a coordinator of the apprenticeship programme at GW. However, the actual training still takes place in the individual departments.

“You won’t find any pure training environment here. Our apprentices are fully integrated into the daily operations and are given their own responsibilities from the very first day.” Wolfgang Krank

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Nadine Cäsar

“You won’t find any pure training environment here. Our apprentices are fully integrated into the daily operations and are given their own responsibilities from the very first day,” emphasises Krank.

This integration has a motivating effect on the young people. Take Nadine Cäsar, for example.

“Every day I deal with a lot of different people here, even customers. Everybody works together as a team. That’s just what I like.”

The trainees spend six months in the single departments. Each division has its own clearlydefined training objectives with evaluations given at the end of each training cycle. And each year, the young forwarding merchant trainees spend 9 1/2 weeks at the vocational school in Mitterndorf to learn the theoretical basis of their future career.

“While everyone else is out there getting a tan, we’re usually still sitting in the classroom,” as

Rainer Zengerle describes his school experiences.

“We have a lot more to learn than, for example, an office clerk. It’s hard, sure, but it’s totally worth it,” he notes not without pride.

“In our job, we need young people who have a good solid base. So for quite a few years now, we’ve been working regularly with the schools and have presented the profession at specific fairs,” explains Wolfgang Krank. With success. Interest is now being shown in droves. Last year, there was a total of 30 applicants for four open apprenticeships in Lauterach. Even so, more than anything else, it’s not the mass, but rather the class which distinguishes the young forwarding merchants at the orange company. “Many of our apprentices graduate from vocational school with honours,” enthuses Krank. So just what are the basic conditions necessary to a successful start in this career?

“Interest in languages is important. English. Or French. The more, the better. German is just as important. Communication is the very heart of logistics. And if someone were to try and find Johannesburg within the Vatican, he’s probably not cut out for freight forwarding work,” smiles Krank. Another make-or-break criterion: one has to be a team player. The young people who look to this career should also be “on the ball”. “After all, we put our apprentices in direct contact with customers.”

And how do today’s apprentices see their vocational future? “After I finish my apprenticeship, I want to get out and see the world,” says Reiner Zengerle. Wasn’t that also Roland Gander’s dream?

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“I thought Orange Future was an incredibly unusual trainee programme. In the time I spent in the programme, I got to learn all the components making up a modern transport and logistics service provider – from IT solutions to scheduling to warehouse logistics.

The ongoing exchange between colleagues who already had hands-on experience in freight forwarding with those coming straight from a college or university was invaluable.

The mentor system gave us the ultimate in support. Orange Future was not only a solid training but it also helped me to develop a network within the GW company right from the start.”

Stefan Huemer, Logistics solutions, GW Upper Austria, OF 2004

Visions, Values and Culture Leadership Development the *orange Way

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At GW, there are many routes to the top, to management positions of responsibility. The company places great value on customary as well as nontraditional channels of personnel development. At present, 24 employees devote their time to making sure that GW employees are fully prepared, not just for the demands they face daily, but also for the future challenges to come their way.

GW has been sending employees to sales seminars on a regular basis ever since the 1970s. In the early 1990s, the FKE Leadership Development Programme underwent major expansion as the strategic focal point for the future management.

The objective is to develop managerial personalities who learn not only the necessary specialised knowledge, but also how to act as a responsible arm of the company with a high degree of problemsolving skills. A two-year, standardised programme introduces the next generation of managers to their future responsibilities and includes seven multi-day seminars, one-on-one exchanges with top level executives, individual consultations with GW coaches and a good amount of individual assignments. The programme pays homage to visions, the “Orange Way”, character and leadership, strategy, people and organisational facets, and practice-oriented managerial conduct.

Seminar management receive regular and qualified feedback from both coaches as well as mentors to ensure that the content and emphasis always reflect the requirements of the company. And all this learning is always a two-way street!

Above and beyond the management skills acquired, the networks which form during the training take on an added importance. The fact that the crop of future managers already know each other and already have good contacts with upper management has a positive impact on working together constructively.

Of the 50 “High Potentials” who have gone through the FKE programme since 2001, 40 are now working in middle or upper management.

Yet, leadership development starts even earlier at GW. Even during the recruiting process, the company strives to attract employees who can bring as much of their own expertise with them as possible. “If it’s already there, we don’t have to train it,” notes Réka Tánczos, Manager of Personnel Development in Hungary. Even more than others, those selected for the “Orange Future” Trainee and Potential Advancement are subject to strict criteria. “I’m more concerned with personality and persuasiveness than I am with scholastic grades,” stresses Personnel Developer Monika Mandl.

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Multi-day seminars, an important component of the orange company’s Leadership Development Programme, pay homage to visions, the *orange way, character and leadership, strategy, people and organisational facets, and practice-oriented managerial conduct.

Absolutely essential, however, is technical specialisation in transport and logistics combined with an excellent command of English. “Orange Future” offers an all-encompassing look at the company as a whole to both trainees straight out of college and High Potentials from the internal ranks. Of importance is the combination of on-the-job learning with theoretical knowledge, the latter communicated in small groups under regular supervision. A mentor, usually the branch manager, makes time for a one-on-one coaching exchange at least once a month, providing the trainee with support and guidance over the entire course of the training period. “Orange Future” is highly popular as the first step toward a successful career at GW – in 2006, there were 300 applicants for 25 spots;

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in 2004, the figure was as high as 600. The network idea reaches to this level as well – the interaction with colleagues and the contacts which develop by cycling through the various departments form the later basis for effective communication and a strong identification with the “Orange World”.

Only a regular and consistent agenda of personnel development will be able to influence the corporate culture to the degree necessary to realise the underlying GW adage: “Visions, Values and Culture”.

“The FKE programme was wonderful training.

I was able to grow in vastly different areas over the two years. From Rhetoric to Presentation Techniques, each and every training unit gave me something I could use – both at work and in my private life. And the personal contact with the other participants also made this a valuable programme.”

“As a brand new college graduate, I found Orange Future to be an ideal initiation into the working world. On the one hand, Michael Sammt Director of Sales and Marketing, the rotation principle introduced me to all the different GW Graz departments a logistics expert needs to be familiar with and, FKE 2000 on the other, I was able to sharpen my technical plus my social skills through the various different training courses.

This form of training allowed me to get to “The FKE showed me my own know employees strengths and how I could best having the most diverse apply them. Self-reflection is an functions throughout essential component of the prothe company and also gramme. That means reflecting make friendships that on one’s personal, social and sysI wouldn’t trade today for tematic strengths and developing anything in the world.

And the best part of it all – them. That way, you become aware of your own abilities and it was really fun!” knowledge or what you need to Martin Steiner work on. Today, the collective Logistics consultant, x|vise OF 2004 knowledge held by a company’s employees is a crucial resource.

I like the programme, because it promotes key areas of proficiency which I feel are of indispensably high importance. In addition, there’s a real network between the participants which I really appreciate.”

Michael Büchele, Regional Management, Air&Sea FKE 1997

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0102 03 05 04 0706 08 Traditional culture, pop culture, subculture, counter culture ...

If culture were an object, it would be one of ever-shifting forms, colours, patterns, and textures. It would have structure, but would be absent of a centre. Or perhaps more accurately, its centre would be so elusive as to render out-ofdate any identification of it by the time it was articulated.

If Culture Were An Object ...

An essay on cultural values

by Scot McElvany

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Customs, dress, habits, rituals, food, language, gestures of greetings and goodbyes, historical achievements (along with historical failures) – these all belong to the sphere of cultural identity, and the list certainly goes on. Culture is the sum equation of all that binds a group of people together and that which differentiates them from others.

Having a cultural identity is not a matter of choice; it is a matter of consequence. Choice begins at acknowledging one’s cultural identity in relation with that of another. The intersection of otherness and ourselves is where intercultural begins, whether we’re aware of it or not. Intercultural awareness, however, is the conscious acknowledgment of otherness.

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“Dealing with the Arab business culture is certainly a challenge, for example their completely different sense of time is something you have to get used to.”

62 00

Tradition and heritage are often mistaken as being the definitive essay on any given culture. This is not to say traditions and heritage are not important. They are vital, sturdy references by which change and evolution of a culture can be measured.

Dubai, Burj al Arab Dubai, Buj al Arab

01

Name: Andreas Dür. Native of: Austria. Function: x|vise Branch Manager.

Based in: Dubai. At current Dubai position: one year. GW employee for five years.

“Our various traditions and the different mentality of the Americans make my work very exciting.”

»Das ist ein Blindtext, der hier für ein Statement eines Mitarbeiter steht.«

“Who are these people, and what is this place all about?”

Regardless of capacity, function, position, service, or venue, for those of us operating internationally there is a kind of mantra that gets repeated inside our heads: “Who are these people, and what is this place all about?” It could be argued that if this question is not being repeated, then perhaps you, your product, your service, whatever the case may be, should quite likely stay at home.

The ability to constructively answer that question, when asked at the onset of any particular venture, begins to define the degree of success or failure ultimately to be achieved. And so, how does one do that? How does one begin to constructively answer that question? Is it about researching history, reading the literary canon, watching movies? Well, yes, no, and maybe – in no particular order.

Tradition and heritage are often mistaken as being the definitive essay on any given culture. This is not to say traditions and heritage are not important. They are vital, sturdy references by which change and evolution of a culture can be measured. But show up in England sporting a derby hat and a pipe and it’s unlikely you’ll be seen as having a solid grasp of British culture. Not that there aren’t people in Britain wearing derby hats and smoking pipes. But as an outsider, it’s more likely you’ll be tagged as being either seriously out of touch or as making a comment on the culture itself. Out of touch is not good, unknowingly making a cultural comment is worse.

USA, Houston, NASA Center

02

Name: Daniela Wurm. Native of: Austria. Function: Branch Manager.

Based in: Houston, USA. At current Houston position: seven months. GW employee for ten years.

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2005 at gw-world

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“What makes my job so exciting is meeting people of all different cultures – learning from them and working together with them.”

“I think it’s important to know something about the country and the people so that I can also talk to my customers about things specific to Switzerland.”

Switzerland, Werdenburg, smallest town in Switzerland

03

Name: Roland Jonach. Native of: Austria. Function: Consultant for Transport and Logistics.

Based in: Altenrhein, Switzerland. At current Altenrhein position: 1 1/2 years. GW employee for twelve years.

Downtown Singapore, Merlion statue

05

Name: Walter Arnfelser. Native of: Austria. Function: Business Development Manager.

Based in: Singapore. At current Singapore position: 3 1/2 years. GW employee for seven years.

“The different mentality people have in the Czech Republic and also the different market conditions here represent a special challenge to working in Prague.”

“Because I come from Kazakhstan, I can do things like translate emails from Russian into German or speak with Russian drivers in their own language.”

Germany, Lindau

04

Name: Julia Gontar. Native of: Kazakhstan. Function: Registration clerk. Based in: Memmingen, Germany.

At current Memmingen position: five months. GW employee for three years.

Czech Republic, Prague, Karl Bridge

06

Name: Harald Prohaska. Native of: Austria. Function: Country Manager.

Based in: Prague, Czech Republic. At current Prague position: five months. GW employee for 27 years.

“The biggest challenge is adapting to the environment within a reasonable amount of time and still implementing the European drive, which has always been successful for us here in the USA.”

“I’ve been able to integrate my Turkish background quite well into my position in Austria, for instance my colleagues really like it when I bring back a special treat or two from a trip to Turkey.”

Austria, Bregenz, Floating Stage

USA, Chicago, Millenium Park

07

Name: Thomas Renz. Native of: Germany. Function: Route Development Manager.

Based in: Miami, USA. At current Miami position: four months. GW employee for 16 years.

08

Name: Halil Sariay. Native of: Turkey and Austria. Function: Scheduler.

Based in: Lauterach, Austria. At current Lauterach position: eight years. GW employee for eight years.

“So, how many cultures have you had to be aware of lately?”

Companies, businesses, and individuals working in an international context aren’t doing so on a strictly bilateral basis, so the task of achieving cultural awareness and understanding can seem daunting. In our globalised market-place economy I can well imagine a couple of chief executives at the end of a long day asking each other: “So, how many cultures have you had to be aware of lately?”

So rather than cultural awareness perhaps we should focus on cultural openness. After all, the aim is to develop relationships of integrity and purpose, with open lines of communication, and ones that are able to withstand moments of misunderstanding. An improper bow in Japan, done with the intention and desire of learning what is proper, is unlikely to produce scorn.

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The process by which the question is constructively answered, that of “who are these people, and what is this place all about?” is in many ways inherently bound to the asking of the question in the first place. Cultural openness has less to do with knowledge of food or dress, even customs and habits, but rather with being receptive to a culture’s priorities.

It is from this place of integrity and purpose, that of being open to the exchange of culture, where the intercultural begins to inform the interpersonal, which then informs the intercultural, and on and on. It is a cycle of exchange that enriches business and person.

“It is a cycle of exchange that enriches business and person.”

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Working in the Year Dot

Kurt Gehrer on 44 years at Gebrüder Weiss

The “flagship” of Gebrüder Weiss in the late 1940s.

Care Packages Bring a New Start Kurt Gehrer could have never imagined he would spend his entire career at Gebrüder Weiss. But not a wasted second, he thinks today, happily recounting the many productive years.

When Gehrer joined Gebrüder Weiss in 1946, times were exceedingly hard. He can still recall the situation as if it were yesterday: “The war had just ended, everyone was starving but there was nothing to eat, nothing was being produced. The economy was dead.” He knew just how lucky he was to be hired on at Gebrüder Weiss. But the tumult of the war had also made a mess of the transport business.

Gehrer still recalls the first large order after the war – the “Care Packages” arranged by the Caritas centre in Switzerland. The charitable arm of the Catholic Church had made it its mission to buy food throughout the world, bundle it into parcels and distribute it in Austria and Germany. Gebrüder Weiss was asked for assistance. “Food rolled into us by the waggon-load – coffee from Brazil, butter from Denmark, cheese from Holland, flour from Canada,” recounts Gehrer. A former military camp was rented just to house all the deliveries. The Maggi company in Bregenz packed the food into small bundles while Gebrüder Weiss employees

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commissioned them for each individual distribution point. “In Germany, it was the churches, monasteries and rectories distributing the packages among the needy, in Austria it was Julius Meinl, a coffee roaster who had a branch in virtually every town.”

Times improved and the care packages were soon no longer necessities. Gehrer left his position at the Bregenz headquarters in 1950 to move to a small branch in Dornbirn which soon took off. He assumed management of Dornbirn in 1970 shortly before the oil crisis. This was another difficult time which initially put the brakes on the thriving business but eventually led to a total rethinking of strategy. “Our trucks used to need 60 to 80 litres of fuel for every 100 kilometres,” reports Kurt Gehrer.

“No one could afford that anymore.” Ensuring the survival of the business under these difficult conditions was a critical challenge.

The course which Gehrer set back then still endures today. At his initiative, Gebrüder Weiss discontinued the practice of pooling traffic with the Danzas company and tackled direct truck traffic within Europe head on. “We began with traffic to and from Rotterdam, which was soon expanded to traffic with Germany and England, and we clear-

After the war, many GW locations lay in ruins as this view of its Vienna office building attests.

Consolidated rail transports were

Airfreight: GW recognised the

the backbone of the company at

opportunities afforded by this

home and abroad in the early

mode of transport early on.

1970s.

ly had more success with that than with the container traffic subsequently going by ship,” recalls Heidi Senger-Weiss, member of the Supervisory Board.

The branch head particularly enjoyed working together with domestic business concerns, watching them grow and maintaining close contact with them. Doing so eventually led to many long-term, lucrative business relationships.

The 1970s and 1980s were times of great technical changes. “We decided way back in 1972 to invest in a modern electronic data processing system, the very next year we set up punched card storage for the accounting department,” recalls Gehrer. Gebrüder Weiss thus became one of the first freight forwarding companies in Austria to invest in high-tech development.

Of all the other, there is one particular day from his long career which Gehrer especially likes to reflect on. “It was in July 1985,” as he tells it. “The huge new facility and office building in Lauterauch had just been finished and we were celebrating the grand opening with a vast crowd of guests from throughout Europe and the USA.” The Austrian President at the time, Rudolf Kirchschläger, had been invited as the guest of honour. He actually made an appearance and ceremoniously opened the new freight forwarding terminal. A momentous occasion for Gebrüder Weiss and a day that Kurt Gehrer will never forget: “Singing the national anthem together with the president, that was one of the best days of my entire career.”

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★★★★★★ service excellence 72 83

Service Excellence in the GW Organisation Interview: On the Difference between Good and Excellent Service

Service Excellence in the Gebrüder Weiss Organisation

The Growth Market of the Future Service Excellence in the Gebrüder Weiss Organisation

by Susanne Nusser

Service – a part of all our daily lives. Whether service feast or famine, we’ve all experienced both. Spending 20 minutes in line just to ship a package is understandably annoying.

Or watching in utter disbelief as the reincarnated service station attendant in the bright yellow uniform whistles while he cleans the windshield, checks the oil, and then extends his hand with an airy “Feel free to thank me”. But when the bookseller addresses us personally because he just got in the new book from our favourite author, we feel like he really cares about us personally and we will definitely return to his shop. What makes service truly meaningful, when does it become actual added value for us personally? These are questions to ask ourselves from the point of view of the customer. As is what differentiates service from excellent service? It’s that decisive juncture where we make the decision to drive to a different service station next time or just stay home and order the book from Amazon.

“Service is the growth market of the future, the new frontier of competition,” explains J. F. Rayport, Professor at Harvard Business School. The fact that given the right services, companies can usually gain a sustainable competitive edge compared to the traditional

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★

★

Service Excellence in the Gebrüder Weiss Organisation

“Sattler and Gebrüder Weiss are joined by a mutual understanding of service. Besides this understanding of service, which should be seen as a basic provision, additional services can be very refreshing in a cooperation. By this I mean quick response times in case of problems, a certain flexibility regarding process support and fast and hassle-free processing of complaints. Fortunately Gebrüder Weiss in general fulfils these requirements and works with this understanding of service.”

Albin Pezzi, Head of Logistics Sattler AG, A-8041 Graz, www.sattler-ag.com

★ Service has its price So what exactly does Service Excellence entail for the tertiary sector of our economy, after having declared service to be nothing less than its core business? GW Managing Director Wolfgang Niessner: “Maximum quality is a basic given which the customer expects from our operations. But excellent service actually means exceeding customer expectations, pleasantly surprising them. This is how to deepen the connection so that thinking about the competition never even enters their minds.”

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★ Stefan Melzer Warehouseman

product model is also confirmed by Oliver Grassmann, Professor of Innovation Management at the University of St. Gallen. But what companies know about the service sector and its importance and how they use that knowledge to systematically develop and design this business area are two very different things. This chasm is explored by Birgit Mager, Europe’s first Professor of Service Design.

Many companies have not yet been able to make the leap of recreating the same efficiency they apply to their industrial product development in their services, Grassmann summarises. No wonder: in 2001, manufacturing companies spent an average of EUR 3,350 per employee on research and development; service enterprises spent a mere EUR 70 (Harvard Business Review).

And yet European companies today make approximately 67% of their total sales on services, only 33% with products. According to the Harvard Business Manager (August 2004), executives of large industrial companies are well aware that excellent service is crucial in order to sustain competitiveness over the long term.

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“In my opinion the term service means doing my work well and promptly.

It comprises everything that serves customer satisfaction. In the warehouse we are not really in contact with the client, but our contribution helps the goods reach their destination in time. For me this is customer service.”

An example: If a freight forwarder is entrusted with transporting a photocopying machine from the manufacturer to its customer, the freight forwarder’s job is contractually finished when he steps through the customer’s front door. If he arrives punctually as arranged, with a friendly smile, in a neat uniform, the customer will be pleased enough. How the secretary then gets the machine up to the fourth floor to where it belongs, unpacks everything, gets the copier up and running and disposes of the old one, that’s technically of no further concern to the freight forwarder. But this is exactly where Service Excellence steps in: showing initiative, offering true added value to the customer, surprising them. In the present example case, the freight forwarder could spend just another half-hour to solve the customer’s problem in the quickest and most convenient way right then and there. But one thing must be clear – this kind of service has its price, and it starts at the manufacturer level in the form of higher transportation costs. Of course, in the end, the higher cost structure is reflected in a product’s price, meaning indirectly assumed by the customer. And yet this same customer would no doubt certainly pay a small surcharge rather than attempt to haul the thing up to the fourth floor all alone.

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Michelle Meusburger Secretary

Lukas Moosbrugger Warehouseman

★ 77

★

Service Excellence in the Gebrüder Weiss Organisation

★ Richard Stadelmann Warehouseman

“At Prefa we try to recognise market requirements and commercial basic conditions at an early stage and to efficiently use this information for our customers and our company. Thereby we safeguard long-term value and growth. We are not satisfied with ‘working’ the market, we want to design it. It is very important to us that the high flexibility and enthusiasm Gebrüder Weiss employees have shown in the past can be maintained for the future. Only with motivated and enthusiastic employees the challenges of the market can be met. Outsourcing logistics to Gebrüder Weiss has given Prefa the necessary flexibility to cope with the growth of the last few years. In the logistics sector, future growth of Prefa can only be coped with the ongoing high enthusiasm of all employees of Gebrüder Weiss.”

Ing. Martin Ziegelwanger, Head Logistic & Supply Chain Management Prefa Aluminiumprodukte Ges.m.b.H., www.prefa.com

★ Service is never static Customers have become more demanding about the services they receive. What was considered unusual or special just ten years ago, for example shipment tracking and tracing, is today an integral part of basic standard service. Many newly-developed extras become standard very quickly which constitutes a constant challenge for the vendor. “Service is definitely a living product,” as Service Design Professor Mager puts it. It’s something that’s never finished, in a permanent state of development, closely tied to the environment from which it springs and bases its knowledge.

The customer of today wants high-quality solutions, personalised service packages tailored specifically to his or her very own needs.

Hewlett Packard (HP) has worked together with Gebrüder Weiss for a good ten years.

“We collect HP merchandise from 24 depots, transport it to Vienna, consolidate and order pick it there, and then ship it to 16 different destinations throughout Europe,” explains Thomas Mayer, Logistics Director for GW Vienna.

➜ continued on page 82

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Ingrid Caldonazzi and Maria-Luise Schaedl Cleaning staff

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★ Bruno Bastiani Warehouseman

“When we talk about service, people are at the centre of our consideration. So we do not clean the offices at night when nobody is at work anymore. We clean them in the late afternoon, so we see and talk to the employees whose offices we keep shipshape. Only by talking to them we can find out whether they are satisfied with our work. This is very important for us. Good service is to do that little bit more than is required.”

“Being a trucker, reliability and punctuality are most important, even if it is not easy considering the amount of traffic we encounter on the roads nowadays. But we keep trying to deliver the goods in time – that is the service we render to the clients.”

Sirin Halil Trucker

★ Service Excellence is individual Yet the customer wants more. “HP values extremely fast processing,” says Mayer. “We transport the products in our own vehicles, on other lines and doubled up, all to ensure that there are never any intermissions.” There is also a security aspect involved. “When carrying such expensive freight on board, any stop along the route carries the risk of being robbed,” notes the Logistics Director. Extra-secure guarded areas were also set up for HP in the handling terminal, a further Service Excellence.

Even Track & Tracing was designed expressly for HP, in order to provide a precise and accurate tracking over the “life-cycle” of each shipment. “We are constantly feeding our shipment data into the HP databases,” says Mayer. “We even developed the special interfaces needed to link our data systems ourselves.”

Recently, GW employees have also been reviewing internal HP processes first-hand, with an eye to streamlining them to yield shorter transit times. “We’ve got to think outside of the box, be right on top of our customers’ processes,” of that he is convinced. This is the point where the decisive added value enters into the equation – Service Excellence for the customer.

According to the most recent customer satisfaction survey, 87 % of GW’s customers maintained or increased their partnership in the past year. The statistics indicate that this is not only attributable to the customers’ own good contracts, but also to the reliable and flexible processing, the price structuring and the personal touch of the GW service.

“We try to anticipate trends for our customers proactively and cooperate with them in designing innovative solutions,” explains Managing Director Wolfgang Niessner.

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“It is our employees that distinguish us from our competitors” Wolfgang and Michaela Birklbauer from Schlosshotel Mondsee on the difference between good and excellent service and why the hotel manager himself sometimes cleans the crystal personally.

Mrs. Birklbauer, together with your husband you manage Schlosshotel Mondsee. In the hotel business service is a very important aspect: What do you think is the difference between ‘good’ and ‘excellent’ service?

What is ‘good’ and what is ‘excellent’ is decided by our guests. Our task is to recognise their wishes and needs, only then we will be able to offer excellent service. Perfection is not of top priority here, it’s the well-being of our guests, their feeling comfortable and cared for, which means that their wishes, even when they have not been articulated, are acknowledged and met.

Our guests have varied ideas and expectations concerning service at a hotel and it is the sensitivity of our employees that is needed here. The real challenge is that very different people are to feel at home in a very short time.

Therefore my husband and I actually ‘hand-pick’ our staff and we take quite a lot of time with this. A potential employee is invited to an interview two or three times and only after a settlingin and trial period it is decided whether they are to join the team or not.

Mr. Birklbauer, we could see you in full action at the Gebrüder Weiss Sales Days: Whether it was polishing the glasses behind the bar, serving at tables at the restaurant – you were

“When I entertain guests at my home, I want to make each and any of them actually feel at home. In my hotel it is the same.”

Wolfgang Birklbauer

there all the time wherever somebody was needed. Not all hotel managers are that committed, are they?

Well, I see it like this: When I entertain guests at my home, I want to make each and any of them actually feel at home. In my hotel it is the same. For me it is normal to be able to stand in the guests’ shoes and understand their needs and act accordingly. Therefore my wife and I see ourselves as host and hostess first – being hotel managers comes second.

And what about your employees?

I think our employees are appreciating that we never leave them in the lurch.

If there is need we are assisting them like everybody else. The ‘hardware’ is more or less the same in every hotel.

OK, the Schlosshotel has generously equipped rooms and is very special.

But it is the ‘software’, our team that makes all the difference. Only with their help we can distinguish ourselves from our competitors. And we must see to that. If the boss is in a good mood, the employees are highly motivated. Together we are successful and have a lot of fun.

Both of you have been trained in the tourism line: Can service as such be learned?

Well, up to a certain degree. But the basic requirement is your own selfimage. The verb ‘to serve’ is hidden in the word ‘service’ and it is not enough to know this – you have to live it as well.

★

Service Excellence in the Gebrüder Weiss Organisation

“Ravensburger is working internationally on the consumer goods market. There are various requirements of markets and individual trade customers which sometimes have to be fulfilled at very short notice. Service within a co-operation means to me that both partners have the desire and the skills to fulfil our customers’ requirements to their satisfaction, and that both partners put this into practice to their mutual benefit. From Gebrüder Weiss I would especially expect a fast and effective exchange of information. Service also means quick response times, effective problem solving on a joint basis as well as an open basis for communication. Of course, there are basic requirements as well: Punctuality, fault-free equipment, politeness …

Be it the compulsory or the freestyle style part of these service aspects, Ravensburger feels in good hands with Gebrüder Weiss!”

Knuth Westecker, Group Logistic Manager Ravensburger Spieleverlag GmbH, www.ravensburger.com

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➜ continued on page 87

★ Hans-Peter Dorner Logistics Consultant

★ Customer needs take centre stage This is not the case everywhere. A review of German banks and insurance companies conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research in 2002 revealed that these companies get their ideas for new services from their competitors or consultants, but not from their customers. The consequence: very few differences among offers, which leads to a dearth of competitive advantages (Harvard Business Manager 10/04).

It is often telling to “walk a mile in the customer’s shoes”. Jochen Humpeler, working for Weiss-Rohlig in Dubai, knows this all too well. He sees being the most attuned to the customer as the only way to stand out from the other 2,500 local freight forwarders. “The customer needs to know that we recognise the relationships, understand what’s important to him, so that we can plan and provide the best possible transport programme.”

Martin Ziegelwanger, Logistics Director for Prefa Aluminiumprodukte GmbH, is of like mind. Since outsourcing its logistics to Gebrüder Weiss, Prefa GmbH has more viable resources for its own core business. “Prefa’s future growth can only be managed with the high operational readiness, flexibility and expertise of the GW employees.”

For customers serving the international consumer goods market like game/toy publisher Ravensburger Spieleverlag, rapid response times and joint, effective problem-solving play a crucial role. “We feel like we are in good hands with Gebrüder Weiss, both in terms of the standard as well as the above-and-beyond services,” affirms Knuth Westecker, Group Logistics Manager for Ravensburger.

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“GW is a service provider which means that excellent service is our main asset. In our line it seems to be vital to find out first which kind of service our clients really need and then to see to the best solution individually. For the different branch offices this is an important issue that can be helped by our work as customer support department.”

Wolfgang Brunner Head of Project Management Logistics

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“Service for me is optimum performance concerning our clients’ requirements, i.e. goods have to be delivered undamaged and in time. Our clients trust us.

Therefore it is very important for me to handle their goods with great care and a sense of responsibility.

The goods must be loaded carefully, so that there are no damages or loading errors.”

Alfred Hauer Storekeeper

★ External Service Excellence builds upon internal services Service Excellence for customers only functions when in-house operations are also ensured at the highest level.

Klaus Heim, IT Manager for GW, sees himself and his department as an internal service provider. “Without a stable and high-performing technical infrastructure and the associated applications to efficiently handle the individual business processes, our industry would come to a complete standstill.” When faced with disruptions, he constantly strives to react in a customer-oriented fashion and to restore the critical functionality to users as quickly as possible.

While having the latest technology at one’s fingertips is indispensable, for Erich Fuchs, Air & Sea Sales Manager in Vienna, the very heart of Service Excellence is the employees.

They should always have the best possible environment in which to perform their daily tasks in a professional manner. “Service Excellence begins with each individual employee, and in fact with the smallest of things, things like returning calls when promised or forwarding requested information as quickly as possible – externally as well as internally,” says Fuchs.

Birgit Sohm in Human Resources takes all employee concerns and needs seriously – that constitutes her own personal Service Excellence which sometimes goes beyond the normal scope of her duties. “I’m happy to be able to help an employee fill out a family benefits application form or help figure out tax-deductible commuting expenses. It’s just a little thing for me, but it’s a big help to my co-worker.”

➜ continued on page 91

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“Service to me means supporting the customer in all areas. From the co-operation with Gebrüder Weiss I expect to have a trusted contact that will help me as a whole. This is important to me as I require fast and reliable information.”

Mag (FH) Alexander Sperl, Assistant to the Head of Logistics KTM Sportmotorcycle AG, www.ktm.at

Thomas Förg IT employee

★

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“The Customer Care Center is the first and quite often the only place to go to for the client, which makes comprehensive technical knowledge indispensable for the agents. Service for me is to find solutions together with the client. The client must always have the impression that the service is tailored according to his requirements. Good service in connection with the Customer Care Center means answering the clients’ questions without delay, friendly and competently. I think that in the future service will be the decisive factor for customers.”

Barbara Leeb Call Center Agent, Dicall

Klaus Schwerzler Caretaker

★ Service starts with advancement Selective advancement of employees has been a GW strategy since the 1970s. Managing Director Peter Kloiber, in charge of personnel development since 1990, oversees management training and development, apprenticeships and the company’s career planning programmes. At present, 15 college graduates and 10 “High-Potentials” of different nationalities are immersed in the “Orange Future” trainee programme.

Service Excellence starts from within, with the best possible advancing of one’s own potential. ★ Some work still to be done Service is the growth market of the future – GW management also sees good opportunities here and has proclaimed 2007 as the Year of Service Excellence. Customers are to be integrated into the innovative processes more intensively in the future. Reported complaints could be scrutinised even more in order to pinpoint mistakes and introduce improvements in a timely fashion. The latest customer satisfaction survey shows that there is still some work to be done in this regard.

As such, it is a case of employees and customers being jointly challenged to work together in the future to attain the best results, to achieve Service Excellence. ★

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addresses

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GW Addresses

The Addresses of Gebrüder Weiss

Switzerland CH-9423 Altenrhein (SG) Werftstrasse 1 T +41.71.858.55.55 F +41.71.858.55.50 gw.schweiz@gw-world.com service.altenrhein@gw-world.com

HEADQUARTERS A-6923 Lauterach Bundesstraße 110 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.70928 service@gw-world.com

SURFACE TRANSPORT

A-6923 Lauterach Bundesstraße 110 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.79303 gw.lauterach@gw-world.com

A-6961 Wolfurt Am Güterbahnhof, Postfach 3 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.696.1110 gw.wolfurt@gw-world.com

A-2333 Leopoldsdorf Arbeitergasse 46 T +43.1.79799 F +43.1.79799.619 gw.leopoldsdorf@gw-world.com

A-6300 Wörgl Gewerbepark 9 T +43.5332.70011 F +43.5332.70011.25 gw.woergl@gw-world.com

A-4020 Linz Prinz-Eugen-Straße 33, Postfach 309 T +43.732.7655.0 F +43.732.771311 gw.linz@gw-world.com

Germany

Austria A-2326 Maria Lanzendorf Wiener Straße 26 T +43.1.79799.0 F +43.1.79799.7100 gw.wien@gw-world.com A-6700 Bludenz Äuleweg 14-16, Postfach 22 T +43.5522.334.0 F +43.5522.334.533 gw.bludenz@gw-world.com

A-9063 Maria Saal/Klagenfurt Wutschein 46 T +43.4223.5050.0 F +43.4223.5050.35 gw.kaernten@gw-world.com

A-6800 Feldkirch Reichsstraße 149, Postfach 29 T +43.5522.334.0 F +43.5522.334.41 gw.feldkirch@gw-world.com

A-3380 Pöchlarn Manker Straße 55 T +43.2757.4004.0 F +43.2757.4004.33 gw.poechlarn@gw-world.com

A-8055 Graz Alte Poststraße 376, Postfach 18 T +43.316.2904.0 F +43.316.296515 gw.graz@gw-world.com

A-5020 Salzburg Robinigstraße 57, Postfach 159 T +43.662.88912.0 F +43.662.88912.112 gw.salzburg@gw-world.com

A-6060 Hall Löfflerweg 35 T +43.5223.206.0 F +43.5223.206.324 gw.hall@gw-world.com

94

A-4600 Wels Terminalstraße 91 T +43.70.7655 F +43.70.7655.790

D-87700 Memmingen Karatasstraße 6 T +49.8331.9844.0 F +49.8331.9844.225 service.memmingen@ gw-world.com D-88131 Lindau Heuriedweg 20 T +49.8382.708.0 F +49.8382.708.300 service.lindau@gw-world.com D-94036 Passau Industriestraße 14b T +49.851.807 F +49.851.807.10 Service.passau@gw-world.com Spedition Zinner D-90431 Nürnberg Kirchhoffstraße 2 T +49.911.958886 F +49.911.958886.20 info@sped-zinner.com

CH-4057 Basel Uferstrasse 90 T +41.61.638.15.15 F +41.61.638.15.55 service.basel@gw-world.com Croatia HR-10000 Zagreb Jankomir 25 T +385.1.3436.945 F +385.1.3871.834 gw.croatia@gw-world.com HR-47000 Karlovac Ilovac 29 T +385.47.637261 F +385.47.637262 gw.croatia@gw-world.com Slovakia SK-903 01 Senec Dia¬niçná cesta 2 T +421.2.4020 05 00 F +421.2.4020 05 60 gw.slovakia@gw-world.com

SK-821 01 Bratislava Tomá√ikova 31 T +421.2.492 96 111 F +421.2.492 96 113 gw.slovakia@gw-world.com

SK-831 04 Bratislava Stavite¬ská 7 T +421.2.4488 75 71 F +421.2.4487 38 47 gw.slovakia@gw-world.com

SK-974 03 Banská Bystrica Zvolenská cesta 14 T +421.48.416 23 16 F +421.48.416 24 84 gw-slovakia@gw-world.com ˇ SK-010 65 Zilina Ko√ická 2 T +421.41.500 40 08 F +421.41.500 40 09 gw.slovakia@gw-world.com SK-040 01 Kosice ˇ Letná 45 T +421.55.729 86 49 F +421.55.729 86 51 gw.slovakia@gw-world.com Slovenia SI-1000 Ljubljana Celovska cesta 492 T +386.1.5134550 F +386.1.5134564 gw.slovenia@gw-world.com Czech Republic CZ-25219 Rudná/Praha K Vypichu 986 T +420.311.659.111 F +420.311.659.110 gw.czech@gw-world.com CZ-664 42 Brno – Modrˇice Central Trade Park Modrice Brnenska 870 T +420.548 427 219 F +420.547 217 102 gw.czech@gw-world.com

Hungary Gebrüder Weiss KFT. H-2330 Dunaharaszti, Pf. 33 MO-Dunaharaszti leágazás T +36.24.55.55.55 F +36.24.55.55.00 gw.hungary@gw-world.com Bulgaria Gebrüder Weiss EOOD BG-1184 Sofia Zarigradsko Chaussee-7.km, ZIT T +359.2.9700.400 F +359.2.9700.431 headoffice@weisslogistics.bg Gebrüder Weiss EOOD BG-8000 Burgas Graf Ignatiev Str. 7, RAUM 402 T +359.56.841.603 F +359.56.841.603 office.bourgas@weisslogistics.bg Gebrüder Weiss EOOD BG-6100 Kazanlak 53, Rozova Dolina Blvd.

T +359.431.625.73 F +359.431.641.95 office.kazanlak@weisslogistics.bg Gebrüder Weiss EOOD BG-9000 Varna 5th Floor, Office No 15, Devnya Str.12B T +359.52.612.111 F +359.52.612.414 office.varna@weisslogistics.bg Romania

CZ-370 04 C ˇ eské Budeˇ jovice Zerotinova 1 T +420.387 313 060 F +420.387 313 036 gw.czech@gw-world.com CZ-70030 Ostrava – Zábrˇeh U Studia 2253/28 T +420.597 010 112 F +420.597 010 113 gw.czech@gw-world.com

Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L. RO-061129 Bucures¸ ti Bd. Iuliu Maniu, 598 D – 600 A, Sector 6, T +40.21.4076.600 F +40.21.4076.609 office@gw-world.ro

95

GW Addresses

Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L. RO-310345 Arad UTA Industrieal Park, Str. Poetului 1C T +40.257.289.222 F +40.257.289.022 Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L. RO-500152 Brasov Strada Turnului Nr. 5 T +40.268.420431 F +40.268.420431

BUSINESS UNITS TECTRAXX HIGH TECH LOGISTICS A-1211 Wien Gebrüder Weiss GmbH Logistik-Center B17 Brown Boveri-Straße 6 A-2351Wr. Neudorf T +43.1.2236.864290.214 F +43.1.2236.864290.139 office@tectraxx.com

Serbia SCG-11070 Novi Beograd Luja Adamica 34/39 T +381.11.609.137 F +381.11.603.259 office.beograd@ weisslogistics.net SCG-24000 Subotica Edvarda Kardelja 106/a T +381.24.46017 F +381.24.46017 office.subotica@ weisslogistics.net Ukraine UA-89600 Mukachevo Wul. Kooperatiwna 46, Techno Center »Karpati« Zakarpatska obl.

T +380.3131.37973 F +380.3131.37973 Japan Gebrüder Weiss Ltd. Stage-Sendagi 102 5-50-2 Sendagi Bunkyu-Ku Tokyo 113-0022 Japan T +81.3.3828-7450 F +81.3.3828.7451

96

AUTOMOTIVE LOGISTICS A-4600 Wels Terminalstraße 91 T +43.732.7655.784 F +43.732.7655.790 automotive@gw-world.com

LEISURE+SPORTS LOGISTICS A-3380 Pöchlarn Manker Straße 55 T +43.2757.4004.19 F +43.2757.4004.35 sports@gw-world.com

Air & Sea Terminal A-8073 Feldkirchen Flughafen Graz/Thalerhof T +43.316.294249 F +43.316.294249.16 air-sea-graz@gw-world.com Air & Sea Terminal A-4063 Hörsching Flughafen Linz-Hörsching Flughafenstraße 1 T +43.7221.64580 F +43.7221.63824 air-sea-linz@gw-world.com Air & Sea Terminal A-6060 Hall Löfflerweg 35 T +43.5223.206.0 F +43.5223.206.482 air-sea@gw-world.com Air & Sea Terminal A-9063 Maria-Saal/Klagenfurt Wutschein 46 T +43.4223.5050 F +43.4223.5050.35 air-sea-klagenfurt@gw-world.com

AIR & SEA

Air & Sea Terminal A-5020 Salzburg Robinigstraße 57 T +43.662.88912 F +43.662.88912.80 air-sea-salzburg@gw-world.com

Austria

Germany

Air & Sea Terminal A-6961 Wolfurt Senderstraße 34 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.696.840 air-sea-wolfurt@gw-world.com

Weiss Ocean+Air Cargo GmbH D-20459 Hamburg Vorsetzen 54 T +49.40.54005.0 F +49.40.54005.157 gw.hamburg@gw-world.com

Air & Sea Terminal A-1300 Wien-Schwechat VIE-Speditionsgeb.Obj. 263 T +43.1.7007.32292 F +43.1.7007.33472 air-sea-vienna@gw-world.com

Switzerland CH-8058 Zürich-Flughafen Frachthof West T +41.43.816 58 68 F +41.43.816 58 66 air-sea-zuerich@gw-world.com

Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L. RO-900900 Constanta Incinta Port Constanta, Cladire Radacina Mol 3, Etaj 1 T +40.241.480.955 F +40.241.480.958 Czech Republic

Slovenia Air & Sea Terminal SI-1000 Ljubljana Airport Ljubljana T +386.4.201.8490 F +386.4.201.8494 Slovakia SK-831 04 Bratislava Stavite¬ská 7 T +421.2.4920 50 21 F +421.2.4920 50 50 air-sea-bratislava@gw-world.com Croatia

Air & Sea Terminal CZ-16008 Praha 6 Terminal Menzies/P.O. Box 132 T +420.2.201162.89 F +420.2.242810.54 air-sea-prague@gw-world.com Air & Sea Terminal CZ-70030 Ostrava U-Studia 2253/28 T +420.59.7010112 F +420.59.7010113 air-sea-ostrava@gw-world.com Air Terminal BRQ CZ-66442 Modrice CTPark Modrice Evropska 870 T +420.548.427.221/234 F +420.547.216.787 air-sea-brno@gw-world.com

WEISS-ROHLIG Hong Kong Weiss-Rohlig Hong Kong Kowloon, Hong Kong Unit A, 3/Floor, Pioneer Building 213 Wai Yip Street, Kwun Tong T +852.2268.9300 F +852.2345.6060 info-hongkong@ weiss-rohlig.com.hk China Weiss-Rohlig Shanghai 200021 Shanghai, PR China Room 1714-1719, 1 Corporate Avenue No. 222 Hubin Road T +86.21.6340.6000 F +86.21.6340.6858 info-shanghai@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Hungary

Weiss-Rohlig Beijing 100027 Beijing, PR China F-7-F, Fu Hua Mansion, No.8 Chaoyang Men Avenue (N) T +86.10.5166.8100 F +86.10.6554.3090 info-beijing@weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Gebrüder Weiss EOOD BG-1184 Sofia Zarigradsko Chaussee-7.km, ZIT T +359.2.97004.0 F +359.2.97004.31

Air & Sea Terminal H-2220 Vecsés, Lorinci út 59.

Airport Business Park Building C4 T +36.29.553.900 F +36.29.553.953 air-sea-budapest@gw-world.com

Weiss-Rohlig Dalian 116001 Dalian, PR China Rm.A, 21 Fl., Li Yuan Mansion No. 16 Mingzi Street T +86.411.82691.566 F +86.411.82691.516 info-dalian@weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Romania

Italy (Joint Venture)

Gebrüder Weiss S.R.L. RO-061129 Bucures¸ ti Bd. Iuliu Maniu, 598 D – 600 A, Sector 6 T +40.21.407.6600 F +40.21.407.6609

Brigl Weiss Air & Sea Cargo SRL I-39100 Bolzano Via Mitterhofer 1 T +39.0471.246.276 F +39.0471.246.180 fabio.lisciotto@briglweiss.it

Weiss-Rohlig Nanjing 210018 Nanjing, PR China Rm.13A, Deji Mansion No.188 Changjiang Road T +86.25.8681.6006 F +86.25.8681.6007 info-nanjing@weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Air & Sea Terminal HR-10150 Zagreb Zracna Luka Avio Poslovnica Pleso BB T +385.1.6265211 F +385.1.6256491 Bulgaria

97

GW Addresses

Weiss-Rohlig Ningbo 315020 Ningbo, PR China Room 406, No. 132 Renmin Road T +86.574.2788.8201 F +86.574.2788.8200 info-ningbo@weiss-rohlig.com.cn Weiss-Rohlig Qingdao 266003 Qingdao, PR China Rm.400, Huiquan Dynasty Hotel No. 9 Nanhai Road T +86.532.8287.6666 F +86.532.8287.6140 info-qingdao@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn Weiss-Rohlig Tianjin 300042 Tianjin, PR China B22 D-E Mansion of Triumphal Arch 66 Nanjing Road, Hexi District T +86.22.2339.8246 F +86.22.2339.8248 info-tianjin@weiss-rohlig.com.cn Weiss-Rohlig Urumqui 830011 Urumqui Xinjiang PR China Rm 1109, Markor Plaza No.26 South Beijing Road T +86.991.3665.806 F +86.991.3665.807 info-urumqui@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn Weiss-Rohlig Xiamen 361006 Xiamen, PR China Rm 1904/06/08 Minmetal Building No. 226 Dongdu Road T +86.592.3107.558 F +86.592.3107.498 info-xiamen@weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Weiss-Rohlig Zhanjiang 524000 Zhanjiang, PR China GuoMao, Bldg. B, Suite 6B06 No. 53 Renmin Nan Road, Xiashan District T +86.759.2660500 F +86.759.2660400 info-zhanjiang@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Weiss-Rohlig Singapore PTE.LTD. Singapore 918105 Changi Cargo Agents Megaplex 1 119 Airport Cargo Road #04-02 T +65.6785.3393 F +65.6785.0300 lincoln@weiss-rohlig.com.sg

Weiss-Rohlig Shenzhen 518027 Shenzhen, PR China Information and Cultural Center Suite 2515 No. 2 Shennan Road, Luo Hu District T +86.755.2595.1800 F +86.755.2595.1900 info-shenzhen@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn

Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 1555 Mittel Blvd., Suite N Chicago Wood Dale, IL 60191 T +1.630.6948.341 F +1.630.6948.546 info-chi@weiss-rohlig.us

Weiss-Rohlig Xi’an 710075 Xi’an, PR China Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Unit 505B, Huoju Building No.48 Gaoxin Road T +86.029.8831.7047 F +86.029.8831.7078 info-xian@weiss-rohlig.com.cn Weiss-Rohlig Chengdu 610015 Chengdu Sichuan PR China Unit H, 8th Floor Guoxin Mansion No.77 Xiyu Street T +86.028.8619.8000 F +86.028.8619.8001 info-chengdu@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn Singapore

Weiss-Rohlig Guangzhou 510080 Guangzhou, PR China Rm. 2012, 20/F Guangfa Bank Center No. 83 Nonglinxia Rd. T +86.20.87311699 F +86.20.87311700 info-guangzhou@ weiss-rohlig.com.cn 98

Weiss-Rohlig Singapore PTE.LTD. Singapore 169877 171 Chin Swee Road #04-01 San Centre T +65.6535.3345 F +65.6535.7747 lincoln@weiss-rohlig.com.sg

USA

Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 20 Commerce Drive, Suite 226 New York Cranford, NJ 07016 T +1.908.9311.500 F +1.908.9311.593 info-nyc@weiss-rohlig.us Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 3400 Torrance Blvd, Suite 102 Los Angeles Torrance, CA 90503 T +1.310.5402.394 F +1.310.5407.307 info-lax@weiss-rohlig.us Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 7205 NW 19th Street, Bldg 5, Suite 400 Miami, FL 33126 T +1.305.716.0884 F +1.305.716.0885 info-mia@weiss-rohlig.us Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 1300 North Sam Houston Parkway East, Suite 200 Houston, TX 77032 T +1.281.2276.666 F +1.281.2193.631 info-hou@weiss-rohlig.us

Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC P.O. Box 45209 Atlanta, GA 30320 T +1.630.9089.666 F +1.305.7160.885 Cindym.atl@weiss-rohlig.us

Depot 626 A-6060 Hall in Tirol Schlöglstraße 45 T +43.5223.5802.0 F +43.5223.53439 depot626@dpd.at

Weiss-Rohlig USA LLC 1001 Bay Hill Drive, 2nd Floor, Suite 281 San Francisco San Bruno, CA 94066 T +1.650.616.4030 F +1.650.616.4001

Depot 628 A-8401 Kalsdorf bei Graz Feldkirchenstraße 14-16 T +43.810.810.110 F +43.3135.57770 kundendienst@dpd.at

United Arab Emirates (UAE) Weiss-Rohlig U.A.E. LLC Al Shamsi Building, 1st Floor, Unit 120, Karama P.O. Box 2737, Dubai United Arab Emirates T +971,4.337.2340 F +971.4.334.8143 Jochen.humpeler@ weiss-rohlig.ae

Depot 630 A-8700 Leoben Waltenbachstraße 7 T +43.810.810.110 F +43.3842.8347.214 kundendienst@dpd.at Depot 622 A-2100 Leobendorf bei Wien Industriezeile 2 T +43.810.810.110 F +43.2262.6819.223 kundendienst@dpd.at

Mongolia Weiss-Rohlig Co. No. 11, Building 4, 1st 40000, 1 Khoroo Ulan Bator City, Mongolei T +976.11.982078 F +976.11.326562 info-ulaanbaatar@ weiss-rohlig.mn

GWP – GEBRÜDER WEISS PARCEL SERVICE (DPD) Depot 621 – Head Office A-2333 Leopoldsdorf bei Wien Arbeitergasse 50 T +43.810.810.110 F +43.2235.432.89 kundendienst@dpd.at

Depot 623 A-3380 Pöchlarn Manker-Straße 55 T +43.810.810.110 F +43.2757.8867 kundendienst@dpd.at Depot 627 A-6832 Sulz Industriestraße 16 T +43.5522.74520 F +43.5522.74520.61 depot627@dpd.at

M & G EXPRESS SK-831 06 Bratislava Na pántoch 10 T +421.2.4488 00 10 F +421.2.4488 00 13 ba@mgexpres.sk SK-949 01 Nitra Bratislavská 3 T +421.37.657 59 11 F +421.37.651 82 70 nr@mgexpres.sk ˇ SK-965 01 Ziar nad Hronom Priemyselná 628 T +421.45.672 74 00 F +421.45.672 47 02 zh@mgexpres.sk SK-971 01 Prievidza Teplárenská 1 T +421.46.542 57 41 F +421.46.542 57 45 pd@mgexpres.sk SK-971 01 Prievidza NábreΩná 4 T +421.46.542 18 16 F +421.46.542 18 16 marketing@mgexpres.sk SK-911 01 Tren cín ˇ Zlatovská cesta 29 T +421.32.658 15 61 F +421.32.652 23 40 tn@mgexpres.sk SK-974 01 Banská Bystrica 29. Augusta 35 T +421.48.414 47 59 F +421.48.414 21 40 bb@mgexpres.sk SK-974 01 Banská Bystrica Rudlovská cesta 53 T +421.48.414 69 65 F +421.48.414 39 28 bb@mgexpres.sk

99

GW Addresses

SK-977 01 Brezno Areál zimného √tadióna T +421.48.611 46 55 F +421.48.611 46 55 br@mgexpres.sk SK-058 01 Poprad Hrani ná 689/22 T +421.52.772 41 67 F +421.52.772 41 66 pp@mgexpres.sk SK-040 01 Kosice ˇ JuΩná trieda 125 T +421.55.678 88 95 F +421.55.625 16 15 ke@mgexpres.sk SK-080 01 Presov ˇ Jilemnického 1 T +421.51.773 14 09 F +421.51.772 46 00 po@mgexpres.sk SK-066 01 Humenné Jasenovská 2500 T +421.57.775 71 05 F +421.57.775 59 39 he@mgexpres.sk

INET-LOGISTICS Austria inet-logistics GmbH A-6961Wolfurt Holzriedstraße 29 T +43.5574.806.0 F +43.5574.806.1599 office@inet-logistics.com inet-logistics GmbH A-1010 Wien Annagasse 5 T +43.1.512.7771.100 F +43.1.512.7771.150 office.wien@inet-logistics.com

100

Germany

DICALL

CUSTOMS OFFICES

Switzerland

inet-logistics GmbH 61440 Oberursel In der Au 19 Deutschland office.frankfurt@ inet-logistics.com

Weiss Logistik Systeme GmbH A-8401 Kalsdorf bei Graz Feldkirchenstraße 14-16 T +43.3135.54879 F +43.3135.200.25.29 office@dicall.com

Austria

CH-9430 St.Margarethen Altfeldstrasse 9 T +41.71.747 50 30 F +41.71.744 41 87 gw.schweiz@gw-world.com kundencenter.schweiz@ gw-world.com

Switzerland LOGISTIK ZONE TYROL inet-logistics GmbH CH-5000 Aarau Bahnhofstrasse 70 T +41.62.8239321 F +41.62.8239322 office.aarau@inet-logistics.com

X|VISE

A-6060 Hall Löfflerweg 35 T +43.5223.9001.0 F +43.5223.9001.860 info@lztirol.com

GEBRÜDER WEISS RAIL CARGO

Austria x|vise innovative logistics GmbH A-6923 Lauterach Bundesstraße 110 T +43.5574.606-0 F +43.5574.606-363 office@xvise.com x|vise innovative logistics GmbH A-1110 Wien Simmeringer Hauptstraße 24 T +43.1.74040.494 F +43.1.74040.493 office@xvise.com x|vise innovative logistics GmbH A-8055 Graz Alte Poststraße 376 T +43.5574.606-380 F +43.5574.606-363 office@xvise.com United Arab Emirates (UAE) x|vise innovative logistics Dubai Airport Free Zone P.O. Box 54731 T +971.50.6403224 F +971.4.3614510 Andreas.duer@xvise.com

A-1030 Wien Litfaßstraße 8 T +43.1.79799 F +43.1.79881.65 rail.cargo@gw-world.com

FASHIONET-AUSTRIA TEXTILSPEDITION GMBH. A-2333 Leopoldsdorf Arbeitergasse 50 T +43.223.547838 F +43.223.543839 info@fashionet.co.at

POSEIDON SPEDITIONS-GES.MBH Messe- und Spezialtransporte A-1030 Wien Litfaßstraße 8 T +43.1.79799.971 F +43.1.7983705 event@poseidon.at

A-6912 Hörbranz Autobahnzollamt T +43.5573.83112 F +43.5573.83112.6 A-6960 Wolfurt Büro Gemeinschaftszollamt T +43.5574.696.1258 F +43.5574.696.1182 A-6890 Lustenau Grenzübergang T +43.5577.827491 F +43.5577.827490 A-6845 Hohenems Grenzübergang T +43.5576.73771 F +43.5576.77186

CH-9434 Au Grenze T +41.71.747 48 00 F +41.71.747 4809 gw.schweiz@gw-world.com service.altenrhein@gw-world.com A-6960 Wolfurt Gemeinschaftszollamt CH/AT T +43.5574.696 1258 F +43.5574.696 1182 gw.wolfurt@gw-world.com kundencenter.schweiz@ gw-world.com

A-6812 Feldkirch-Meiningen Grenzübergang T +43.5522.74104 F +43.5522.78084 A-6800 Feldkirch-Tisis Grenzübergang T +43.5522.76449 F +43.5522.78138 A-2421 Kittsee Neuer Zollamtsplatz T +43.2143.30003 F +43.2143.30004 A-1020 Wien Zollfreizone, Seitenhafenstraße 15 T +43.1.7289516 F +43.1.7289509 A-2165 Drasenhofen Grenzbüro 257 T +43.2554.8136 F +43.2554.85488

101

Gebrüder Weiss GmbH

Project Management

We would like to thank all the

MAKOM

Wolfram Senger-Weiss

people instrumental in the

Bundesstraße 110

Johannes Angerer

production of this annual report, especially those who

A-6923 Lauterach Austria

Editorial Team

supported us with regard to

Johannes Angerer, Sina Balke

photography.

Production Gabi Schneider, Raimund Fink Thomas Konrad Graphic Design Dalpra & Partner, René Dalpra Joachim Zettl, Matthias Steu Photography Johannes Rodach Peter Rigaud (pages 15, 17) Robert Srzentic (pages 60 – 67) Lithography Günter König Copy Editor Sternkopf Communications Printed by BUCHER Druck Verlag Netzwerk

our orange world in 2005

Gebr端der Weiss Holding AG A-6923 Lauterach Austria Bundesstrasse 110 T +43.5574.696.0 F +43.5574.70928 service@gw-world.com

our orange world in 2005