On the roads of Europe Elmar Group

ON THE ROADS OF EUROPE

Elmar Group of Poland is a leading transport company with operations throughout the whole of Europe. The enterprise has achieved international success in its business activities during a period of only 15 years. Piotr Sadowski spoke to Henryk Salwa, the company’s Transport Director.

The roots of the “Elmar” Marian Glita company date back to the mid 1970s. From the very beginning the business was a private enterprise managed by its founder, Marian Glita from Jedrzejów (a town located 80 km from Kraków). Set up in 1975, the company initially focused on furniture production, but the business profile changed at the beginning of the 1990s when Elmar turned to international sales of clothes. These activities continued until the middle of the decade, following which the company decided to undertake sales of alcohol and transport services.

“International transport services were developed in 1995 – while involved in international clothes sales, we realised the need to acquire a fleet of vehicles for the delivery of products. Using external transport providers turned out to be too expensive and so Elmar’s board decided

to purchase 20 delivery trucks. From this point onwards we were buying 20 additional vehicles every year. Today, the company’s headquarters in Jedrzejów carries out complex international transportation services. We have a transportation base and a shipping office, together with a customer service department,” explains Mr Salwa.

The company’s central office is also involved in the sale of alcohol, for which purpose it operates a separate customer services office, a main warehouse and a fleet of delivery vehicles specifically designated for this particular area of operations. Alcohol is also sold outside of Jedrzejów from the company’s 13 branches. It is important to note that Elmar has a leading position amongst the top three companies operating in the Polish sector of wholesale alcoholic drinks.

In 2000 Elmar launched its Elmar Plus unit, followed by additional business entities, Elmar BIS and Elmar DUO. This led to the creation of the Elmar Group in which all individual companies are managed by Marian Glita’s family members (Elmar Plus, managed by his son, Mariusz, and Elmar BIS, run by another son, Tomasz, are both involved in international transport, while Elmar Duo, headed by daughter Katarzyna, owns a fuel station but also deals with international transport).

On 1 February 2008 Elmar was transformed into a new business entity, ELMAR “S” Ltd, owned by Marian Glita. On 15 February 2010, following the reorganisation of ELMAR “S”, two new business units were created, ELMAR TRANSPORT Ltd and ELMAR HANDEL Ltd, the first of which continues the transport activities of ELMAR “S”, while the second carries out wholesale operations. In the same year, on 29 July, Marian Glita founded a further company, ELMAR LUX s.a.r.l. with headquarters in Luxembourg.

Fleet of vehicles

The company carries out transport services using 250 IVECO Stralis delivery trucks and trailers (from Wielton, Koegel, Schwarzmuller and Schmitz) which range in their type and load capacity, to suit the transportation needs of diverse customers. “All of the vehicles are fully reliable,” confirms Mr Salwa. “None of them is older than three years. Every truck undergoes regular checks carried out by authorised service stations. Every three years our fleet is replaced with brand new vehicles. In addition, all trucks meet the strict ecological requirements of the European Union and have EURO5 certificates. Every driver has access to a mobile phone and is thus able to contact

the headquarters of Elmar at any point in time. Elmar also introduced the use of GPS technology which enables us to monitor the movements of our trucks 24 hours-a-day. At the same time, our clients are able to log in to our website to track the status of their order.”

Delivering everything, everywhere

Elmar Group is one of the largest transport companies in the country. It employs 850 staff. In Poland there are over 20,000 international transport enterprises but only a few of them have a fleet of more than 100 vehicles. Annual income of the Group reaches PLN 800 million. Mr Salwa explains that 90 per cent of the company’s services are carried out in the EU. “In the past we specialised in transport from and to Poland only, but since joining the EU Elmar began offering international transport services from and to any geographical point in the EU.”

Elmar’s vehicles carry all kinds of industrial goods. The company cooperates with over 100 clients, amongst which there are consortia such as TNT, Bosch, Fiat, Toyota and Opel. In accordance with its Civil Responsibility of Road Transport Company policy and the CMR agreement, the enterprise guarantees to insure the transported goods up to the value of USD 300,000. If the value of the load is higher, the company purchases additional insurance to match the full value of the carried goods.

Forwarding branches

In 2007 the company’s President of the Board decided to further expand the business and open a network of forwarding branches. As a result there are now 10 such units responsible for sourcing clients and providing them with services; they are located in Warszaw, Wrocław, Kraków, Sosnowiec, Łódź, Lublin, Poznań, Szczecin, Gdańsk and Grudziądz. The company and its units ensure that transport and forwarding services are not only of the highest quality, safety and timeliness, but also offer an individual and flexible approach to each and every client and their needs.

“We are fully aware that absolute customer satisfaction, resulting from the services provided by us, is more important than any award we might receive. Client satisfaction is the key to our even greater successes in the future,” says Mr Salwa. “Thanks to cooperation with a range of domestic and foreign forwarders we are continuously present in most European countries, with the main focus being Germany, UK, Italy, France and Spain.”

Focusing on quality

The company ensures customers’ interests are always put first by providing professional services, timely completion of orders and ongoing monitoring of transport activities. The enterprise’s strength certainly lies in the highest quality of services rendered. Two main factors contribute to the exceptionally high standards of transport services carried out by Elmar: the quality of vehicles and the quality of the company’s employees. The unique quality guaranteed by Elmar is confirmed by numerous regional and national awards. Amongst many of them, the company is the only transport business to have, so far, received the Promotional Emblem “Poland Now”, which is one of the most well-known and prestigious quality awards, and recognises the best companies, their products and services, so that they are seen as examples to be followed by other market players. n

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