PRIME NEWS 4. EDITION, FEBRUARY 2011
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Responsible
Louise Rosenkær Hynkemejer
Editors
Jesper Høilund Anne-Mette Stender Louise Rosenkær Hynkemejer
Writers
Vegard Kristiansen Sunny Ng Søren Miene Poul Rind Christensen Fabian van Donk Fouad Shelbaya Michael Thorsen Lisbeth Rognstad Jöerg Dittmar Jacky Tung Elaine Yin Michael Haahr Hansen Anne-Mette Stender Jesper Høilund Louise Rosenkær Hynkemejer
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TABLE OF CONTENTS PRIME CARGO FAMILY ALBUM Get to know Eline Yin from Shenzhen and her baby boy, Jörg Dittmar from Düsseldorf, who in his sparetime works with water rescue and more colleagues..
TEAM AMSTERDAM Say hi to Fabian, Colin, Niels and Richard the new Amsterdam team.
CORPORATE DESIGN AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY Prime Cargo participates in a research and development project together with Kolding School of Design and Aarhus University. Read more about the project.
JOBFIGHTERS Committed unemployed visited Prime Cargo to solve a specific issue. See the result.
ONLINE STORES Online Stores has broadened their product range from textile customers to include amongst other things toys and shoes.
SUNNYS VIEW ON DENMARK Sunny Ng visited Denmark for 14 days. Read about his opinion of Denmark and Prime Cargo.
WMS We have now also implemented our Warehouse Management System at the warehouse in Vestby, Norway.
PRIME CARGO GOLF TOURNAMENT Who won the first Prime Cargo Golf Tournament in Denmark?
FOTO COMPETITION Mail your best shot and participate in the Prime Cargo foto competition.
“MAKES YOU FEEL AT HOME” SAS go home - here comes Prime Cargo!
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Editorial
Jesper Høilund
Dark clouds are drifting away and spring is arriving together with a blue sky. Also in a figurative sense, Prime Cargo and our customers are slowly getting back to better times.
World trade is increasing, and this has a great impact on our business. No matter whether you are in Denmark, Hong Kong, or Qingdao. All of our talented and hard-working employ-
ees have shown that we are able to keep our heads high and still be creative even in times of recession. Therefore we are today, in times of prosperity, ready and even better equipped for the tasks and challenges that lay ahead us the next year. A big thank you to everyone - who has made a great effort.
We are often told that we have a great company and a good collaboration between our different departments and countries, and it is important that we continue to enforce our good reputation and use our skills optimally. If we do this, I cannot see any obstacles to further success and to once again look at new
areas where Prime Cargo will plant its flag.
J. Engelbrecht (Danish author, philosopher and speaker) said: “If you need help building a big ship, you should not ask for help with the drudgery, but arouse people’s yearning for the sea”. I am sure that you all, after a down period, now longs for the sea.
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Prime Cargo Fa
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Age: Only 46 Position: Airfreight Import Family: Single and has a daughter Interests: My daughter is playing handball, which I follow closely. And besides this, I love to enjoy a good bottle of red wine.
LISBETH ROGNSTAD - OSLO
Lisbeth is running the airfreight import department in Oslo. And she is doing it very well. She is a control freak, so don`t mess with her papers :-).
MICHAEL THORSEN - COPENHAGENAge:
31 Position: Warehouse Manager Family: Married and has a one year old son Interests: Swinning, sailing canoe, hunting and spending time with my son and wife who I try to convince that it's time for child no. two :).
The most important things for me in my job, is to make sure that the team spirit is good, and of course that we have a healthy business going on, planning our pickpack costumers etc.
JOER Age: 29 Position: Operation Family: Girlfriend Interests: I'm a volunteer in a German relief organization which is specialized in water rescue, and I like to meet my friends.
Joerg has been working for 2009, and before this, he another international forward
amily Album
JACK Y
Age: 31 Position: Air freight Operation Family: Married in 2005, has a 3 year old daughter Interests: Computers
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TUN G
- HO NG K
ONG
Jacky joined us in Nov, 2005. Jacky is very hard working and we are very pleased to have Jacky at our air freight department.
RG DITMARR - DUSSELDORF
r Prime Cargo since April e worked nearly ten years in ding company in Germany.
Age: 35 Position: Senior Operation (Sea freight) Family: Married in 2009, just got a baby boy in Aug 2010 Interests : Hiking and Reading
ELAINE YIN
- SHENZHEN
Elaine joined PC Shenzhen since March 2003. She works for PC Shenzhen since day 1 when we set up the office up there. Elaine used to work in a local courier company, she is experience to handle shipments to and from China.
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MICHA
EL HAA
Age: 39 Position: Sales & Development Family: Married to Karin in 2008 and together we have Sofie (3 years), Karin's son Gustav (9 years) and my daughter Mathilde (7 years) and my son Andreas (9 years), who both live with their mom in Bramdrupdam, Kolding. We live in Lund, Horsens in a wonderful big house. Interests: I play badminton a couple of time a week and together with my daughter Sofie I practice gymnastics once a week. Besides sports, I use my spare time with my family and friends and enjoy reading.
HR HA
NSEN
- KOLD
ING
Originally I'm from Westjytland, born in Hodde, a village between Varde and Grindsted, in 1971. I got my High School Diploma from Varde Gymnasium (math and social studies) in 1990 and a one year Upper Secondary Commercial Diploma from Grinsted Business School in 1995. Additionally, I have had the pleasure of spending one year at the Royal Danish Life Guards and spend one year on a trip around the world, where I visited Asia, USA and Canada. My career started out at Samson Transport (later on DFDS/DSV) in Billund in 1995, where I worked for 12 years before I made a career change to MahĂŠ/Scan Global Logistics in 2007. In December 2010 I moved to Prime Cargo in Kolding.
FABIAN Position: Branch Manager Airfreight Age: 44 Family: Married to Saskia, two children Fleur (1999) and Beau (2001) Interests: I like to play Golf, but still need to get my certificate (this is needed in the NL), they call me the Master of Clinic.
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VAN DON
K - AMS
TERDAM
Im born and raised in Amsterdam and now we live in Hoofddorp, next to Schiphol Airport. Started my career with Bleckmann Airfreight in the warehouse, then Customs Clerk and later Import Manager. 1998 I went to Westlake Systems, where I worked with software for Air, Sea, Warehouse and Customs, and from 2002 I went back to the Freight Forwarding business. In my previous job, I was responsible for the EMEA region, with focus on all activities in the Freight Forwarding (Shippers/Consignees/Software applications/operational procedures). As from September 2010 I started at prime Cargo Amsterdam Airfreight Branch .. with a lot of energy!!
Fabian van Do 44 years youn airfreight ind perience in ai ocean freight
k er n o D n a v n a i b Fa Branc h M anag
Colin Bendijk Import Operations
Col 34 air per oce
Niels Broere, Eksport Opera 27 years young and has bee airfreight industry since 20 experience in airfreight he a ledge in IT.
Niels Broere Export Operations
n e b e o H d r Ric ha Operations M anager
Richard Hoe 44 years you industry sinc freight he als customs affa
ong, Branch Manager ng and has been working in the dustry since 1987. Next to his exirfreight he also has knowledge of and IT.
lin Bendijk, Import Operations years young and has been working in the rfreight industry since 2006. Next to his exrience in airfreight he also has knowledge of ean freight.
ations en working in the 003. Next to his also has know–
eben, Operations Manager ung and has been working in the airfreight ce 1996. Next to his experience in airso has knowledge of ocean freight and airs.
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TEAM AMSTERDAM In some aspects, 2010 has been a turbulent year for Prime Cargo in the Netherlands. In September, a total employee shift found place at the Amsterdam office.
After a turbulent start up with a complete new team, we have now reached the point where we have everything under control operatio nally. From our customers we receive positive feedback. They are glad we have taken over the business in the way we did and they are very satisfied with the service provided.
Currently we are moving our focus to the extension of our client base. Sales leads are gathered and both potential and existing customers are being approached to get new business.
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PROJEKT: Corporate Design and Cultural Diversity ... is a research and development project at Prime Cargo in collaboration with Kolding School of Design and Aarhus School of Business, Aarhus University. Many Danish firms’ have daughter units abroad. How do these firms utilize the cultural diversity in their organization and management? How can the diversity of experiences and knowledge be used in creative ways in order to leve rage product and service innovation in the firms?
These are main questions in the research and development project in which Prime Cargo participate together with a number of other multicultural firms in Denmark, for example Grundfos, Lego and Vestas.
In Prime Cargo we aim to gain an indebt insight into the practice of how mana gement and employees communicate and collaborate in order to improve the services delivered to the international clients. Some of the questions we will ask are how do employees, teams and management collaborate in order to design new services. How do they identify new needs? And how are ideas deve loped and into new services and implemented in the market? Based on our new insights, we plan – in collaboration with Prime Cargo – to
design a platform aiming to strengthen information sharing, collaboration and know– ledge sharing across the business units in Prime Cargo. Ultimately the aim is to leÂverage creativity and business innovation to even higher levels in Prime Cargo.
We expect to visit the business units in spring 2011. Further plans for our research and development will be made after these initial visits.
You are welcome to contact the project through: HR Manager Anne-Mette Stender Prime Cargo, Kolding Mail address: amst@primecargo.dk Ph.d. Student Nevena Jensen Designskolen Kolding Mail address: nje@dskd.dk
Head of Research Poul Rind Christensen Kolding School of Design Mail address: rind@dskd.dk
We look forward to the coming collaboration Kind regards Poul Rind Christensen Head of Research
JOBFIGHTERS at Prime Cargo On Monday 11th of October 2010 at 9.00 AM precisely the orange Jobfighter bus drove into the gate at Profilvej. Along with 9 other Kolding companies Prime Cargo participated in Jobcentre Kolding’s Project Jobfighter. A project that was meant to create a special focus on the skills that young and older unemployed can contribute with in companies - and of course finally in order to create real jobs. The project assumes that the company gets a bunch of enthusiastic unemployed people out in the company for 4 hours. They are presented to one or more challenges – and they must come up with a suggestion as to how they think they can be solved. This particular Monday we had 12 Jobfightere at Prime Cargo. Evenly distri buted between young and older unemployed they received a brief presentation
of the company and then they were presented with a few challenges:
Can we make our receipt of goods more efficient and flexible? How do we utilize the best resources we have in the WMS system, so that our lower season (May / Jun e to October, November and December) optimize the use of the product types that can fit into our production? The 12 Jobfightere were shown around our WMS terminal and hereafter they went into brainstorming mode.
After 4 hours we were presented with their ideas of what products they suggested we could take into the various seasons and they came with a suggestion as to how the actual receipt of order could be handled.
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JOB FIGHTERS SUGGESTION ON ARTICLES IN TERMINAL 2: • Ski equipment (goggles, gloves, underwear, hats) • New Year accessories (hats, wigs, napkins, serpentines) • Halloween, Christmas, Valentine accessories • The, coffee, cocoa • Pet food • Garden Accessories • Company Gifts • Graduation accessories • School accessories • Swimwear, swim toys
It was interesting to get a ”fresh view” on our utilization of the WMS. And getting young and elderly people together – shows us that the attitude we have at Prime Cargo towards diversity works in real life. A huge amount of enthusiasm was shown from both groups. What youngsters have in drive and enthusiasm the elderly have in experience and a genuine interest in the assignment? Anne-Mette Stender
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ONLINE STORES In recent months Online Stores has moved forward from birth level against a more established level, both in our awareness and in the awareness of our customers.
A visual symbol of this movement has been our new packing line. As result of continuous increase of orders we, the operation and IT, decided to consult our old friends from Moving (who has installed the semiautomatic plant and the Warehouse Management System). In our new packing line we could recycle many parts from the old sorting plant (PRIMUS), which used to stad behind the canteen. Besides this, we have got some exciting new clients who all have new requirements and desires. Among BR (TOPTOY), who has challenged our way of
thinking, which of course, is positive. Among the new initiatives that have been developed, we now have the opportunity to offer our customers gift wrapping and To and From cards. We are quite proud of this product, and I know that once again we are pioneers in our industry. With the arrival of BR we have also widened our focus from only handling textiles to handling products from different industries. This gives us the benefit that we are no longer so vulnerable if something should create decline within the textile industry. Thus not understood, that the textile industry is no longer important, as approx. 30% of all online trades are of textile products and by far the most traded online.
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Besides this, we have got other very exciting clients on board such as Bianco Footwear A/S, who many probably know. In December LegoWear.com starts up and will likely be one of our first customers, who bring Online Stores to the U.S. with a solution that enables us to offer B2C product directly to the American consumer - not at all uninte resting, quite the contrary. Overall, some good references to have in the luggage when we’re on the road, and now when Bestseller Online is leaving us, it will be those customers who will be our future quality stamp.
Finally, if I should gaze into the crystal ball, our focus in 2011 should be controlled growth, in the sense that of course we must have a strong customer approach, but it is also incredibly important that we constantly try to improve and optimize processes, so that each customer contributes positively to Prime Cargo’s bottom line. Furthermore, I see a bright future for Online Stores in 2011, as our
product and quality will be far better known, and customers increasingly call and ask for Online Stores (instead of us having call us), which of course is fantastic. But we have to wait until July to see whether my predictions are proved correct? Søren Miene
Online Stores Manager
WMS in Vestby During the past year we have worked on implementing the WMS (the Warehouse Management System of Prime Cargo) in the warehouse in Vestby, Norway. We have over a long period of time tested the warehouse management system at one of our customers, and we have had a good result. Now, we will continue implementing other customers in the WMS. Brilleland, who has stores all across Norway and uses our warehouse, is our next project. The IT departments of
Finn Gunnar Jacobsen is scanning a pick note in the Warehouse Management System.
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Prime Cargo and Brilleland work closely together to get the IT aspects in order for Brilleland to implement their orders into our system. With the implementation, our efficiency will be improved significantly, and in the future, we can easily send manageable inventory lists for our customers. We look forward to continue the implementation, where we gradually incorporate the remaining customers.
... is the Norwegian counterpart to the Danish Synoptik. ... is part of Pearl Europe. Pearle Europe is a leading optical retailer, who started up in 1996. Amongst other, they own Synoptik in Denmark and Sweden.
Kristian Hagen, Tonny Kristiansen and Walter Brotke at the Warehouse in Vestby.
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TOURNAMENT FACTS Requirements: • To participate in the golf tournament you must be employed at Prime Cargo and have a maximum handicap of 40. • The tournament takes place annually, and the course can vary from year to year. • The winner gets a trophy that must be placed at the winner’s desk until next year’s tournament begins. • Stroke play: Stableford Course: Kolding Golfklub
Participants: • John Nielsen (Airfreight Export), • Klaus Secher Hansen (Controller) • Flemming Mortensen (Director of Steamline) • Per Østerkjærhus (IT) • Jesper Høilund (Director of Prime Cargo) • 1 guest (there were cancellations at the last minute, so a guest was invited to be able to play two Three Ball matches) Winner: Per Østerkjærhus, IT
Prime Cargo Golf Tournament “As long as no one from the IT-department wins...”, Jesper Høilund, the managing director of Prime Cargo, said with a smile before teeing out on the first hole. On Sunday 3rd of October 2010 the first internal Prime Cargo golf tournament took place in Kolding. About the admission requirements, the founder of the tournament, John Nielsen Airfreight Export in Kolding, says: “ To participate you must be employed at Prime Cargo and have a maximum handicap of 40 points. This year, there was a limited no of parti
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cipants, but the day was still a success. We all e n j oye d the day with golf a n d lunch. “
The tournament took place at Kolding Golf Club, where the day started at 9 AM with a cup of coffee followed by training on the driving range. The weather gods did not shine upon Prime Cargo as it was cold and very windy. Still the players braved the weather and went out in two Three Ball matches. After 4 hours of play, the winner was found - and it was one from IT. “The Winner takes it all the looser are standing small”, says Per with a smile. He continues: “There is only one winner, the rest are loosers”. Per Østerkjærhus, WMS expert from the IT department won the tournament with 32 points. Next year’s tournament is likely to take place in May at Fanø Golf Club.
Sunny (‘s)
During this summe It’s Denmark.
My dad arranged for m Prime Cargo’s head o mark - Kolding. Orig I was told that I nee Hong Kong for two w afraid. Afraid becaus to live in the unfam weeks. Afraid because my first time in Europ nothing at all about Eu nately, my father staye me for the first week.
When I arrived in D fears were unfounded a beautiful country. N ries me. The air is fre ple are nice, the house everywhere is grass
) SIDE OF LIFE
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er holiday I’ve been to a place, I’ve never seen before.
me to work at office in Denginally, when eded to leave weeks, I was se I needed miliar for two e it would be pe and I knew urope. Fortued there with
Denmark, my d. Denmark is Nothing woresh, the peoes are big and sland which
makes me feel relaxed. The views are absolutely beautiful! It’s different in Hong Kong.
This is my first time working in a warehouse. The warehouse is very big and I’m sure that if no one would have showed me around, I would have lost my way. The employees in the warehouse are very nice and they have a good relationship. They enjoy their work. The working environment of the warehouse is very good and the light sufficient. I started to enjoy the life and worked harder!
The people who live in Kolding rarely go out for dinner. Genrally they stay at home and cook, and I enjoyed the food, they cooked. I think Kolding is a simple place. The people who live here are very relaxed and they enjoy their work. They never feel nervous. It makes me very jealous as the people who live in Hong Kong need to face high pressure every day. I think Hong Kong ought to learn the Danish way. Always feel relaxed! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself.
That’s what I’ve learned in Denmark!
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Foto competition - TRANSPORTATION Join the Prime Cargo’s internal photo competition Come up with your best private shot - the photo just have to have some kind of relations to the theme TRANSPORTATION. E-mail your pictures to Louise at loro@ primecargo.dk before May 1st 2011. There will be prizes for the top 3 photos and they will be published in next edition of Prime News.
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”Makes you feel at home” “Makes you feel at home” is the end statement and the feeling SAS wants to have in their commercials featuring Uffe Elleman Jensen (former foreign minister of Denmark), Tina Dickow (Danish singer) and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Danish actor). Prime Cargo benefits from this - without spending millions in commercials... After a business trip, one of our customers sent the following message to Prime Cargo:
”By the way, I had a good experience :0). In the arrival hall at Billund Airport there is a big light commercial for Prime Cargo... When I arrived at Billund Airport from China Saturday night - tired and
sick - seeing the Prime Cargo light commercial was almost as getting a warm hug - then I knew I was at home safe and sound.
So SAS might advertise “Makes you feel at home” but your light commercial had just the same effect - on a cold and rainy night in Billund Airport.”