Militzer & Münch establishes new country unit in New Zealand

St. Gallen, October 27, 2022. On October 11th, 2022, the new country unit Militzer & Münch New Zealand Ltd. started operations. With the first branch office in Auckland City, the Militzer & Münch network grows into the Polynesian region.

Militzer & Münch has recently started to offer its customers in New Zealand high-quality services in the air and sea freight sector. Its focus is on the import and export of various industrial goods and agricultural products. The newly founded company is part of a growth strategy, in the course of which Militzer & Münch is developing promising markets for itself.

New Zealand with its prosperous economy fits perfectly into this strategy: Due to the favourable climate, the agricultural sector thrives all year round, and agricultural products such as dairy products, wool, or meat account for a large share of exports. New Zealand is the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, for example. The island nation is largely dependent on international trade; imports include almost every industrial good.

 

Growing together

Shakir Samsudeen, 38, will head the company based in Auckland City. He is an experienced freight forwarder and knows the industry very well. The new country unit will start with three employees. it is planned to be expanded soon, however.

“The new country unit will serve many different industries, both with import and export”, says Andreas Löwenstein, Regional Managing Director Asia / Far East at Militzer & Münch. “The industrial and logistics sector in New Zealand has grown strongly in recent years and we expect this trend to continue.”

A new office in Wuhan

Beijing, October 25, 2022. M&M China now has an official branch office in Wuhan (population 14 million), one of the most important transportation hubs of China in terms of air and rail. It is also a connection point to different cities and seaports through inland waterways and roads.

The Wuhan branch started operating on September 1, 2022, and offers the full range of M&M services. Jacky Zhu has been appointed branch manager. Having worked in sales for M&M China for five years in Wuhan, he has built a stable customer base and is familiar with the local market.

Market study participation

St. Gallen, October 6, 2022. How do shippers cope with the fluctuating freight rates in logistics? The University of St. Gallen tackled this question with a diverse research consortium from the logistics industry. The result is a 132-page study that addresses challenges, practices, and instruments. Militzer & Münch participated in the study.

For several years now, Militzer & Münch has been a member of the Association of the Institute of Supply Chain Management at the University of St.Gallen. The institute regards itself as an international platform for the dialogue between science and practice in the field of Supply Chain Management. Holger Seehusen, Managing Director of M&M air sea cargo GmbH, regularly participates in various activities. For him, involvement in the study was an opportunity to demonstrate what practices shippers, forwarders and brokers can adopt to counteract volatile freight rates in logistics markets.


Volatile freight rates and sustainability

The study, titled “Managing Volatility in Logistics Markets”, examines freight rate volatility across ocean, road, rail, and air transport modes, and highlights management practices from the perspective of shippers and logistics service providers. It also provides a classification and analysis of indices and digital business models in the freight sector, thus making a significant contribution to a better understanding of the tools available on the market and their individual value propositions for shippers, forwarders and carriers.  In addition to fluctuating freight rates, sustainability concerns are also becoming increasingly important. “I am convinced that in the near future, decision-makers or customers, respectively, will not care so much whether it costs x € per kilogram, but how high the carbon footprint is in the goods procurement process,” says Holger Seehusen.

 

Workshops and interviews

After the official start of the project in August 2021, workshops were held in the following three months; the final presentation took place in December 2021. Work then started on the study. Besides the University of St. Gallen and Militzer & Münch, other logistics service providers, shippers, IT providers, and a commercial law firm were involved.

In addition to the regular exchange within the consortium, 44 interviews were conducted with logistics experts between early September and the end of November, and used as source material for the compilation of the study.

“We defined relevant criteria to determine a suitable segmentation of logistics markets,” says Prof. Dr. Erik Hofmann from the University of St. Gallen. “Based on these criteria, e.g., geographic reach, mode of transport, and carrier, we examined four relevant logistics scenarios. Our goal was for the study to provide practitioners with a basis for implementing concrete solutions.”

Interested parties can access the study free of charge via the following link:

https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/266520/

 

Supply Chain Innovation Day

Participation in the study is only part of Militzer & Münch’s commitment to the Association of the Institute of Supply Chain Management at the University of St.Gallen. In order to get young people interested in the field of logistics and to draw their attention to Militzer & Münch as an employer, Holger Seehusen was a speaker at the Supply Chain Innovation Day initiated by the University of St. Gallen in Rorschach on Lake Constance last year. Militzer & Münch was also represented there with a small information booth. This year, Eva-Charlotte Dürr, Group Project Manager Pharmaceuticals, M&M Militzer & Münch International Holding AG, Switzerland, and Vignesh Pandi, Trade Lane Manager North America Airfreight, M&M air sea cargo GmbH, Germany, participated in the Supply Chain Innovation Day on September 27.

Militzer & Münch Turkmenistan – 25 years of reliable service

Ashgabat, September 6, 2022. First, a delegation was opened in Ashgabat in 1994, and then in 1997, M&M Militzer & Münch Turkmenistan Ltd. was founded: the Central Asian M&M company now looks back on 25 years of forwarding and logistics services and has gained a good reputation among customers and partners. The company is headed by Djeyhun Hummedov as managing director.

Militzer & Münch Uzbekistan – 25 years of textile knowhow

Tashkent, August 30, 2022. Uzbekistan is the sixth largest cotton producer in the world, and when Militzer & Münch Uzbekistan was founded 25 years ago, cotton fiber transport was the main segment, a highly demanding special segment, as the cargo is self-heating unless packed and monitored correctly.

The 25 employees of M&M Uzbekistan nowadays handle all sorts and modes of national and international transports, and recently added customs clearance to the portfolio, too.

M&M Uzbekistan also has many years of experience in importing machinery and equipment for the cotton industry and has become a specialist in project transportation.

How is the market today, we ask Managing Director Khurshid Kasimdzhanov: “Customers appreciate our long presence in the country and our professional key staff, who have been with us for many year.”

Multimodal via the Middle Corridor

The Middle Corridor is currently gaining ground as a promising alternative to the Northern Corridor of the New Silk Road. The route connects exporters from China or Kazakhstan in particular with Northeast, Southeast, and Central Europe.

For their customers, Militzer & Münch experts organize multimodal transports along the New Silk Road: by ship from Aktau and Kuryk in Kazakhstan via the Caspian Sea to the port of Baku in Azerbaijan, then by rail to Georgia, and from the ports of Batumi and Poti via the Black Sea to Europe. Already in 2017, an agreement was signed that regulates transport along the Trans-Caspian route. The route is used mainly to transport Chinese goods to European countries. From Kazakhstan, the time of transport is about 35 days.

As a rule, roughly 80 percent of Chinese goods reach Europe by sea. Currently, the Middle Corridor is becoming established as a reliable alternative to bypass container congestion that prevents on-time shipments at many major ports.

“Thanks to our efficient and competent global network, we were able to respond quickly to the increasing customer demand for this routing,” says Michael Spitzlei, Head of Business Segment Rail at M&M air sea cargo GmbH.

Our goals: effectiveness, conformity, and compliance

Group Quality Manager Maximilian Kaiser is responsible for the quality management at Militzer & Münch sites all over the world. In this interview, he talks about current projects, the quality audit process, and what fascinates him about working in logistics.

 

Well, hello Mr. Kaiser, could you briefly describe what your activities for Militzer & Münch look like? What are your tasks?
The purpose of Quality Management is to ensure that consistently products and services are provided that meet customer requirements and comply with applicable laws and regulations. To this end, as Group Quality Manager, I oversee a wide variety of projects and processes. Our team consists of more than 20 Quality Managers, one for each country unit, all of which are coordinated through the holding company here in St. Gallen.
Our goals can be summarized in three key words: effectiveness, conformity and compliance. This means that, with a clear customer focus, we purposefully implement, maintain and continuously improve a quality management system, or introduce one where it does not yet exist. We solve our customers’ logistics problems effectively, comply with international standards, and meet regulatory and legal requirements. The values guiding us here are loyalty, integrity and respect.

 

What are the current projects or developments that keep you busy in Quality Management?

We passed our surveillance audit for 2022 this May. Not a single deviation from the standard was found during the external audits carried out by auditing company LRQA. At the beginning of 2023, we will then already be proceeding to the ISO 9001:2015 recertification, for which the most extensive audits ever will be carried out: our entire process landscape needs to be compliant with the standards.

In addition, we are rolling out our quality management system at other country units. We are currently seeking ISO 9001:2015 certification for our country units in Sri Lanka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Malaysia. A local quality manager is in charge of adapting the standards to the individual requirements of the companies and of ensuring compliance with them.
Closely linked to quality management is risk management, for which we are currently optimizing various processes throughout our country units. In cooperation with our Head of Group Controlling, I am also establishing an Environmental Management System in accordance with the international environmental management standard ISO 14001:2015. This will strengthen our ecological awareness and make it easier for our customers to take environmental factors into account in their transport operations. Our Quality, Risk and Environmental Management together will form an Integrated Management System, which we will launch in March 2023.

 

What is the procedure of a quality audit?

We select internal audits on the basis of what is known as the “risk-based approach”. With this risk-based approach, we decide on specific sites, taking into account time, success and risk factors. When were the sites last audited? How important is the site to the success of the company? By selecting which sites will the risk of quality loss be minimized? The local Quality Manager supports local management in the implementation, administration and improvement of the Quality Management System (QMS). At the same time, the team carries out audits at sites in other countries of the region. For example, a colleague from France goes to Morocco or vice versa – after all, no one should audit themselves.

Here at headquarters, we coordinate what is to be audited where and by whom. Depending on what exactly we want to check, the auditor examines various processes. Do they meet customer requirements? Are they compliant with ISO 9001:2015? The results then end up at my desk, and I analyze them in collaboration with the local Quality Manager.

 

Could you please briefly describe your professional background? Which functions did you go through at Militzer & Münch?

I majored in economics and business administration. My first point of contact with Militzer & Münch was my traineeship starting in June 2017. In Frankfurt, I was assigned to the airport, in Stockstadt, I became familiar with our road transport division, and finally, in St. Gallen, I got to know our holding company. From August 2018 to January 2022, I was Executive Assistant to the CEO and Executive Assistant to Group Management, respectively. Then, I was appointed Executive Assistant to the Board of Directors of TransInvest Holding AG. Since October 1, 2021, I have also been Group Quality Manager. In cooperation with the Institute of Supply Chain Management of the University of St. Gallen, Militzer & Münch organizes the Talent Management Program to promote our in-house prospective managers, and I am participating in this program this year. I am certified in the areas of project and environmental management, and I am also currently qualifying as a Chartered Financial Analyst.

 

What fascinates you about the logistics industry?

Our team consists of many generalists, who are also specialized. All forwarders need to be knowledgeable in a wide range of areas: They have to understand the market, know import and export flows, keep an eye on the infrastructure and the political climate of many countries. At the same time, they are specialists in their field – road transport, airfreight, sea freight or project logistics. Every day brings new challenges in an international context. The topics and tasks we deal with are always a new and exciting experience.

Militzer & Münch China – now also in Ningbo

Ningbo, August 1, 2022. Ningbo, a major port and industrial hub in east China’s Zhejiang province, is the newest location for Militzer & Münch in China; the Ningbo branch office was opened on August 1. In line with the M&M growth strategy, M&M China is now also present in one of the economic centers southeast of the Yangtze River Delta.

The new location will help to improve the M&M network and presence in the area and aims to enhance local sales and to consistently provide diversified and high standard services to our clients.

Under branch manager Sherry Xie, the new location offers the full range of M&M services. Sherry Xie has 17 years of experience in the freight forwarding industry; she is regarded a specialist for the Middle East route, and will focus on developing the Middle Eastern, European and Southeast Asian market.

… and a new Director South China

Carl Gao, previously Branch Manager of the Shanghai office, has been appointed Regional Director South China to support business development in the region, which comprises the M&M offices in Shanghai, Ningbo, Chongqing and Shenzhen. The new function improves the management structure of the Chinese country unit.

A successor at the helm of the Shanghai branch will be appointed in the near future.

Militzer & Münch Poland and Germany expand cooperation

Germany is Poland’s most important trade partner, and for Germany, the partner country also ranks in the top five. Economic analyses predict that this trend will intensify in the future. Since summer 2021, the two Militzer & Münch country units have therefore strategically stepped up their cooperation in the road transport segment.

The focus is on the transport of part loads (LTL) – mainly imports from Germany to Poland. On customer request, Militzer & Münch also transports the goods as groupage. In this case, the logistics provider delivers the consignments to one of three conveniently located transshipment warehouses in Poland, and consolidates the cargo there, if needed.

While the local Militzer & Münch team takes care of coordination, organization, and customer service, partner companies handle the nationwide distribution.

Sales are increasing

“We work with partners which we select for each shipment via a scheduling software. In order to save resources, we pick up additional loads on the way, plan our transports together, and try to concentrate the coordination in the receiving country,” says Thomas Winter, Managing Director of Militzer & Münch Germany. He predicts a positive development: “The teams have always been able to react fast; they always found suitable solutions for our customers – we have received some good new orders. We are already noticing a perceptible increase in sales. I definitely see a positive development here for the future!”

Kazakhstan: New courier fleet for EMEX and FedEx

In order better to meet the e-commerce boom and the resulting growing demand for parcel services, EMEX is investing in a larger vehicle fleet in Kazakhstan. EMEX is Militzer & Münch’s courier, express, and parcel service (CEP), as well as the exclusive partner of FedEx in the strategically important country between Asia and Europe.

Over the course of the year, EMEX will more than double its fleet by adding 36 courier vehicles. The CEP service provider is going to put the new vehicles into operation step by step. Half of the new courier vehicles will be branded with the EMEX logo, the other half with the FedEx logo. EMEX is deploying part of the fleet at its headquarters in Almaty, where the vehicles will replace the previous, leased delivery vans. Two vehicles each will be used by the company’s twelve branch offices spread throughout the country.

“With our expanded fleet, we can offer our customers an even better delivery service with even shorter transit times,” says Tatyana Vorobyeva, Managing Director of EMEX. “For the first time, we will operate our own transport vehicles at all our locations in Kazakhstan. This will also allow us to increase our brand awareness and strengthen our network as a whole.”

 

FedEx: partnership extended

FedEx shipments, which EMEX handles as an exclusive partner in Kazakhstan, generate ten percent of the company’s total revenue. In December 2021, EMEX was able to extend the exclusive contract with FedEx for several years.

Overall, EMEX looks back on a very good and stable business development. The CEP service provider is benefiting in particular from the strong growth of online trade in the wake of the corona pandemic. According to the Kazakh Bureau of National Statistics, in the year 2020 alone, internet stores in Kazakhstan doubled their retail sales in the private customer segment. In course of  the past five years, EMEX was able to increase its shipment volume more than 14-fold. The Militzer & Münch courier service has increased the number of employees from 45 to 215.

Thanks to strategic investments in network and system quality, EMEX has so far coped very well with the extraordinary pandemic times, and offers its customers crucial delivery capacities as well as great flexibility. “We are pleased with everyone’s success and thank our customers for their trust,” says Tatyana Vorobyeva. “Their satisfaction spurs us on to continue delivering the highest quality of service also in the future.”

Growth beyond the borders of Kazakhstan is the next step: “Our goal is to roll out EMEX regionally as an organization and as a brand for national logistics in Central Asia, and thus to provide services for customers beyond the local market,” says Nikolaus Kohler, Regional Managing Director Middle East / Central Asia, Business Development Switzerland, M&M Militzer & Münch International Holding AG.

 

EMEX – The Militzer & Münch Courier and Express Service

  • Established: on the Kazakh market since 2004
  • Headquarters: Almaty
  • Branches: Nur-Sultan, Aktau, Atyrau, Aktobe, Karaganda, Kostanay, Kyzylorda, Pavlodar, Petropavlovsk, Oskemen, Uralsk, Shymkent
  • Agents: in 15 more cities in Kazakhstan
  • Employees: 215
  • Fleet: 60 courier vehicles, 5 trucks