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Samskip Places Faroes at Center Stage in Updated Corporate Identity |
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Archives -
2007 Archive
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Written by B. Tyril
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Monday, 21 May 2007 |
After several strategic acquisitions, Samskip is refocusing its corporate identity around its own name while redefining its main business units: Iceland and Faroe Islands Service, Multimodal Container Logistics, and Worldwide Reefer Logistics and International Forwarding.
Samskip’s accelerating business growth shows no signs of slowing down. Following the completion of a string of strategic acquisitions in the last couple of years the company in late 2006 decided to iron most of its acquired brands into one single name — that of Samskip — as an updated corporate identity was launched. In the process, Iceland’s global transport logistics company is reaffirming the position of the Faroe Islands as a core center of business activity.
Samskip’s updated business structure identifies three main business units, namely: 1) Iceland and Faroe Islands Service, 2) Multimodal Container Logistics, and 3) Worldwide Reefer Logistics and International Forwarding.
The fast growing company has dramatically boosted capacity on its Scandinavian and Baltic routes during the past year or so, further improving its coverage of the Baltic and North Sea more recently to scale up services to Russia.
As to Faroe, where the company opened for business in 2004, Samskip Faroe Islands managing director Joel undir Leitinum is predicting continued growth. “Our share of the Faroese import and export market has increased steadily since we opened here,” he said.
“This market is very interesting and prospects look positive, considering the growing international fishing and maritime activities in this geographical area.
“The quantities of seafood and related goods that pass through here are enormous and showing no signs of receding.”
However, not every part of Samskip’s Faroe Islands operations went as planned during 2006.
“Both import and export related business grew substantially so we had a good year once again with overall increased activities and revenues. But, the cold storage facility didn’t perform as we had hoped, perhaps in part because of changes in the competitive environment; yet with an extended quayside and further improved harbor conditions at Kollafjörður, I believe that may well improve already this year.”
‘The best combination’: Located in the geographical center of the Faroes, Kollafjörður is fast becoming a major cargo hub, underpinned by a rapidly developing service infrastructure in the area and newly bolstered by the Tórshavn port authority’s investment in a new 560-meter quayside there.
The vastly improved services at Kollafjörður harbor are widely seen as key to the current upswing in calls there from Greenland, Eastern European and other foreign vessels.
“No wonder we see more and more Faroese and foreign vessels calling at Kollafjörður,” Mr undir Leitinum said. “The practical conditions there for serving container ships, trawlers and other vessels are excellent.”
Symbolically, the cold store earlier known as the Kloosterboer Kollafjörður Terminal has got a new sign up, replacing Kloosterboer with the new Samskip logo. In 2005, Samskip acquired a number of seafood-related cold storage facilities from Kloosterboer in a bid to create a leading European specialist in reefer logistics for seafood and other frozen products.
Samskip likewise purchased Van Dieren Maritime, and also acquired other international companies in the transport and logistics sector, including Geest North Sea Line and Seawheel; both of these names have now been replaced by the Samskip name, the company announced.
“A distinctive corporate identity has been introduced and is being applied to all new ships, buildings, vehicles and equipment owned or operated by Samskip,” an October 2006 statement read, then quoted Samskip chief executive Michael F. Hassing: “With the new corporate identity, Samskip’s diverse activities are being united and we will go forward as one company with one brand and one system. Every employee of Samskip will be part of the same team and will have full access to the global resources of the company.”
Samskip’s acquisition of Van Dieren Maritime, Seawheel and Geest North Sea Line, has made the company the operator of Europe’s largest multimodal container logistics system. This system enables Samskip to move containers door-to-door between over 30 countries — from Russia, Scandinavia, Iceland and Faroe in the north to Spain, Italy, Austria, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the south and center of Europe.
With a fleet of more than 30 container vessels and over 13,000 transport containers at its disposal, Samskip offers a wide range of routing options, utilizing road, rail, sea and inland waterways as appropriate to provide what it calls “the best combination of rate and transit time to suit individual customers’ requirements and preferences.”
Link to pdf presentation...
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