Nagel-Group on route to growth in the Netherlands

Waalwijk becomes Nagel Nederland’s second location

Nagel Nederland will soon operate in the Dutch food logistics market from a second location in Waalwijk. Since the beginning of April, the subsidiary of the Nagel-Group has been working towards this with fresh logistics company Kivits Drunen B.V., which will undertake collections, transhipment services and distribution in the southern and western regions of the Netherlands. „With this strategic realignment, we are adapting our network to changes in the food logistics sector while simultaneously making considerable improvements to our presence in the Netherlands“ explains Björn Schniederkötter, COO of the Nagel-Group.

The two-location strategy will necessitate a redistribution of shipment volumes. A significant proportion of the volume that was previously handled at the headquarters in Raalte will now be distributed via Waalwijk. „The reconfiguration of the network should not only lead to the optimisation of the national distribution network, with Raalte taking on the northern and eastern regions and Waalwijk the southern and western regions, but it should also mean a further increase to the import and export volumes in and out of the Netherlands“, elaborates Hans De Landsheere, Managing Director of Nagel Nederland, on the subject of the realigned strategy.

Both partners will complement one another in this process: while Kivits gains access to the Nagel- Group’s European network with more than 100 locations in 16 countries, the Nagel-Group will be able to make use of the very good local distribution structure and infrastructure Kivits has in place. As a consequence, as well as an outstanding reputation across the entire Benelux region, the cooperation partner will have first-class logistics depots for handling temperature-controlled products at its disposal. „Kivits is a very good match for us – from both an economic and cultural perspective“, says Björn Schniederkötter: „Just as we are, Kivits is a family-run company; it also has a strong affinity with food and has a virtually congruent recipient structure at its disposal.

As before, the central point of contact for customers and potential prospects remains Nagel Nederland, which will also be represented in Waalwijk with its own employees in sales, customer services and order coordination functions. Hans De Landsheere: „With these structural changes, we are in a good position to achieve further growth: not only are we safeguarding our customary high quality of service, but in the long term, we would like to offer our customers more configuration options for their distribution, warehousing and value-added services in the Netherlands and Europe.“ The potential for this exists – the Netherlands is one of the most attractive logistics regions in Europe with a very high export volume.

Raalte, which became the first international branch of the Nagel-Group in 1987, remains the headquarters and will continue to perform a strategically significant function within the new business structure in the Netherlands. Thanks to excellent transport connections, Nagel Nederland is able to operate 15 international links to the most important European conurbations each day from Raalte; to Germany, Belgium, Scandinavia, Poland and Austria among other destinations. These routes are integrated into the Nagel-Group’s Europe-wide network and therefore allow an extensive international reach from a single source. Raalte will continue to operate this business in the future as well as servicing the northern and eastern regions.

 About the Nagel-Group
The Nagel-Group, which specialises in food logistics, operates throughout Europe and has its headquarters in Versmold. It employs over 11,000 people in more than 100 locations in 16 countries. Recently the company reported a turnover of 1.7 billion euros. The company group moves food consignments of all sizes and in all temperature ranges. Whether frozen products, meat, dairy products, coffee or sweets – by order of manufacturers and retailers the Nagel-Group daily provides consumers all over Europe with the right goods in the right quality at the right time. Thus, the Nagel-Group makes a substantial contribution to the success of its customers.