The group is now present in most countries in Central and Eastern Europe, where it reported revenues of €261 million in 2007, up 58% year-on-year.
A strategic country for GEFCO in the Central and Eastern European region, Ukraine is well positioned on the Black Sea coast between the European Union and Russia. GEFCO initially intends to develop business in the automotive sector, a promising market in the country with 500,000 vehicles sales a year and 30% growth in 2007.
GEFCO opened its subsidiary in Latvia in February 2008. Latvia is strategically positioned and has a dense road network. The head office of the new subsidiary is in Riga, one of the biggest Baltic ports and a major hub for sea freight from Europe to Russia and the Community of Independent States (CIS).
The Latvian subsidiary manages new vehicle transport, particularly from North Sea and Baltic ports to EU countries. It also ships Ladas from Riga to Melun in France and General Motors vehicles from Antwerp to Hamburg.
GEFCO Baltic will soon manage a new activity: transporting 40,000 vehicles a year from Poland to Hungary, Italy, France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The new subsidiary is also expected to start up groupage activities in the near future.
The Latvian subsidiary is the first step in GEFCO's development in the Baltic states, and the group plans to open sites in Lithuania and Estonia from 2009.
As part of the company's strategy to strengthening activities in Central and Eastern Europe, GEFCO opened a its first subsidiary in Slovenia in April last year. Business in Slovenia is strong, with the growing activity at the Port of Koper, a transport hub for the CEEC region (Central & Eastern European Countries) that provides direct access to Eastern Europe and the Balkans in particular.
GEFCO distributes new vehicles from the Port of Koper to Central and Eastern Europe, and will introduce a rail corridor between the port and the CEEC region in 2009. The group also transports vehicles produced at the Trnava plant in Slovakia and the Kolin plant in the Czech Republic from Koper to Turkey, Malta and Cyprus, and takes delivery of Turkish production destined for the CEEC region.
GEFCO will soon start up customs clearance activities in Slovenia.
The GEFCO group now has a total of eleven subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe: Poland (opened in 1999), Turkey (2002), the Czech Republic and Russia (2003), Austria and Slovakia (2004), Romania and Hungary (2005), together with Slovenia (2007), and Ukraine and Latvia (2008).
