Stephan Haltmayer Is Quick

     FlyingTypers keeps track and supports and applauds the initiatives of family-owned international freight forwarders and companies around the world.
     Quick Cargo Services based in Frankfurt has built a great business and also has formed alliances while keeping its business all in the family.
     Founder and president, former airline executive Dieter Haltmayer is the vortex forming the biggest of groups of forwarders in Germany, IGLU (Interessen Gemeinschaft Luftfracht GmbH).
     Comprised of 21 smaller and medium-sized air cargo agents, the group pulled their strength together, formed a ltd. Company with a managing director and multiplied their purchasing power exponentially.
     The group is very successful and growing.
     In 2005 Stephan D. Haltmayer, together with a Hong Kong-based entrepreneur was very instrumental in establishing a similar alliance of midsize cargo agents in China with more than a hundred members currently.
     FlyingTypers spoke to Stephan recently and learned much more of the growing family enterprise and what the future might bring.
FT: Stephan, two generations in logistics is one trademark of the Haltmayer clan in Quick Cargo Services. Another seems to be your father’s and your talent to gather people in similar situations around you.
     Are you about to do it again?
S.H.: I have certain ideas in mind to offer a wider range of logistics solutions in Europe.
     Gathering people around means nothing else but to strengthen our own position. Forming groups like IGLU or the China network is the answer for midsize companies to compete in a market that is dominated by multinational forwarders. Midsize agents have to seek these opportunities to strengthen their own position in the market.
FT:So far you have successfully initiated and organized such groups in both Germany and in China domestically – not across borders.
     Might you try something new in say, Southeastern Europe?
S.H.: Yes – we are about to create a tight network of Eastern European air and sea freight agents, jointly with a local Austrian logistics provider.
     Besides China and India, Eastern Europe is the most important emerging market.
     As a country at the doorway to Eastern Europe, I feel responsible to offer our worldwide agents an Eastern European solution by using Frankfurt for airfreight and Hamburg for seafreight as gateways to these new member countries of the EU.
     Further we will be able to offer to door delivery service and collect charges for shipments to these markets.
     Many international agents abroad have difficulty in finding reliable partners in these countries.
     We have created an Eastern European desk in our FRA head office to give our agents the right solutions for their transportation needs to and from Eastern Europe by air, ocean or on the ground.
     FT: In such cases, when you bring agents into your fold what are the key criteria you look for?
     In order to be recognized by the carriers do you form a company rather than just a “cooperation”?
     S.H.: Finding the right partner is a difficult task.
     Quality and reliability is the most important issue.
     We have a name and reputation in the industry.
     QCS stands for quality and so do our hand picked partners around the world.
     We prefer to work with companies that have been in business for many years and who are strong local players in their respective marketplace, like we are here. It is not always necessary to form a company.
     But there must be common understanding among the partners in order to achieve a smooth and fruitful cooperation.