From Coast to Coast

International acquisitions and a concerted strategy have made an Indian logistics giant a global leader, says Shashi Kiran Shetty. Allcargo Logistics Ltd, part of Avvashya Group, is India's first truly global integrated logistics leader, with operations in over 90 countries, over 200 offices globally, and a team of over 8,500 members. Today, the company is India's largest logistics company in the private sector listed on BSE and NSE with consolidated revenues expected to cross $1 billion by FY15-16, thus becoming the first billion-dollar integrated logistics multinational headquartered in India. Major acquisitions Some major acquisitions have propelled Allcargo to become a logistics giant in the present day. In June 2006, we acquired Belgium-based ECU-LINE, a global multinational and world leader in consolidation and NVOCC operations, headquartered in Antwerp. After the success of the ECU-LINE acquisition, we acquired two NVOCC operators in China in 2010, with extensive operations in Hong Kong, China and other parts of the eastern world. We further strengthened our presence in the US with the acquisition of Econocaribe Consolidators in 2013. Around the same time, we acquired FCL Marine Agencies, which is an NVOCC service provider in the full container load (FCL) segment in Europe, the US and Canada, extending our business in FCL. Gamut of operations Globally, we are leaders in NVOCC through our international subsidiary, ECU-LINE. In India, we are one of the largest players in CFS operations and market leaders in project logistics, equipment leasing and ship owning and chartering services. And in contract logistics, we are one of the fastest growing service providers domestically. Our project and engineering solutions division provides integrated end-to-end project, engineering and logistic services through a diverse fleet of owned or rented special equipment like hydraulic axles, cranes, barges, reach stackers and ships to carry ODC or OWC cargos, as well as project engineering solutions across various sectors. Allcargo is rapidly growing in the domestic as well as global market, with a combination of key geographies and few anchor countries. In addition to our focus in India, we are also scaling-up growth in high potential markets such as the US and China. In fact, Allcargo recently added two new vessels for our ship owning services, which brings the total number of our ships in operation to five. Our vessels are in the range of DWT 6,000 mt to 12,000 mt. They specialise in providing solutions for moving bulk, break bulk, containerised and project cargo. Forward march Coastal shipping itself is new in terms of an alternate medium of transportation in India. Traditionally, roads and rail have played a major part in the movement of cargo within the economy. But as the market and consumption grew with pace, newer and more efficient mediums were required to support India´s trade, thus coastal shipping emerged as an alternate mode that would be a game-changer in years to come. Our business is still at its initial stages. We not only foresee tremendous growth in the existing market, but newer and innovative solutions that can be created using coastal shipping as a medium for managing logistic requirements of organisations planning to scale up their activities in India. One of the key virtues of Allcargo as an organisation is our professional talent. We recently expanded our global family by the addition of Prakash Tulsiani, who is Executive Director-Operations and COO for India. He was previously with Maersk & GDL. At Allcargo, he will be responsible for the company´s growth across all business verticals. Martin Mueller, who was at McKinsey Consulting, has come on board as Chief Strategy Officer of ECU-LINE. He will be in charge of developing our strategic growth roadmap globally and will expand our leadership in existing markets. The world, our oyster Our focus going forward will be on scaling up our coastal shipping and contract logistics businesses, as well as entering new segments of logistics including e-commerce, chemical warehousing and others. Going forward, we will continue to focus on providing best-in-class services to customers and bettering our performance and learnings. We will leverage our global network to consolidate our leadership. Globally, we will continue to increase our market share across businesses. As a global organisation, our vision is to achieve $2 billion revenue by 2020 and be recognised across the world for unparalleled integrated logistics, innovation and technological advancement and customer-focused services with world-class corporate governance. Moreover, we will continue to strive to give back to society. Through Avashya Foundation, we will support and nurture CSR initiatives that bring inclusive growth, opportunity, health, education, employment and prosperity for the needy and underprivileged, with environmental sustainability being at the core of our programmes. About the author: Shashi Kiran Shetty, Founder & Chairman, Allcargo Logistics, and Promoter, BlackSoil Realty Fund, is the recipient of the highest civilian honour from Belgian royalty. This is a testament to his contribution in taking India´s logistics industry to a global scale and his illustrious career spanning over four decades in the industry. Over the years, Shetty has led Allcargo Logistics to new milestones of growth through international acquisitions.