In 2015, Koopman Autotransport set itself the goal of growing by over 70 per cent in nine years. It was up to Gerhard Kolk (47), Director of Operations at Koopman, to facilitate that growth. "Those challenges that seem impossible and then succeed at the end. Nothing more fun than that."
As Director of Operations at Koopman Autotransport, Kolk provides day-to-day leadership to some 400 people and manages the company's 285 trucks that operate across Europe.
'There was little room to invest'
Many a logistician would already have his hands full, were it not for the fact that Koopman Autotransport decided in 2015 that it wanted to grow substantially without compromising on profitability. "We had the ambition to grow from 58 million to 100 million euros in nine years . There actually had to be a whole new business alongside the existing one. At the time, we were just coming out of a financial crisis that had left its mark. There was little room to invest, partly because the labour market for good drivers is extremely tight."
Kolk had shortly before completed the EMlog programme (Executive Master Supply Chain Management & Logistics) and decided to implement one of the logistics concepts he picked up there. This concept is based on four main pillars. "The first pillar was mapping the logistics network. Where are our partners located? And which partners could possibly support us in expansion? That would save us another investment."
The second pillar zooms in on planning and control. "The moment you have insight into your network, you have to think: how am I going to plan that as efficiently as possible?
Kolk then explored how he could support this with the right ICT processes. He named three key projects: digitisation, big data and blockchain. Last year, thanks to the use of blockchain, Koopman Autotransport managed to deliver a car without a paper consignment note. Using big data, Koopman Autotransport can extract predictive value from the orders it receives. "This way, we can send a truck somewhere even before we have an order," he says.
Of course, the above stands or falls with the behaviour of the people on the shop floor. The fourth pillar therefore revolves around the organisation. "That is the most important pillar, the people who do it. With us, it's all about logistics and entrepreneurship. Every employee has to be an entrepreneur. We have put all the projects away in different project groups. They have given hands and feet to all those projects."
According to Kolk, a "robust, profitable logistics concept" has now been established. "We have built a business alongside our company," he says. Currently, Koopman is running a turnover of €78 million. "Wenow have a certain vision of the future, but the car market is changing a lot. People want to use rather than own a car. We have to be able to act quickly on that and we are now equipped to do that."
What makes Kolk the Logistic Manager of the Year? "I think I have been exceptionally good at setting up a profitable strategic concept to achieve growth without expansion investments. Vision, entrepreneurship and being able to deal well with people. That is my great strength and I do it with great pleasure."
