European Cargo Services
Message from the President
ECS, a sound partner for airlines
A word on ECS, by Guy Tordjman, CEO
At the end of its first decade, ECS can look back on its accomplishments with pride: the creation of a network which has made it the top GSSA company in Europe and the USA and a world leader in the industry; the signing of contracts for worldwide representation with companies such as Brussels Airlines, Corsairfly and Ukraine International Airlines; and the development of completely innovative solutions, with hubs such as Santo Domingo associating commercial lines and charter connections, and in Lomé, where ECS went so far as to invest in an airline company. The most satisfying thing of all is the testimonials of our customers, which prove that ECS understands the needs of the market and how to react to them, making the outsourcing of cargo operations a vital factor in airline performance.
Today, like the entire world economy, our market has been affected by two parallel phenomena: the rise of oil prices and the fall of the dollar. However, the immediate impact of these events has remained limited for ECS. The first reason for this is the distribution of our sales turnover, nearly 85% of which is earned in euros in business with European countries, including 40% in France. Another reason is the trends supporting our market, in particular the strong performance ofexports, buoyed by structural transformations in the world economy and the accelerated growth of intercontinental trade, which have made air cargo a key means of transport.
Our European operations continue to grow by 5 to 6% a year, and ECS turnover has increased by 50% in three years. This growth results both from the synergy of the network and the signing of many new contracts, with companies such as Thai Airways in France and Italy, Cargo B in France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and in the United States, Etihad Airlines in Italy, All Nippon Airways(ANA) in the United States, TAM Linhas Aéreas in England, British Airlines in Austria, Viva Macau in Asia, and more. In addition, in 2006 ECS acquired a shareholding in Africa West, opening up the West African market and enabling ECS to set up intra-African rerouting solutions that will save on fuel.
Our vision and strategy for the future are based on a simple observation: the rise of oil prices mechanically increases airline companies' operating costs and leads to an economic situation which further increases the advantages offered by ECS outsourcing solutions. For years we have positioned ourselves as the partner of airline companies which increase earnings and reduce costs. Consequently, our strategy is to support this positioning by further strengthening the connections of our global network, diversifying our outsourcing solutions and constantlyimproving our quality of service. In this way, ECS was bolstered in Belgium and Scandinavia by the acquisitions of shareholdings in Swift Airline Services and in one of the leading GSSA of Scandinavia, by the opening of an office in Hong Kong in late 2007, and by becoming established in Delhi, India.
This development strategy is in line with our customers' desire to increase or maintain their business volume in an unsure environment by setting up a proactive partnership. This approach has been accompanied in-house by the strengthening of our development and marketing teams, restructured under the guidance of a new sales manager. It is alsoaccompanied by a policy of continuous improvementof services, such as the integration of accounting based on the results of risk assessment, which will be launched in France and Germany in 2008, then extended across our network, in order to improve our supervisory operations. In addition, in mid 2008, the 'track and tracing' feature on CargoSpot will be made available to ECS customers on our website.
After a decade of construction and growth, ECS now has at its disposal the means necessary to fulfil its strategic objectives: providing its customers with innovative outsourcing solutions to help them achieve their goals, whatever risks are present on the market.