Nice article about our growth through the years
Since September 2021, AG Logistics has had a brand-new warehouse on the Rietgraaf in Oosterhout. Excluding the mezzanine floor, the building has 64,000 square meters, with space for 105,000 pallets. Considerably larger than the branch offices in Beuningen (14,000 m2), Ede (28,000 m2) and Venlo (13,500 m2). In addition to these new, sustainably built warehouses, the company also has a transport branch. AG Transport's 110 trucks are based in the Veluwe village of Lunteren.
Stationary truck
When you see all these companies, it is hard to imagine that it all started with one person and one truck. That person is Arie Thomassen, now general manager of AG Holding. Arie himself does not like to pat himself on the back, but from Michel Roks, responsible for sales & marketing, we hear more about the genesis. Michel: 'Less than twenty years ago, Arie was on the market with fruit and vegetables. The truck would stand next to it all day. Arie came up with the idea of renting out his truck. That turned out to be a big hit. In a short time he had a whole fleet of trucks on the road. Bit by accident and with a lot of entrepreneurial spirit, the logistics side was added later.
The human touch
That 'coincidence' had to do with a distribution company that owed Arie a lot of money, Michel continues. 'That other company got into financial trouble. It owned 60 percent of Dutch leaflet distribution. Arie then dared to restart the business. That was only six years ago. We now serve a variety of customers from food to healthcare and from SMEs to multinationals.'
Today, Arie runs the business together with son Theo. 'It really is a family business,' Thomassen describes the corporate culture. 'We work with permanent employees as much as possible and want to put the human touch first. We see this reflected in the high quality and low turnover: employees generally remain loyal to us for a long time. We are proud of that, just as we are proud of each individual employee.' Has he perhaps brought the simplicity and social of the marketplace into his company? 'That could well be the case.'
Not AT but AG
Today, AG Logistics offers a wide range of services, with official certification. These range from storage and re-packing of goods to completely unburdening customers who want to outsource the logistics process of their products. The Venlo branch focuses particularly on e-fulfilment. Here they organize the complete logistics for webshops.
In the Nijmegen region, the branches in Beuningen and Oosterhout play the main role. 'We are beautifully situated in Oosterhout on the A15 and near the Barge Terminal Nijmegen, centrally located between major hubs such as the Port of Rotterdam, Schiphol and the Ruhr,' says Thomassen. There are also still ambitions: 'In the fall we will open a new branch in Duiven and I am also working on a piece of land in Tiel. We are growing and I want sufficient space to be able to provide flexible service to our customers in the future as well.'
Final question: judging from the initials, we would have expected AT Logistics and AT Transport. Why AG? 'Arie and Gerard, my brother-in-law with whom I founded the holding company.'
Source: www.logisticsvalley.nl