FAST-GROWING logistics specialist, Greencarrier, has opened a branch office in Shenzhen after opening offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

Greencarrier Asia employs a total of 30 staff in Greater China. It provides all of the services expected from a traditional freight forwarder, including transportation by sea, air and land. From Asia, its special focus is to service customers engaged in the trade between China and the Nordic and Baltic countries.

Niklas Olsson, managing director and CEO of Greencarrier International, attributes the company's success in part to the level of personal service it provides.

"Some years ago, many forwarders became small cogs in large machines as the huge global forwarders bought up many of their competitors. In our opinion, this consolidation left many shippers feeling isolated. Personal service had disappeared, it seemed forever. But what really happened was that this phenomenon left niches for smaller, resilient players to exploit.

"In our home region, Scandinavia, we were faced with so many opportunities. We decided to concentrate on Asia not because China was becoming fashionable but because this region was extremely well known to us. Our parent, the Bjork Eklund Group, has been for many years agents for some of the largest air and sea freight carriers in the North Europe-Asia trades. We immediately set about expanding our operations in Scandinavia and the Baltic; we knew that many Asian shippers saw this area as one market."

Greencarrier, based in the Gothenburg, Sweden, is intent on building its presence in China, says Mr Olsson: "Just as Asian shippers regard Scandinavia and the Baltic as one market, so we in the West view China similarly. But China speaks several languages, has a land area of 9.6 million square kilometres and as Bloomberg predicted back in 2008, by 2025, at least 220 Chinese cities are likely to have more than one million people and eight will have more than 10 million. You can't service a market like that with just a handful of offices."

Carman Yeung has been appointed general manager of Greencarrier in Shenzhen as well as in Hong Kong.

Details for Greencarrier's three offices in China are Greencarrier Asia Ltd Hong Kong, Unit No 2606-2607, 26/F, The Metropolis Tower, 10 Metropolis Drive, Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, Tel: (+852) 2571 3448, Fax: (+852) 2571 3131.

The Shanghai office is located at Greencarrier Shanghai Limited, Room 2801, Dingli Building, No.235 Changyang Road, Shanghai 200082, China, Tel: (+86) 21 6095 0939, Fax: (+86) 21 6095 0927.

Greencarrier Shenzhen Branch can be found at Room 913-914, Shenzhen International Chamber of Commerce Building Block A, No. 138, 1st Fuhua Road, Futian CBD, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China, Tel: (+86) 755 8202 8411 / (+86) 755 8202 8413, Fax: (+86) 755 2383 2380.

Greencarrier has subsidiaries in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Ukraine in addition to the three offices in Greater China.

 Source: shipping online