“In the long term, we believe that a significant increase in the volume of business in your country is possible.” Lars Börjesson, CEO of KGM Customs Services, said at the opening ceremony of the new Austrian headquarters of the company specialising in customs logistics and foreign trade on March 28 that currently stands at just under 800 employees at 42 locations in 12 European countries and in Dubai.
His confidence is based on the growing complexity of foreign trade law and compliance. This led to “that even renowned forwarding companies outsource their customs departments from the activities in transport logistics and transfer the responsibility to a neutral service provider,” Konrad Kuhlman said in an interview with the OEVZ newspaper. KGH Customs Services benefits from its market presence as a pan-European provider with international options.
KGH Customs Services has had a branch in Austria since the takeover of the customs forwarding company Hannl + Hofstetter in 2010. The current 15 employees carried out about 45,000 customs declarations last year. Konrad Kuhlman, Managing Director Germany/Austria, said that this makes them one of the leading providers on the market.
In order to generate additional business volume, KGH Customs Services Austria GmbH opened an office at the headquarters of Russia Fachspedition Dr. Ing. Lassmann in Vienna Inzersdorf last year. From there they plan to go east, operation Manager Johann Widhalm outlined his plans.
KGH Customs Services currently operates its own locations in Linz (headquarters), Enns and Vienna. In the medium term, they also want to position themselves more in the west of Austria, Konrad Kuhlman and Johann Widhalm pointed out. For this, the duo envisages close cooperation with the colleagues of the Swiss branch recently established as part of a company acquisition. The aim is to close the gap in the economic area between the offices in Linz and Basel.
In Linz, the customs logistics specialist has now rented the newly adapted building complex of the Linz AG Hafen at Regensburgerstraße 3. The office, with a surface area of around 315 m², replaces the space that was previously only used a few meters away, where the ravages of time have long lain on, as Lars Börjesson put it.
