The Redspher group of companies, which includes the well-established provider of on-demand shipments Flash Europe International, is setting up Rubiwin, a start-up dedicated to helping individual and small enterprises in the courier industry to reduce their costs and be able to bear the price pressure in the industry better.
Thanks to growing world markets and strong online trade, job prospects in the transport industry will continue to prosper in the future. However, the market is highly competitive, subject to high price pressure (for example from Eastern European suppliers) and extensive legal regulations. Nevertheless, Germany has always been the land of small and medium-sized enterprises: 90 per cent of all transport companies in Germany have five or fewer cars.
These are the companies the new Redspher start-up wants to target: Rubiwin helps companies make up for the structural disadvantage by offering conditions and contracts designed for larger companies. “Rubiwin’s customers can benefit from the synergies and market power of the Redspher Group and can use conditions, in particular for vehicle leasing, fuel cards and insurance, which are usually up to 20 per cent better than offers that they receive as a small business,” the head of the group Philippe Higelin, explains the benefits for the companies.
“Rubiwin brings together the benefits of big and small businesses. The drivers will gain their market-leading flexibility and high quality, while gaining the margins benefit of large companies,” says Quentin de Madre, Rubiwin’s CEO.
The German market has always been a profitable and strategically important market for the group. The transactions of Schwerdtfeger Logistik and EF-Express-Logistik as well as the many years of positive development of Flash Europe Germany have strengthened the position of the group in Germany. “For us as a group, it is therefore important to continue to invest in this market,” Higelin affirms the corporate decision.
“Every day we rely on a large network of self-employed drivers and see what problems they have to face to be able to succeed in the market. The cost pressure is enormous,” explains Fabian Rogalla, Managing Director of Schwerdtfeger Logistik. “On the one hand, I believe that Rubiwin can help the small business in the form of sustainable cost optimisation. On the other hand, for us as a customer of small businesses, it is advantageous to be able to call on even more stable and therefore more reliable partners.”
Redspher is a European transport and logistics group that gathers all its companies within one open digital platform that simplifies and facilitates on-demand delivery. The group operates in 19 countries and achieved a turnover of EUR 300 million last year.
The group incorporates Flash Europe International (international premium logistics B2B), Schwerdtfeger Transport (international premium logistics B2B), Upela (international freight management), Easy2Go (sameday delivery B2B and B2C – currently limited to the French market), Easy4Pro (Adhoc transport management software B2B), GeniusAcademay (online training centre), Easy2Trace (app to monitor vehicles and shipments), Roberts.eu (servie provider with access to Europes largest fleet of light commercial vehicles) and Yoctu (provider of IT tools).
