‘Never Ending Story’ by BLG Chairman Aden

‘Never Ending Story’ by BLG Chairman Aden

Would his leadership continue even after retirement?

[CLO Cheol Min, Kim] Thousands of German cars ranging from Mercedes to BMW are waiting for the shipment to be exported to the Far Eastern countries. That is the scene in the port of Bremerhaven, a representative automobile port in Germany. Last year the port of Bremerhaven recorded its highest figures handling more than 2 million vehicles. Extraordinary enough to make the fear of European recession sound like the story of a far-away country.

BLG(Bremer Lagerhaus Gesellschaft) is devoted to handling all the automobile logistics services here in the port of Bremerhaven. And Mr. Aden, the chairman of BLG, is the very man who has lead to the successful development of the port of Bremen/Bremerhaven as a strategic logistics point in Europe.

Mr. Aden is retiring as of 22nd May, when there will be a farewell ceremony along with BLG World Meeting. During his 15 years in office, BLG has no doubt experienced strong growth and increased its presence as a global logistics group.

BLG achieved a total sales of 1.2 billion Euros in 2012 due to upswing in export of German cars. The cars handled in the whole terminal network exceeded 7 million units last year and 2.2 millions were handled in Bremerhaven. The record reached an all time high.

The ratio of car export and import was 75:25. The imported cars mostly come from Asian region including Hyundai in Korea. Now some of Asian car manufacturers have set up their own factories in Eastern Europe and supply the West European markets from there. Intermodal transport service for those cars to be carried by rail, truck or barge is one of BLG's major business sectors.

Mr. Aden has been specially associated with the Korean logistics industry. He stressed in the interview that BLG has had successful relationship with Glovis, which is in charge of logistics sector for Hyundai and Kia Motors, under long term contract from the very beginning of its foundation. Glovis used to be able to inherit some know-how for automobile logistics service from BLG based on that solid relations.

Mr. Aden considers the most rewarding thing as expansion of BLG's business field to all over the world.

"When I came in 1999, the business area was around the city of Bremen and the port of Bremerhaven with 3,000 employees. BLG's reputation that time, as a specialized automobile logistics company, was quite good but not internationally renowned. Then we started to look overseas and expanded our logistics network world-widely including South Africa, Brazil, Argentina, India, Malaysia and China. So now we have total 16,000 employees. I think this is a remarkable development and I am very proud of that achievement." he said.

Meantime, he will be disconnecting any business ties with BLG after retirement in compliance with German Corporate Governance Law. If he should want to come back as an advisor, at least 2 years' cooling period will be required. As a common practice, however, no one returns in order not to affect the new management board, according to him.

After finishing his chairmanship, he is going to do some supervisory work for a private company and also plans to organize 'World Logistics Forum' in 2014, at which the heads from the global logistics industry get together just like World Economic Forum(Davos Forum).

Being a successful leader in the logistics industry, he is arranging for this forum in the hope that it might embody the vision and value of 'Logistics' itself and contribute to the progress of the world logistics industry. That is the reason why his retirement looks so special in another perspective.

Deepening ties with the local community is also one of Mr. Aden's achievements during his office. Literally BLG is well aware of CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility) and putting it into practice. As a part of their activity, the overseas performance of Bremer Kammer Philhamonie orchestra, specialized in Beethoven's works, is now being arranged.

"The performance in Japan and Brazil is scheduled and now I am consulting with them about performance in Korea in early Dec. During this period, there could be a special event as well in conjunction with Glovis." said Mr. Aden.

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