Geis Group acquires General Transport AG of Basle
Bad Neustadt/Basle, 6 April 2011. The Geis Group has acquired 75 percent of the shares of the logistics service provider, General Transport AG. The Swiss company, with its headquarters based in Basle along with a branch based in Zurich, employs approximately 75 employees and has a forecasted turnover of approximately 90 million Swiss francs (approximately EUR 68.4 million) for the current fiscal year 2011. “This alliance will enable the Geis Group to expand geographically and will also help General Transport to strengthen its market position,” said the new CEO of General Transport AG, Andreas Speiser. The current CEO, Fritz Mumenthaler, shall remain a member of the Administrative Board and shall continue to be responsible for the Industrial Projects and Plant Logistics division.
General Transport AG was founded in 1947 and continues to provide a comprehensive range of services today under the protected trademark, Five Star Logistics®. This ranges from contract logistics, road and rail transportation over air and sea freight right through to transport for major events and humanitarian missions in areas of conflict. The company is able to call upon a significant level of know-how in the fields of industrial plant and project logistics: General Transport has been a market leader in this respect for a number of years.
Now the Geis Group is also in Switzerland
“Thanks to its wide-ranging service offering and close integration into international transport networks, General Transport AG is well positioned. These were also the main reasons for purchasing the shares”, explained Hans-Georg Geis and Wolfgang Geis, Managing Partners of the Geis Group. “General Transport AG is not just an ideal complement in terms of service offering, but from a geographical perspective it is also an ideal complement to our existing activities in Eastern and Central Europe,” said the new CEO, Andreas Speiser. He will also remain the Managing Director of other Geis companies at the same time.
Retaining a household name
General Transport will continue to operate independently within the market. The company name and brand name Five Star Logistics® and will remain the same, as will the existing employee structure. By selling to the Geis Group, the previous owners have settled their succession in a timely manner that is also for the long-term, and will continue to provide support and advice to the Administrative Board.
“By working in cooperation with the various Geis companies in Germany, Luxembourg, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, this will help to further expand the service portfolio and customer base of General Transport AG,” said Andreas Speiser. “We are especially looking to expand our service offering in the fields of road transport and contract logistics.”
About the Geis Group
Since it was established in 1948, the Geis Group, which is based in Bad Neustadt in Franconia, has grown into a global full-service logistics provider, employing around 3,400 workers at 87 company-owned network and logistics sites across Europe. The owner-run company offers its customers a complete range of logistics services, including conventional road transport, global air- and sea-freight, and complex logistics services. And it does this very successfully: The company was awarded the "Bayerns Best 50" ("Bavaria's Best 50") title in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, in recognition of it ranking among the fifty fastest growing companies in Bavaria in each of those years.
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