1. 14 Aviation International Transport Journal 05-06 2016
Mr Rossé, your baby is coming of age this
year. In its childhood and youth, Total
Freight Management tried out many
different things, didn’t it...?
Though TFM was born as a «normal»
freight forwarder, we strived to garner niche
contracts from the first day onwards. We
never believed that out future lay in stand
ard business options. The question was
only, how we could differentiate ourselves
from our competitors. So we decided to
initially listen exclusively to the needs ex
pressed by our customers, and to respond to
them a little faster and more flexibly than
our rivals. It’s a simple recipe, really, but
implementation is a whole different kettle
of fish. We needed a lot of discipline, and
naturally had to invest a lot of time.
One of the results was our «TFM Time Cri
tical» option, which laid the basis for our
success. We did indeed try many different
things over the years: we launched a global
Photo:AtlasAir
Atlas paying out – and investing
Polar Air Cargo, Polar Air Cargo Worldwide and their pa
rentcompanyAtlasAirWorldwideHoldingshaveagreedto
settle a class-action lawsuit. They will pay of USD 100 mil
lion in three instalments; the first one is due on 15 Janu
ary 2016; the second and third ones on 15 January 2017 and
2018. The industry-wide litigation arose from allegations
– which the airlines deny to this day – concerning the pri
cing practices of some air cargo carriers between 2000 and
2006. The matter also involves Air China, Air India and Air
New Zealand. This is the second-highest such payment ever
made, after the USD 115 million shelled out by Korean Air.
When Atlas Air said in January that it was taking over
Southern Air it was thus all the more surprising for market
observers. The transaction, which has not yet been cleared
by the authorities, is expected to cost around USD 110 mil
lion. The cargo carriers that form part of the US company
operate five Boeing B777-200Fs and B737-400Fs each.ah
Atlas Air carriers operate the largest Boeing B747F fleet world-
wide. B777s and B737Fs could soon enlarge its portfolio.
retail courier with a hub in London – TFM
had an office in England at that time; we
entered the field of spare parts / exchange
logistics for PDAs and recall campaigns;
we set up a technical courier, which saw
us carry out measurements for customers
with special instruments and exchange the
equipment, if necessary. These forays re
sulted in today’s four main specialisations:
aviation, e-commerce, IT service parts and
reefer logistics.
How big is TFM, now that it is grown up?
We currently rent a 218 sqm office, and
a 294 sqm warehouse for our small parts
logistics solutions, at Zurich airport. Ex
ternal centres are added as and when they
are required; in Switzerland we currently
operate facilities in Bülach, the Embra
port bonded warehouse and Rümlang. In
Geneva we manage our own spare parts
logistics services, analogue to our options
in Zurich. Ten employees serve the entire
country 24 / 7 / 365 from these locations.
Still a successful niche player
«Imagination is of the essence»The owner-managed specialist provider Total Freight Management, which is headquartered at Zurich airport, is coming of age in 2016.
A lot has changed in the (logistics) world since the ITJ last visited founder Jean-Claude Rossé (see ITJ 39-40 / 2008, page 40). Rossé
still has the appropriate recipes for business success, as he told ITJ editor Andreas Haug recently.
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160105_SWC_Orna_EN_58x25.indd 1 05.01.16 16:25
2. 15International Transport Journal 05-06 2016Aviation
and data integration, at a time when these
fields were still largely dominated by the
major courier firms. We specialised in
fully-automated, tailor-made import cus
toms clearance of mass shipments des
tined for the Swiss market, where we are
a market leader according to the official
customs statistics. Last year we increased
the number of e-commerce declarations
we carried out by another 62%.
Time-criticalimportsfromdistribution
centres into Switzerland by lorry as well
as by aeroplane are another aspect that
we manage ourselves. It goes without say
ing that we operate in a very volatile and
turbulent market; but at least experts are
predicting continued rosy growth for the
e-commerce segment overall.
What have the effects of the
strong Swiss franc been
over the past year?
We’ve ascertained that
there is extremely strong
demand as well as a very
active consumption pattern
in Switzerland. Online shop
ping from suppliers abroad be
came even more attractive after the
artificially inflated franc / euro exchange
rate was dropped. This trend was addition
ally supported by dispatch free of charge
to Switzerland, an option that more and
more foreign online retailers offer under
certain conditions.
We recently ran a report on your latest
niche (see ITJ 43-44 / 2015, page 7).
You’re referring to Easyfresh, a global
network of reefer experts with extensive
perishables handling know-how as well as
their own cool chain infrastructure. When
Easyfresh asked us to be their exclusive
representative in Switzerland, we decided
to further expand this field together. We’ll
present these developments at Fruit Logis
tica in Berlin at the beginning of February.
Airbus vs. Boeing: 1 – 1
Last year the US plane-maker Boeing
handed over 762 aeroplanes to clients,
39 more than in 2014. The figure is higher
than in any single year of the corporation’s
98 business years so far, and substantially
higher than Airbus’s total. Boeing’s Euro
pean competitor delivered 635 aircraft, a
company record, after the 629 registered
in the previous year.
Airbus enjoyed a clear lead (1036 – 768)
for net orders in 2015. This is set to be
come something of a luxury problem for
the company, as it is currently having great
difficulty in reducing its order backlog of
6,787 aeroplanes. Both manufacturers
have registered declining interest in their
very large passenger models, however –
Boeing’s B747 and Airbus’s A380. ah
Swiss figures slide
Long faces in Geneva and Zurich. Air
freight volumes handled at Zurich air
port declined by 4.2% last year vis-à-vis
2014. The total tonnage at the country’s
most important air cargo hub came in at
411,780 t.
ThelossinGeneva,Switzerland’ssecond-
largest gateway for long-haul flights, was
even larger, declining by 10.3%. Accor
ding to the airport, the 65,074 t of cargo
(flown and trucked) shows that Geneva
Around the same number of people carry
out courier services, warehousing tasks and
freight handling for us externally. I can
build on our loyal and motivated team.
Since last summer Robert Wermelinger has
been our COO. His 40 years of executive
experience and huge expert knowledge give
me excellent support.
Please give us some business figures.
All I can say is this – we’re pleased that
we’ve never registered a decline in sales in
17½ years in the business. We’ve always
grown. This applies both to the volumes
we handled as well as to our revenues. Our
ebit even improved overproportionally,
as our gross profit margin is
above the industry average,
on account of our activi
ties that deviate from the
usual standards. We’re
very satisfied.
A fast pace typifies your
business. How have the
demands you make of your
logistics partners changed
since we last spoke in 2008?
Our niches allowed us to generate very
good margins for many years. Today there
are more competitors in spare parts logis
tics for the aviation and IT industries. More
rival means more pressure to perform well
– and this with falling prices.
We react by seeking new niches and by
developing innovative products. The ten
dency is that everything has to be done
even faster. But ever cheaper too? Not
necessarily! Imagination is of the essence!
New ideas are often welcomed.
The CEP segment proved difficult to inte-
grate into your organisational structure.
How are you doing in e-commerce?
We were lucky enough to start our activi
ties very early on and to offer pioneer
ing work in terms of process engineering
Spare parts in a warehouse or
chocolate in a reefer box – they
are all part of TFM founder
and CEO Jean-Claude Rossé’s
daily business.
Photos:TFM,ITJ
airport «has suffered on account of the
general economic downturn, as well as
from competition with other Swiss hubs,
especially in terms of air cargo operations
to and from the Gulf states.»
This is a reference to Basel, where a
new terminal handled Qatar Airways
Cargo full-freighter flights to Doha and
Emirates SkyCargo services to Dubai.
The only Swiss hub with freighter options
managed to increase its flown-as-booked
air cargo volumes by more than 16% in
2015 vis-à-vis 2014, registering 49,021 t.
Together with the gateway’s trucked
freight total volumes came to 101,050 t;
this was only 3% more than the previous
year’s total, however. ah
I am with You all the Way
Halit Mimaroglu
Sales Manager
SWISSWORLDCARGO.COM
160105_SWC_Halit_EN_58x25.indd 1 05.01.16 16:23
