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French contract logistics provider FM Logistic will spend $20 million in the next 12-18 months to expand its operations in India.
This is in addition to the $100 million already invested by the company in the last seven years, said Stephane Descarpentries, Managing Director, Asia and Strategic Projects, FM Logistic.
The €1.5 billion company has 28,000 employees in 14 countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America. India is in the third position (not in revenue terms but in infrastructure and people) after France and Poland. In France, it employs around 7,000 people; about 6,000 in Poland and nearly 5,000 in India.
“India will become the number two in 2-3 years. It is a very important country for us,” Descarpentries told newspersons after inaugurating the first control tower facility at the India headquarters in Pune.
Control tower functions
An official explains the feature of the control tower | Photo Credit: T E Raja Simhan
The control tower provides technology-driven supply chain services with end-to-end visibility to customers. Here, optimisation is better planned and the right component reaches the assembly line at the right time.
Real-time performance can be reported through business intelligence performance dashboards, said Ajit Jangle, Managing Director, FM Logistic India.
The control tower will offer customer transportation services from order management, network design, transport simulation, and vehicle management to track-and-trace services.
In case of an exigency, predictive analysis is a key feature that aids in decision-making. A team of 100 experts will oversee the functioning of this business.
The customer’s requirement will come to the company’s network from where it would be placed with the supplier and transport the material as per the plan. If there is any disruption, this would be intimated to the customer.
The performance dashboard can track the average delivery time; the average unloading time, and if there is any damaged shipment, Jangle said.
Company profile
The family-owned FM Logistic entered India in 2016 by acquiring Pune-based Spears Logistics.
Today, it is the country’s third-largest contract logistics company with a presence in over 100 locations and manages 7 million sq ft of warehousing space for companies in FMCG, retail, automotive, e-commerce, engineering, telecom, and pharma. Its clients include Caterpillar and Stellantis.
Descarpentries said in India after the introduction of GST, a lot of consolidation is happening across sectors and this is helping the logistics industry. “We grew at 25 per cent year-on-year and believe this growth can be sustainable for the next few years,” he said without giving any financial numbers.
(This writer was in Pune at the company’s invitation)
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