The effects of managerial synergy
Goodman is building in the Port of Gdansk

04.10.2012

The Gdansk Pomerania region was looking forward to this investment. Like chunks of amber that appear on the beach after a storm, on the initiative of various investors, small-sized logistics storehouses have been rising around Gdansk for several years now. The project launched by Goodman in the Gdansk port area has overshadowed all other developments previously realized by this Australian investor in Poland. On an area taking up nearly 110 hectares of land and owned by the City of Gdansk, a Pomeranian Logistics Centre (PLC) is underway, with a targeted storage area of half a million sq. metres. Suffice it to say that the other eight facilities developed by "Goodman" will offer a total of no more than 776,000 sq. metres of storage area.

Goodman commenced its operations in Poland seven years ago and it is now managing its logistics terminals in the vicinity of Poznan, Warsaw and Cracow, offering on the Polish market more than just storage facilities, with each centre generating the rise of new industrial zones in its surroundings. Based on its philosophy: invest, build and manage - Goodman has created in Europe a business empire that has been distinguished in the ranking PropertyEU with the title Number One Developer. Its 113 logistics facilities on the Old Continent, 34 offices worldwide and its assets worth 16 billion Euros provide the sufficient recommendation of Gdansk's new business partner.

On 1 October 2012, at No.12 Kontenerowa Street, Gdansk City Mayor Pawel Adamowicz, President of the Gdansk Economic Development Agency Alan Aleksandrowicz, CEO of DCT Gdansk Boris Wenzel and Goodman's Regional Manager in Poland Blazej Ciesielczyk laid the foundation stone of the Pomeranian Logistics Centre. The machinery preparing the construction site was put to work two week earlier. This shared success - a culmination of the joint effort by the region, the city and the port - represents a classic effect of synergy between entities that recognize economic growth as an overriding interest. What has been duly noted is the thousand years of experience of a port facility that was built at the outlet of the Vistula river to the Baltic, the tradition of storehouses that for centuries have operated on the Stogi Island, the unprecedented growth in throughput of Poland's biggest maritime container terminal and, last but not least, the potential of an investor who has developed a substantial interest in our country.

PLC is an obvious supplement and a natural consequence of developing the Deepwater Container Terminal DCT in the Gdansk port. The five-year-old facility, which handles the Maersk's weekly AE 10 service, has this year - despite the sluggish container shipping market - reached for boxes that before were only shipped as far as Hamburg. The throughput capacity of more than one million TEU that can be processed by the infrastructure currently in place no longer seems satisfactory to both the DCT's owners or to the port. The talks currently underway with PGA SA will soon bring about the expansion, allowing for simultaneously handling two giant ocean-going vessels and for rising the DCT's throughput capacity up to 4 million TEU.

The joint synergetic effort focused on the Gdansk port facility is far more reaching in scope and perspective. Both PLC and DCT, which operate on the adjacent grounds, are located within a short distance of a state-of-the-art airport and soon will acquire excellent road transport connections. The Sucharskiego Route is coming to a close and it is designed to connect them - via the Gdansk South Ring Road - with the A1 Motorway, and also with the express roads - S7 to Warsaw and S6 to Szczecin. Additionally, transport will become faster thanks to a tunnel built under the port canal as part of the road network. The long-awaited prospects of Gdansk's development are taking shape as the Ministry of the Environment is devising programmes aimed at restoring inland navigation on Polish rivers. The Port of Gdansk is also eagerly awaiting the construction by PKP PLK (Polish Rail Company) of a double-track railway to Pruszcz Gdanski together with a new railway bridge over the Motlawa river. DCT - within the framework of inter-modal transportation projects promoted by the European Union - also took part in the competition and acquired PLN 50 million in subsidies for the expansion project. Prior to that, in agreement with CTL Logistics and Maersk Group, it seconded the launch of the container services Maersk Amber Express to Terminal Schavemaker in Katy Wroclawskie and Maersk Baltic Express to Euroterminal Slawkow. The analysis of factors determinant to the terminal's and port's competitive advantage has induced DCT to take up further discussions. As a result, already in December of this year, the first railcars - in conjunction with PKP Cargo - will carry containers from the Gdansk-based terminal to Moscow. The successive railcars - scheduled in cooperation with PKP LHS - will move containers directly to Ukraine.

"A kind of a corporation, an association between historic experience and realistic estimates of the Gdansk potential..." - a reflection overheard behind the scenes of the Goodman's anniversary celebrations in Gdansk - is now becoming a realistic measure of the perspectives for Gdansk Pomerania, Gdansk and the Gdansk port. It is time now for us to take advantage of the factors that for a thousand years have determined the competitive edge of the Polish port facility and to draw profits from the opportunities presented by the seaport in Gdansk.

Janusz Kasprowicz
PGA SA PR Officer