Business office

Dubai-based shipping, logistics and marine services group GAC will open a logistics business development office in Lille, France, its first office in 2009. Regional Logistics Manager Gunnar Lundgren said the office will be run by European Key Account Manager Guillaume Gilleron, who will work to develop new business, develop trade lanes and manage key accounts in Western Europe. "He will focus on France and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg)." Gilleron previously worked for GAC in Singapore and Hong Kong. "Lille is the ideal location for the logistics business development office, as it is situated halfway between Paris and Brussels, and it will bring us closer to our customers," said Lundgren. GAC logistics recently opened a new sales office to meet growing demands for logistics services in Poland. The new office joins GAC's two existing bases in Poland, which provide essential sea freight connections from the ports of Szczecin and Gdynia. As most of the country's logistics business is controlled in and around Warsaw, GAC strategically placed its new office right in the centre of the capital - "the airfreight hub of Poland", according to Lundgren. Poland accounts for 22-per cent of business in Central and Eastern Europe and its GDP is one of the fastest-growing in Europe and forecast to rise by almost four-per cent in 2009. Meanwhile, GAC Shipping and Cargo Systems Philippines, a subsidiary of the GAC GroupGAC Group, said it has renewed its contract with the country's top pharmaceutical distributing company, Zuellig Pharma. The new deal marks the extension of the 10-year partnership between the two companies, during which GAC has provided the company with customs clearance and domestic air, sea and land transportation services throughout the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao regions. The contract was signed by GAC Philippines' president and managing director, Jake Cuerva and Zuellig Pharma's Vice-President for Distribution, John Weston.