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Tour de France Logistics Partnership Renewed

Posted on by David Priestman

XPO Logistics has officially extended its role as Official Transport Partner of both the Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift through 2030, continuing a collaboration that has spanned over four decades. The agreement highlights XPO’s pivotal role in supporting the logistical backbone of the world’s most prestigious cycling events since 1980.

Each year, XPO deploys a specialised team of drivers, logistics coordinators, and a dedicated fleet of vehicles to move and set up key race infrastructure—including barriers, podiums, signage, timing systems, and broadcast equipment. These complex daily operations are managed under tight time constraints and often on challenging terrain, requiring precision planning and real-time adaptability.

Sustainability is a core pillar of the renewed partnership. XPO will expand its use of its proprietary biofuel solution, LESS® HVO, which reduces CO₂ emissions by up to 90% compared to traditional diesel. The logistics provider will also continue operating a Euro 6-compliant fleet and plans to introduce fully electric trucks on select stages in 2025, underscoring both companies’ commitment to more sustainable operations.

The Tour de France and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift provide a real-world platform for testing and deploying these low-emission technologies. Last year alone, XPO’s use of HVO biofuel helped avoid more than 223 tonnes of CO₂ emissions across the two events.

This renewed partnership also reflects the growing scale and complexity of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, which has seen strong growth since its reintroduction in 2022. XPO’s continued support ensures parity in logistics quality and environmental standards between the men’s and women’s races.

The directors of both organisations praised the renewal as a symbol of mutual trust and a shared ambition to drive excellence, innovation, and sustainability in large-scale event logistics. As the Tour evolves, so too does the opportunity for XPO to demonstrate how the logistics sector can meet the demands of high-performance, low-impact supply chain operations on a global stage.

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Shiftmove Expands into France with Acquisition

Posted on by David Priestman

The acquisition of Optimum Automotive will enable Shiftmove, which was formed in 2023 from the merger of the two fleet management market leaders Avrios and Vimcar, to expand into France – Europe’s largest fleet market. 

Optimum Automotive, currently operates heavily in France, Portugal, Spain and Africa, has 107 employees, 7,500 customers and 200,000 vehicles under management.

Together, the two companies employ over 350 people and support more than 18,000 corporate customers with more than 550,000 vehicles under management. Users of the software solutions come for example from industries such as construction, technical support, healthcare, production and administration.

The acquisition is a strong signal of consolidation and digitalisation of the European fleet and mobility management market.

Shiftmove’s unique combination of software and telematics solutions enable small and medium-sized companies as well as large companies, such as Hotpoint UK Appliances, Actavo, All Saved, DB Schenker, McMakler and flaschenpost.de, to manage their vehicle fleets more economically and decisively drive the transformation to low-emission mobility. By automating previously time-consuming, manual processes and carrying out detailed data analyses, companies can use the modern software solutions to save costs and resources and plan the switch to alternative drive types in a targeted manner.

Francine Gervazio, CEO of Shiftmove (pictured below) , says: “We have the clear vision that more than one million vehicles will be managed via our cloud-based software solutions by 2027.

Shiftmove CEO - Francine

“The pressure on companies is growing enormously: increasingly stricter sustainability regulations and sharply rising costs for fuel, insurance and repairs require rapid action. With a powerful combination of top-edge software and telematics we are making the management of vehicle fleets as simple and efficient as possible, helping companies to increase their competitiveness and meet their sustainability goals.”

“With more than 10 million commercial vehicles, France is the largest fleet market in Europe. The digitalisation potential of the industry is immense. Only one in three European companies currently uses fleet management software to manage their own vehicle fleet.”

Daniel Vassallucci, CEO and Founder of Optimum Automotive, adds: “The acquisition by Shiftmove takes Optimum Automotive to the next level of growth, with the aim of becoming the European market leader for integrated telematics and software solutions for corporate fleets. Our product portfolios complement each other perfectly and form a strong, state-of-the-art offering for our more than 18,000 joint fleet customers across Europe.”

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New governance at Port Boulogne Calais 

Posted on by Keith McKinley

In accordance with the decision of the Board of Directors of the Société d’Exploitation des Ports du Détroit (SEPD), François Lavallee has been elected Chairman of the Board of Directors, while general management of Port Boulogne Calais has been entrusted to Benoît Rochet.

While on creation of the SEPD, in 2015, it was a Chairman and Chief Executive Officer that was elected as head of the company, the Board of Directors wanted to change its governance by separating the functions of Chairman of the Board of Directors on the one hand and Chief Executive Officer on the other.

And so, since 13th August 2022, Lavallee, President of CCI Littoral – Hauts-de-France, has chaired the Board of Directors of SEPD. Lavallee is also First Vice-President of CCI Hauts-de-France and Managing Director of the Evariste Group.

General management of the company is now provided by Rochet. A graduate of the École Polytechnique and Chief Engineer at the Corps des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts, Rochet was previously Deputy Director General of Port Boulogne Calais.

He actively contributed to the adaptation of the Ports du Détroit to Brexit, as well as the construction and commissioning of the new port of Calais.

 

ELOKON expands into France

Posted on by David Priestman

Sophie Gauthier has been appointed to the newly created role of Sales Manager France at ELOKON, a leading supplier of safety and assistance systems for intralogistics and automation technology.

Having worked in the materials handling and robotics industry for several years, Sophie brings a wealth of knowledge with her. This significant appointment mirrors a noticeable increase in demand for ELOKON’s award-winning safety and warning solutions for forklift trucks, AGVs and mobile robots in the French marketplace. It is also in response to growing customer interest in local investment, partnership and support.

“Sophie is a highly experienced and engaged sales manager and we are delighted to have her on board,” said Andreas Folz, Head of Sales at ELOKON. “With her strong focus on solution-based approaches, Sophie will continue to expand opportunities in the French market while supporting our global expansion strategy.”

ELOKON is headquartered in Germany and has subsidiaries in the USA, UK and Poland. It continues to expand its portfolio of safety and assistance systems which reduce the risk of accidents and collisions in the warehouse, for a safer working environment which protects employees, vehicles and the infrastructure.

Pictured, left to right: Alexander Glasmacher (Managing Director ELOKON Holding), Sophie Gauthier (Sales Manager France), Andreas Folz (Head of Sales ELOKON GmbH)

Cherbourg handles 100,000th container from Ireland

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Cherbourg Port has handled its 100,000th trailer travelling between Ireland and France, having multiplied its roll-on/roll-off traffic by a factor of three in a year and confirmed its position as market leader.

These results, seen in light of Brexit – which has made this route more competitive compared to the the Ireland-France landbridge route through England – demonstrate the tremendous capacity for adaptation of this port and the companies that serve it.

  • The link between Cherbourg Port and Ireland means:
  • Three ferry operators – Stena Line, Irish Ferries and Brittany Ferries – which together offer a stable, regular, competitive and flexible service.
  • Two destinations – Rosslare and Dublin.
  • One of the shortest routes between Ireland and the Continent with an average crossing time of 17 hours.
  • Up to three departures a day, six days a week with large-capacity ferries (up to 160 trailers).
  • Reliable Cherbourg Port teams, providing a high-quality service against the background of Brexit and the COVID crisis. In 2021, Cherbourg Port recruited seven dockers on permanent contracts and 12 on fixed-term contracts. The quality of their work combined with the growth in traffic allows the port to extend their contracts in 2022.
  • A port that is adapting its equipment and infrastructure – investments made include four extra terminal tractors (€170k each) and extension of the ferry companies’ ticket booths, on top of €8m of works to prepare for Brexit.

The result is that since 1st January 2021, Cherbourg Port has multiplied its roll-on/roll-off traffic between France and Ireland by three, going from 33,888 trailers at the end of December 2020 to 100,000 by the end of December 2021. And that includes a doubling of the number of unaccompanied trailers (20 to 45,000 approximately).

Following these results, Cherbourg Port and Ports of Normandy are working hard on several projects that will enable them to expand their services:

  • Creation of a multimodal transport terminal for the Bayonne/Cherbourg rail motorway service. This project is backed by Brittany Ferries and the Ministry of Transport.
  • Continued reorganisation of the terminals to create more trailer storage space.
  • Upgrading the linkspans for the latest generation of ferries.
  • Digitalisation of data.
  • Supporting logistics with, among other things, the creation of a 10ha business park near the port.
  • To mark the occasion of passage of the 100,000th trailer, David Margueritte, President of Cherbourg Port, and Cillian Rossi, representing the Irish Embassy, presented the lorry driver with a typically Norman gift, a large basket of delicious local Cotentin products.

“Supporting the cross-channel traffic, increasing links with Ireland, developing business activities on our port, all of this is crucial to consolidating the Cotentin’s position as a maritime region,” explained David Margueritte, President of the Cherbourg Port company and the Agglomération du Cotentin local authority. “With its 200km of coastline, Cotentin has Normandy’s longest seaboard, and we aim to strengthen our strategic position, thanks to the excellent work of all the Ports of Normandy and Cherbourg Ports’ teams, the commitment of the three ferry companies operating out of Cherbourg and the haulage companies and shippers who count on them.”

ZeKat launches logistics platform

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Pursuing its growth and development, ZeKat Group has launched a €4m investment project over two years to develop a multi-protocol mobile logistic platform. This gateway will integrate an open software architecture allowing remote management of embedded algorithms to ensure globalised logistics monitoring.

Since its creation in 2015, ZeKat Group has continuously grown to become a reference in IoT technologies and a leading mechatronics equipment manufacturer. The Group promotes French sovereignty in terms of design and production, particularly in the Defence, Industry and Agriculture sectors. For this last sector, the group has created a dedicated brand, IoF (for Internet of Fields), and launched a collaborative research project to develop an open and innovative technological ecosystem. With an investment of €1.2m, this project is dedicated to locally embedded artificial intelligence applications for the deployment of à la carte decision support tools in agriculture, as close to the data as possible (edge computing).

During the past few months, the Covid-19 crisis has brought to light a new paradigm: global demand is becoming unpredictable with changes in consumer behaviour, the activity of manufacturers is sometimes slowed down by health measures, and warehouses can be quickly congested or underused. Supply chain players therefore need, more than ever, visibility into pending orders, the state of production or stocks. In the meantime IoT paves the way for unprecedented levels of visibility, control and business intelligence which help to improve productivity and profitability.

Pursuing its commitment to create open and specialised ecosystems in specific sectors, ZeKat Group has decided to step up its presence in the logistics sector by developing a first dedicated brand, IoL (Internet of Logistics), which will combine all its knowledges and build specific offers. By associating the expertise of four of its subsidiaries, the group will develop a universal mobile IoT platform for logistics monitoring based on an intelligent gateway – a modular and open hardware and software platform allowing the integration of specific intelligence to support logistics decisions – and a device management platform.

This one will allow to manage the deployment of new services, remotely, by creating a digital twin and to deploy distributed intelligence models. The IoT platform must be able to combine several long-range (5G, LTE-M1 / NB-IoT, satellite IoT) and short-range (BLE, WiFi) communication networks and provide a guarantee of non-alteration based on the integration of blockchain elements.

This project, supported by the French Stimulus Plan, should enable France to position itself as a Global ecosystem in the development of secure IoT solutions to support major changes in the global supply chain. To do this, it wants to work with several major players in logistics and create a consortium of manufacturers. Its objectives will be to test, develop and promote the solution as soon as the pre-series are produced. This consortium will have to share a certain number of communication and data exchange requirements and validate them through the publication of a repository to promote a sovereign French solution that can be used by multiple actors.

These developments will be based on Ercogener’s 40 years of experience, a subsidiary of the ZeKat Group active in accurate geolocation (centimetre guidance), in the management of vehicle fleets (optimisation of fuel consumption) or in global logistics monitoring but also on the expertise of another subsidiary of the group, eRTOSgener, a specialist in embedded intelligence. The solution will be industrialised in France within AZKEDIA, which has an electronic solutions production site in Saumur.

Finally, this solution will be directly applied to the group’s new activity. Its subsidiary ZK-Systems produces containers that must travel from Saumur to their place of installation in Mali, without suffering major shocks under penalty of equipment breakage or theft of equipment during their journey. The containers are sent by truck to the port of Le Havre then by boat to Tanger then Dakar and finally by truck to Bamako.

Two new ambient DCs in Le Havre port

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Seafrigo Group is inaugurating a 60,000 sq m (650,000 sq ft) ambient temperature logistics platform in Le Havre, in the port area and in the immediate vicinity of its PLS flagship (Parc Logistique Seafrigo), in partnership with Haropa Port.

The two new buildings, 30,000 sq m each, owned by AG Real Estate and operated by Seafrigo for a fixed 12-year period, will be operating at full capacity by the end of the year and will accommodate logistics flows for large retailers and manufacturers in the food industry.

This new complex is designed as a true multimodal hub that will enable the company to strengthen its CSR strategy: the buildings will soon be connected to the railway network and a quay will be created to boost river traffic and encourage modal transfer to the ports of Paris.

On the social front, dozens of jobs will be created in the Le Havre economic basin, positioning the company as a leader for local development.

Eric Barbé, Chairman and CEO of the Seafrigo Group, said: “We are proud to share this joint project with Le Havre regional management and to offer our customers this new multimodal logistics park, ideally located in the heart of the port’s shipping areas. Seafrigo Group will continue to grow in the years to come, with other projects currently under study both in France and abroad. Our commitment is to master the entire logistics chain for the global and continued satisfaction of our partners.”

Baptiste Maurand, Managing Director of Haropa Port, added: “We are pleased to support this ambitious project. Seafrigo is currently one of the main employers in the port area and this new facility is a strong marker of growth and stability for our sectors. In this we share a common ambition: to contribute towards making Le Havre a maritime metropolis and the Seine axis a multimodal corridor.”

Paris multi-storey urban logistics asset acquired

Posted on by Keith McKinley

Crossbay, the first pan-European urban logistics platform to target single-user distribution centres, has acquired a multi-storey urban logistics asset in Saint Denis for an undisclosed sum in an off-market transaction. The vendor is a private family office.

The 7,500 sq m asset, located a few kilometres from Paris, features 3,500 sq m of ground floor space, with platforms for heavy goods vehicles and light vehicles, as well as single-level doors on three sides. The rest of the site is divided into cells of approximately 500 sq m on the upper floors, with access to the quays.

The property, which is currently unoccupied, is being marketed to firms in the last-mile logistics sector.

The acquisition of the Saint Denis site builds on Crossbay’s growing footprint in France, with its 20 assets at an overall value of around €180m.

The platform has invested more than €100m in France this year, with the aim to target €500m in assets under management within the next two years.

Louis Radiguet, managing director of Crossbay France, said: “This acquisition, along with the secure pipeline, will allow us to exceed our objective of €100m in acquisitions for the year 2021. The site presents all the fundamentals of urban logistics, in terms of its location and its technical characteristics. It also has a strong potential for short-term value creation for the Crossbay fund, perfectly matching the type of asset we are looking for.”

Launched in May 2020 by leading private equity real estate investment manager MARK, Crossbay was designed to enable institutional investors such as pension funds and insurers to grow their exposure to the fast-growing last-mile logistics sector.

Crossbay focuses specifically on single-user distribution centres in locations no more than a 90-minute journey to the centre of the nearest city. Single-tenant assets require less intensive asset management than multi-let industrial units and are less exposed to the performance of the wider economy than larger ‘big box’ warehouses.

The platform’s 600,000 sq m portfolio hosts a high-profile tenant base, counting leading 3PLs such as FedEx and DHL, as well as major e-commerce brands like Amazon, as occupiers.

In December 2020, MARK announced a successful capital raise for Crossbay, securing €550m in equity commitments from a global range of investors. Investors included the Townsend Group, CBRE GI, Credit Suisse, Nuveen and QInvest LLC. The fundraise was then followed by a €400m debt facility from investment bank Citi in January 2021 to help further fund Crossbay’s growth and European expansion.

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