GENAVCO's strong reputation wins Panalpina's nod
DUBAI: In construction and industrial sectors, a good reputation and tangible capabilities to undertake even the most challenging of projects matter a lot.
It’s not surprising then that GENAVCO, a trusted name in the industry for nearly 50 years now, got the coveted deal with the Panalpina Group, one of the world’s leading providers of supply chain solutions, to design and install Stow selective pallet racking system for about 17,000-plus pallet locations in the firm’s newly-constructed 40,000-sqm state-of-the-art warehouse facility in Dubai.
At least five companies bid out for the project. But GENAVCO, which stands for General Navigation and Commerce Company, won the approval of Panalpina World Transport in the end.
Clinton Campbell, logistics engineer at Panalpina World Transport, said their company heavily invested in its growth plans for the Middle East, Africa and CIS Region, thus, it behooves to give the project to the firm it can sustain a long-term business relationship with.
“The decision to work with a provider is not made purely on price alone. Panalpina wanted to build a relationship with a partner for the future. 17,000 pallet positions is only the start and covers less than 30% of the floor area, we wanted a strong partner who could understand and meet our growing needs,” said Campbell.
He said GENAVCO’s “profess-ionalism and commitment” convinced Panalpina to hand it over the project.
“The final proposal received from GENAVCO far out did the rest of the competition. We bought into the concept not “WHAT” GENAVCO do but rather “WHY” they do it,” he said.
Proven track record
GENAVCO had proven itself in so many major racking projects: IKEA, RHS, IFFCO, among others.
Varun Viswanath, head of GENAVCO’s Storage & Material Handling Solutions, partly credits Stow International for their success.
Stow is one of the leading and well known racking brands in the World established since 1977 in Wevelgem –Belgium, Europe.
Viswanath said GENAVCO and Stow work together as a team to ensure the success of any project they undertake.
“This warm relationship is certainly helping us to make strong foot prints in the UAE Market. We have completed many major projects including IKEA Distribution Centre in DWC, one of the largest warehouses in the region with a storage capacity of about 150,000 Pallets, RHS Warehouse in DWC and IFFCO-Intergulf Warehouse are few among our expanding clientele,” he said, adding, they are in the process of making shuttle racking system for freezer application for a major food distributor.
There were lots of challenges with the warehouse still under construction. But the team managed to overcame them.
“The biggest challenge in front of us was to execute racking in a warehouse under construction. But our project team has managed it very well, also our sincere thanks to Amana Contracting team-the civil contractor indeed helped us with necessary clearances to complete the project on agreed timelines,” said Viswanath.
The end results surprised even Panalpina with Campbell describing it as “better than expected.”
“The service to date received from Genavco has been better than expected. We are happy to be working with such a committed partner. This just validates that we have made the correct decision,” he summed it up.
The Panalpina Group operates a global network with some 500 offices in more than 75 countries, and it works with partner companies in a further 90 countries.
It employs approximately 15,000 people worldwide who deliver a comprehensive service to the highest quality standards – wherever and whenever.
