Dutch inland shipping cooperative among the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands
Rotterdam’s NPRC is an ‘FD Gazelle’
Rotterdam, the Netherlands – The Dutch Rhine Canal Cooperative (NPRC) is one of the 770 fastest growing companies in the Netherlands. It is for this reason that the Rotterdam-based inland shipping cooperative has received an ‘FD Gazellen 2019’ award by Dutch financial newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad. NPRC may therefore compete for further acknowledgement and prizes in a festive award ceremony to be held in Haarlem on 14 November.
The award is based on the NPRC’s revenue growth of at least 20 percent over the past three years. Yet, according to NPRC director Stefan Meeusen, this has never been a goal in itself: “Growth is the result of how our organization has developed. A strong team of employees combined with the power of 120 members, where entrepreneurship is of paramount importance.”
“As a cooperative, we are focused on continuity and security. We translate that into offering shared assurances for our customers for the transport of their bulk cargoes such as salt, grains, iron and also wind turbine components. These represent logistical solutions for all European waterways.”
Thanks to our large fleet, we are at our best when things get really difficult. The fact that we have been tackling such challenges from a joint perspective, since 1935, and now are even among the fastest growing companies in the Netherlands, is really something special.”
Growth through innovation
This success is therefore not the result of ‘aiming for growth’ Stefan explains: “We concentrate on innovation and total logistics concepts. It’s more than just transporting a bit of cargo; we engineer, analyze and optimize the entire supply chain from port to factory with our partners. Working closely with all the partners in this chain brings benefits. We have developed a method to gain real-time insight into the transport process and to link this to customer inventory management. This has called for investments, but these will pay off in the long-term.”
In addition, sustainability is a spearhead at NPRC. “And this is how we position ourselves too. Yes, making our fleet more sustainable is expensive, and this is only possible in close collaboration with our clients. However, they are increasingly willing to participate in ideas and actively contribute. Here the following applies: our partners recognize the effort, want green solutions, and therefore choose us. In this way we are investigating, together with a shipper, whether hydrogen can be used as an alternative to gas oil, for example.”
The Gazellen Award is much more than just a prize for the NPRC. “It says just as much about how the entire inland shipping and logistics sector is developing, and about the choices Dutch shippers make, as about the growth that we have experienced as a company. Anyway, of course we are proud. The NPRC remains committed to the further sustainability and digitalization of the logistics chain in inland shipping,” says Meeusen.
This year will be the sixteenth time that the annual FD Gazellen Awards will be presented to Dutch companies. Criteria include revenue growth of at least 20% during the previous three years, with the last year closing profitably. At the festive ceremony, the fastest growing companies per region will also be announced. These will receive the golden, silver and bronze FD Gazellen Awards.
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