Following the acquisition of UTi, DSV has decided to separate its Solutions division from Air & Sea in Asia Pacific.
In the wake of the split, DSV appointed Guillaume Burette to head up the new entity.
DSV asserted that its Solutions business in APAC “more than doubled” following the integration of UTi, although it is unclear by precisely what metric. However, they did offer the example of Taiwan, whereby the tie-up added five new warehouses with almost 200 employees. Moreover, DSV asserted that it is now “one of the three biggest warehousing and local distribution providers” in the country.
Further to Taiwan, the other five countries reporting to the new division head are China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand.
DSV and UTi also appear to complement each other rather than overlap each other’s positions in the region. For example, UTi’s presence was most substantial in India, Taiwan and Thailand, whereas DSV was already strong in China, Hong Kong and Singapore. In terms of verticals, UTi had strong exposure to the automotive and consumer sectors, whereas for DSV it was industrial. UTi primarily catered for large and dedicated operations, whereas DSV did business in smaller multi-client environments.
From a sales standpoint, DSV previously focused on China, mainly Greater Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Singapore (which are also the four main ports in Asia from which Air & Sea operates). However, Solutions now has more than 80 locations in Asia with around 1,000 employees (2,000 including India) and over 450,000 sq m of warehousing.
Looking to the future, Burette commented, “The next step will be to complete our regional strategy with the integration of additional countries, including Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia, which currently report to Air & Sea. After this, we will have created DSV Solutions in APAC”.
Source: DSV
