40 years of a. hartrodt in Malaysia and Singapore

In Southeast Asia, a. hartrodt is in party mood this year: In mid-July, the Malaysian subsidiary had its 40th company anniversary, Singapore will follow at the beginning of December. For this reason, almost all 135 employees in Malaysia met in Port Dickson, south of Kuala Lumpur, the last weekend in July. Whether it was team building or a beach dinner with an "Aloha Night" performance – "we had a lot of fun," reports Christian Kirrbach, Managing Director at a. hartrodt Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. Joseph Argiridis, Managing Director at a. hartrodt Singapore, invited the 18 employees in the city state on a team building excursion to Thailand's vacation province of Krabi last February.

Pioneering work by Andreas Wenzel

Thanks to the pioneering work of Andreas Wenzel, a. hartrodt is firmly anchored in Southeast Asia, where more and more production sites are springing up in the face of geopolitical conflicts. "After the Japanese company in Tokyo, he founded a. hartrodt Singapore back then already as a hub for the region," says Joseph Argiridis. He himself has been on site for ten years, just like Christian Kirrbach, who emphasizes that a. hartrodt was "one of the first international freight forwarders in Malaysia" in 1983.

Milestones and own warehouse capacities

In Singapore, where the focus was initially on sea freight, Joseph Argiridis highlights the era under Jens Roemer: "In 2014, we merged with the air freight agent AMG, and since then we have also been offering air freight." In Malaysia, Christian Kirrbach says a. hartrodt developed under the leadership of Mike Schaefer in the decade before Millennium "into one of our largest overseas companies" with seven branches today. He cites the customs clearance license, AEO certification and own trucks as milestones. Furthermore, a. hartrodt has its own warehouses at Singapore Changi Airport (250 square meters), Kuala Lumpur Airport (700 square meters) and the seaport of Port Klang (900 square meters).

Christian Kirrbach wants to expand warehousing and intra-Asia business in Malaysia, as does Joseph Argiridis in Singapore. Digitization is progressing in both countries, with new processes of the CargoWise One supply chain platform going live in early 2024.