Generation change at a. hartrodt successfully completed

The generation change at a. hartrodt has been completed: Since July 1, 2021, Felix Wenzel (35) has been managing the international freight forwarding company in the fifth generation together with the other Managing Partner, Jan van Tienhoven. At the end of June, the previous Managing Partner, Andreas Wenzel (68), retired. After 43 professional years, he leaves behind a well-ordered house: "We closed 2020 with pretty good forwarding revenues of 474 million euros and we are in a stable financial position." For six months, he stood as tandem partner at the side of his son, who has been Managing Partner since January 1, 2021.

Andreas Wenzel: Despite Corona "completely free of pain"

Felix Wenzel was surprised that he had "significantly less confrontation than expected" during the first six months together with his father. Whereas the junior is more likely to get his head through the wall, the experienced senior knows what doesn't work. In the end, Andreas Wenzel "transferred everything without much fuss to Felix, who has known all the employees and the organization for a very long time." Despite Covid, this was "completely free of pain".

Felix Wenzel: Own focus with three major topics

Felix Wenzel is setting his own focus and is prioritizing three major topics: "First, I want to achieve growth in the holding company based on new technology," he says. This will be supported by the new CIO Hartmut Willebrand, who will complete the migration of the data center to hyper-converged infrastructure technology (HCI) by the end of July 2021. Secondly, Felix Wenzel wants to standardize the global operational business in the future with the CargoWise One transport management system. The aim is to achieve "maximum efficiency". Thirdly, the new Managing Partner wants to gradually introduce procurement concepts for large trade lanes on a regional basis.

As an ambitious "unofficial fourth target", Felix Wenzel wants to "crack half a billion euros" in sales this year. Andreas Wenzel believes this is realistic after the first quarter of 2021 has developed "very positively" in contrast to the same period in 2020.

Read the complete interview with Felix and Andreas Wenzel in the DVZ, Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung: