New Managing Director at a. hartrodt in Canada

Andreas Reiche has been President/CEO of a. hartrodt Canada in Mississauga near Toronto since June 1, 2021. The 42-year-old officially took over this position on October 1, 2020 from Sebastian Endt, who left to become Eastern Europe Managing Director at a. hartrodt in Prague. However, due to the Covid-related interim entry ban to Canada, Reiche was only able to take up his position with an eight-month delay. Most recently, he was Branch Manager at a. hartrodt (USA) in Chicago for ten years. The ten employees of the Canadian office currently work in mixed operation, partly mobile from home.

Multicultural team in Mississauga

Reiche has been in North America since the beginning of 2003. Initially, he was Sales Manager at an agent of a. hartrodt in Charlotte, North Carolina (USA). Afterwards, the Management Assistant for Freight Forwarding and Logistics Services worked as an Import Manager at a. hartrodt in New York, before moving to Chicago. In Canada, he likes the welcoming culture: "People are very open, which reflects our multicultural team." The employees come from South Asia and Southeastern Europe, for example.

Containers stuck at the port of Vancouver

"We handle 70 percent of imports, mainly from Europe and China," Reiche refers to a peculiarity. Sea freight from Asia arrives at the congested west coast port of Vancouver. Containers are stuck there for "one to two weeks," according to Reiche, "the situation worsens." Unlike in the U.S., however, there are no problems with truck on-carriage, and everything is also working in the east coast ports of Halifax and Montreal, as well as with airfreight. In addition, a. hartrodt has new challenges under control: During the summer, the eManifest portal for transmitting import data to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) was expanded to include sea freight. "With CargoWise One, we can transfer everything electronically," says Reiche.

In the medium term, he wants to open a second office in Vancouver – "for sales as well as to serve customers locally and in Asia." His target is 2023, even though Covid makes planning difficult.