Confreight/Vanguard to build Antwerp’s biggest consolidation warehouse

Confreight/Vanguard to build Antwerp’s biggest consolidation warehouse Non-vessel-operating common carrier Confreight/Vanguard will build what’s expected to be the largest freight consolidation warehouse in Belgium’s Antwerp port area.
   OTS Logistics Group, parent company of Confreight/Vanguard, has been granted a 35-year concession on 70,000 square meters of land, on which it will build a 38,750-square-meter facility. The Antwerp facility will be operational by September 2008, the company said.
   OTS Logistics noted that the new Confreight/Vanguard facility will have a special area set aside for handling a range of hazardous cargo “in a manner compliant with the most advanced statutory and environmental requirements.”
   “We wanted to start from the ground up and build something completely new,” said Hans Mikkelsen, regional managing director for OTS Logistics in Europe. “The new warehouse will increase our European warehouse space to nearly 90,000 square meters and we want to focus on getting it right for our customers.”
   Earlier this year, OTS Logistics acquired Antwerp-based Confreight Group. Confreight, which has 12 offices, handles more than 850,000 cubic meters of freight a year, and has a strong presence in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Poland, Spain and the United Kingdom.
   For more details about OTS Logistics’ global expansion plans, read the November American Shipper, pages 46-50.