Having only joined ACL Airshop around 6 weeks ago, Bernhard Kindelbacher has already dived into his new role with a jet-setting tour across almost all of the company’s stations.
“It has been already a very productive and effective transition,” Kindelbacher told Air Cargo Week in his first interview since taking over from long-serving CEO Steve Townes.
“I’ve travelled to Greensville to see the factory, met most employees on my tour through the USA and Europe, got acquainted with key leaders, talked to Steve and a number of customers. Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve received a very warm welcome and I’m personally very excited to be back in the industry.”
For Kindelbacher, at the start of his journey with ACL Airshop, he believes it is important to listen to the employees and customers on the company’s strengths, opportunities, and necessary improvements to emerge with a strong footing going forward.
“We have a strong company with an excellent core business in place to serve the community,” Kindelbacher stated. “The priorities are to keep building on our strengths, and advance forward. Our top focuses are” Growth, customer focus and people.
“We have a growing portfolio of long-term ULD Management customers, complementing our market leadership in short-term Leasing solutions.
“ACL has a far-reaching global network of stations. Our Digital Suite is being improved and upgraded steadily in our technology roadmap. We have deep resources in repairs and manufacturing. And we have very dedicated people who go the extra stretch for our customers,
“From my experience across multiple business units and multiple geographic regions of airfreight, I feel confident that we can keep gathering momentum at ACL Airshop and take it to the next level.”
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Ethos empowers operations
Rounding out his introductory tour, Kindelbacher was clear that the ACL Airshop’s culture he has experienced is “filled with highly dedicated, energetic and customer focused employees, who are absolute experts at what there are responsible for and they can have fun too.”
“It has been a pleasure to meet so many of them during my first six weeks,” he added.
Looking at the defining characteristics of his team that are at the heart of ACL Airshop’s activities, Kindelbacher was quick to cite agility and deep experience.
“Great flexibility, customer centricity and solution orientation are elements I saw across our global team,” Kindelbacher continued.
“The teams work on a high quality level combined with an amazing speed of responsiveness to customers.
“The company has tremendous knowledge in ULD Management, partly through so many airline-experienced folks around the world. They know, by heart, what the customers need.”
Airfreight experience
In his previous capacity, Kindelbacher was responsible for creating the first worldwide joint cargo ventures with ANA, United Cargo and Cathay Pacific, reflecting his belief in the power of partnerships to grow channels.
“The world of aviation succeeds best when there are true strategic alliances and partnerships between suppliers and customers,” Kindelbacher said.
“Some of ACL Airshop’s largest and best customers use terms like that when referring to their equipment and logistics services alliance with ACL Airshop.
“My whole career has been characterised by inter-cultural experiences, inter-geographical business opportunities, and creating growth.
“We have operational footprints on 6 continents, with customers and employees from multiple countries and cultures. I know we can capitalise on this diversity and global footprint.”
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Interest in innovation
With his background and experience from a global combination carrier, Kindelbacher aims not to just explore the potential of partnerships but also the needs of passenger airlines for ULD management. By finetuning their service for this market segment, he hopes to drive for achieve end-to-end digitalisation, not losing customer focus, and always maintaining the company’s aforementioned speed and flexibility.
“Digitalisation is no longer an option but it becomes a vital element of our offer, services, processes and customer interactions. Customers expect end-to-end visibility and accountability for their cargo movements and equipment.
“ACL has been building continuously on its technology roadmap with its bluetooth technology and we will continue and further accelerate.
“The company has already Beta-tested linking the airway bill to the Bluetooth Tag and the serial number of the ULD on which that AWB’s contents sit.
While proud of the company’s progress, Kindelbacher accepts there is always more they can do, such as becoming faster in horizontal collaboration among IT systems to avoid inefficiencies.
“The pandemic was a period of great change. It forced all of us to work differently in many ways. Now that the pandemic seems to be largely behind us, we are working better as a worldwide team and we will relentlessly keep investing in customer-facing technology upgrades,” he explained.
“When we have perfected that next step in technology, we will help our customers achieve true transparency. That is our ambitious goal.”
Environmentally friendly activities
While stating that sustainability is a big but inevitable challenge of this generation, Kindelbacher is clear that the industry “must start somewhere.”
The industry is now far more mindful about what to do with single-use plastic sheets on cargo loads and airlines are heavily investing in sustainable aviation fuel. In addition, electric equipment is now available, creating a better work environment.
More specifically on ULDs; the majority of the pallets ACL uses are thinner and more lightweight, but still just as strong by FAA and EASA standards.
“That might not seem like much, but when you multiply that by the many thousands of cargo flights, it adds up to significant savings in fuel burn,” Kindelbacher highlighted. “We all need to take it step by step every day.”
Looking at the United Nations’ 17 sustainability goals there is a consistent theme about the human side of sustainability which resonates with Kindelbacher and his new ACL colleagues: “We should all practice every day the principles of positive employment atmosphere, healthy culture, open communications, and genuinely taking care of our people and their families. And keep taking diversity seriously in all aspects, as it also creates a more open, respectful and innovate atmosphere.”
Smooth transition
Before wrapping up the conversation, Kindelbacher took a moment to praise the work of his predecessor, Townes, who has led ACL Airshop for nearly a decade.
With just a few weeks at ACL Airshop, he accepted that “others can describe Steve’s achievements much better than I can do, as I have been here not long enough around ACL.
“However, I have seen the numbers and results of nine years of strong growth, global reach, professionalism of processes and implementation of an advanced digital suite.
“It is fair to say that Steve, with his team, has built ACL into a worldwide well-recognised ULD management provider and everybody appreciates all that he has done for the company.
“He will remain connected to ACL in an advisory role to support not only the transition but future initiatives.”
