With the Middle East’s rise as a global trading hub, unit load device (ULD) provider ACL Airshop has been expanding its regional footprint.
Already home to several of ACL Airshop’s top clients, including long-term ULD fleet management customers, the company is looking to countries, such as Saudi Arabia, where there is a changing economic landscape and large investments in aviation and its related infrastructure.
“This region is very important to ACL Airshop,” Maurice van Terheijden, ACL Airshop’s Director of Europe, the Middle East and Africa, stated. “ACL Airshop’s vision is clear and very simple, scalar growth over time with an expanding network, technology investments with lean and very efficient operations.”
Steve Townes, CEO of ACL Airshop, reinforced that by saying, “In a few short years we have almost tripled our hub services network, nearly quadrupled our own ULD fleets, and achieved award-winning logistics technology innovations. The EMEA region is critical to our global growth strategy.”
Boost to business
With the industry returning to normalcy, it’s clear that there are growth opportunities in the region. Meeting the moment, ACL Airshop is focused on its key mission of ensuring the right equipment is at the right place at the right time.
“With our 57 stations around the world (and still growing) and over 75,000 pieces of ULDs in our operation we are able to service our customers with the largest and quickly deployable lease-ready ULD fleet in the industry,” van Terheijden explained. “Customised leasing has been our core expertise for 40 years,” adds Townes.
The expanded role of the region in the airfreight industry is not just benefiting companies that are based there but also in the markets Middle Eastern carriers serve. As stark evidence, look at the recent announcements by Saudi Arabia, alone, for investing over $100 billion in airports infrastructure in the next ten years.
“It is not always the Middle East region where we have a higher demand for ULDs but also outward to the rest of the world delivered by the Middle East carriers,” van Terheijden highlighted.
Keeping it green
Despite having a large and ever expanding network of stations, ACL Airshop puts sustainability at the fore of its operations, implementing “lean” techniques at their bases, repair shops, and manufacturing centre to control wasted time and materials, while keeping quality high. Materials velocity and business process improvements have paid off with better throughput.
“Sustainability is playing a big role in our company,” van Terheijden stated. “We are continuously seeking companies who are able to reuse our waste materials such as unserviceable straps and nets that are beyond repair. Our ULD Management system helps our customers optimise the use of equipment so no excess equipment is needed.”
Digital drive
ACL Airshop is keen to ensure that, for its customers, doing business is as easy and efficient as ordering a ride-share car, describing it as “Uberisation” in the ULD business. But innovation is not without its challenges. ACL Airshop has to navigate working with stakeholders and clients that might be at very different levels of digitalisation.
“Technological developments are not restricted to certain regions. The demand for innovation has increased interest globally,” van Terheijden stated.
“Our “Digital Suite” puts all of the company’s technology in the palm of your hand such as FindMyULD,” van Terheijden. “One of our strategies that we have implemented is to develop an open and secure system environment so customers and other stakeholders can push/pull data from our systems. This way our customers have easy access to all of the information their shippers are requiring,” van Terheijden added.
 provider ACL Airshop has been expanding its regional footprint. ){kind=link}