“In the past few months we have found that the available production capacities for freight wagons in Europe are no longer sufficient for our projects and we have therefore decided to carry out the final assembly of our wagons ourselves in future.” This was explained by Philipp Aubert, Managing Director of CargoBeamer Rolling Stock GmbH, and he continued: “For CargoBeamer, against the background of rapid international growth with locations and employees spread across Europe, it is a particular pleasure to bring parts of the wagon production back to Germany and to strengthen the regional economic power in Central Germany with the opening of a plant in Erfurt.”
CargoBeamer is Europe’s leading company for the intermodal transport of semi-trailers that cannot be craned. To do this, the company uses its own freight wagons, which are specially designed for the intermodal transport of semi-trailers of all types and other loading units by rail. Each wagon has an overlying wagon attachment that enables the horizontal, parallel and automated loading and unloading of any loading unit in a CargoBeamer terminal. While the customer does not need to make any modifications to the trailers, rail transport reduces CO2 emissions by around 80 percent compared to road transport.
Production of the proprietary CargoBeamer wagons by CargoBeamer is scheduled to begin in Erfurt, Germany, later this year. In the future, the final assembly of the freight wagons will take place on an existing factory site that was used in the 20th century for the manufacture of locomotives. “At the same time, we are expanding our know-how with our own production line, we can actively counteract market fluctuations and capacity bottlenecks in the production sector and thus ensure that we can achieve our growth targets for the coming years,” explained Managing Director Aubert.
After a short ramp-up phase, around 500 wagon units will be produced annually from the beginning of 2023. The 3000 square meter plant will be modernized before the start of production work, with the roof being renovated to be energy-efficient and an existing siding being reactivated. Initially, around 15 people will be employed in Erfurt, with the workforce expected to grow to more than 50 people in the medium term.
CargoBeamer had already repositioned the board at the beginning of March 2022. Manager Boris Timm will hold the newly created position of Chief Operating Officer (COO) and become a member of the Executive Board. The proven expert in European rail freight transport was most recently Head of Intermodal Europe at Amazon and before that worked in various management positions at Maersk for many years. In addition to Boris Timm, two new managing directors, Tim Krasowka and Mario Glöckner, were hired. Krasowka will take over the management of CargoBeamer intermodal operations GmbH together with Matthias Schadler, while Glöckner will be in charge of CargoBeamer Terminal GmbH together with Thomas Rietz.
In all cases, these are newly created positions in the structure of CargoBeamer, so that there are no departures at board or management level. With the commitment of Boris Timm, CargoBeamer is expanding its management team from three to four members. As COO, he joins the existing circle of Nicolas Albrecht (CEO), Dr. Markus E. Fischer (CFO) and Dr. Hans-Jürgen Weidemann (CTO). In his new responsibility at CargoBeamer, Timm will be responsible for the operational and commercial development of the offer on the way to becoming one of the most important players in European rail freight transport.
Ex-Intermodal head of Amazon and Maersk joins CargoBeamer
With Boris Timm, CargoBeamer has engaged an experienced logistics manager with proven expertise in setting up and scaling a continental network of CT connections. At the beginning of his career, Timm held various management positions at the logistics and shipping company Maersk, where he was responsible for business in the Horn of Africa (Sudan) as managing director and member of the board. After further positions at Seago Line in Denmark and wein & co. ltd in Taiwan, Timm returned to Maersk in 2017 as Head of Landside Transportation to assume responsibility for the company’s European intermodal business.
In 2020 he became Head of Intermodal Europe at Amazon, where he managed the development of the shipping logistics company’s pan-European intermodal activities. In his new role as COO, Timm will assume leading responsibility for the areas of terminal and rail operations, scheduling, sales and logistics management at CargoBeamer.
Together with Matthias Schadler, Tim Krasowka takes over the management of CargoBeamer intermodal oparations GmbH, which is responsible for the operation, dispatching and sales of the company’s own trains. He has more than 15 years of professional experience in European rail freight transport, during which he held various management positions within the Deutsche Bahn Group in Germany, France and Switzerland. In the third new addition, Mario Glöckner, CargoBeamer has gained an expert for the identification and development of new terminal locations.
For several years, the economist was responsible for the international expansion of the real estate portfolio at the e-commerce company Zalando, one of the fastest growing companies in all of Europe. Together with his team, Glöckner managed the identification, acquisition and settlement of new locations for the online retailer’s logistics, office and retail space. In later positions, he was also involved in the establishment of a digital platform for the leasing of commercial space and worked as Head of Asset Management at the private equity company Coros. hfs/tk
