Page 40 - Журнал Sozvezdye Review - «СОЗВЕЗДИЕ» #37

«Времена менялись, компания
подстраивалась под эти
изменения, но именно гибкость
и высокая адаптивность
позволили предприятию
сохраниться»
“Times were changing and we
were trying to adapt. It was our
flexibility and high adaptability
that allowed us to survive”

an office space. Our staff was still
small (ten people only). We were still
learning business. Our professional
logistics standards were to be estab-
lished from scratch.
After 1996, as the country was
experiencing a vibrant growth in
its foreign economic activity, shut- ber of Commerce and Industry of tasks. We started working in the au- growth in oil and gas development,
tle business picked up dramatically Arkhangelsk Region. tonomous territories near the Arctic the increasing exports began to gen-
and so did professional brokerage Fast multiple growth was cer- Ocean. Back then in 2006, Belomor- erate higher profits, leading to Belo-
services. The crisis of 1998 changed tainly a trial. It had to be digested trans was among the founders and mortrans greater involvement in up-
the rules of the game by turning the properly and used to advantage in first participants of Sozvezdye As- stream logistics as its core business.
country’s economy into an open order to stay afloat. As competition sociation of Oil and Gas Suppliers. In 2012, Belomortrans’ staff size
market. The wild dollar rate fluctu- started to grow in the ’00s, in re- Our second line of development was grows to 118, compared to 34 in 2011.
ations caused some to fall and oth- sponse to the emerging opportuni- combined cargoes. Those two lines Its head office moves from Arkhan-
ers to rise. The way the market was ties, there appeared more freight for- of business were growing in parallel gelsk to Moscow to be closer to the
forming was not through a strategic warders on the market, causing local (and independently). Diversifying key accounts. That move requires Be-
vision. Survival was a matter of luck ferment and saturation. was a way for us to test the ideas we lomortrans to re-adjust its business
and hard work. The chance was there Anna Ermolaeva, Director Gen- had for them. approach and to level up its employ-
for the taking, but only few had man- eral at Belomortrans: In 2008, Belomortrans starts to ees’ professionalism. It requires in-
aged to grasp at it. “We often refer to ourselves as a act as operators of Varandey sea- ternal process restructuring. Brutal
Belomortrans did take its chance. forge of manpower. We are, indeed, port. That page in its history is de- romance is no longer enough to keep
In 1999, it became a licensed cus- a unique source of personnel for scribed by Vladimir Uroshnikov in Belomortrans going as automation
toms broker. Ships called at the port Arkhangelsk. Nearly 80% of the lo- “The Coast of Pioneers: Notes in the spreads, posing the logistics sector to
of Arkhangelsk twice a month min- cal logistics companies have the staff Margins of the Captain’s Log”. Its new challenges. Now, the task is not
imum. Many Moscow-based ship- who started out at Belomortrans. new line of business proved highest- simply to deliver but deliver more ef-
pers started to see Arkhangelsk as Every fifth employee at local freight yielding and helped Belomortrans to ficiently than the competition.
a more cost effective solution: com- forwarding companies has a record stay afloat when the market was go- Anna Ermolaeva:
pared to the overloaded Saint Peters- in their employment books of hav- ing through the global financial cri- “Behind those tons of trans-
burg, Arkhangelsk offered shorter ing served at Belomortrans. We are sis of 2008. shipped cargoes, miles traveled and
handling timelines and, hence, low- proud of this fact. Not every compa- The Arctic oil and gas projects documents executed were the people.
er cost. ny gets to be the starter and live to would set the priorities for Belomor- They are our greatest asset.”
In 2001, the company had as see its 30th birthday.” trans for its next fifteen years of op- Warehousing logistics is what
many as 24 people and, since 2003, In 2003, the Russian Freight eration. A heavy logistics domain, Belomortrans started to offer the
a new office. That time was marked Forwarders Association ranked Be- those projects offered the most dar- outsourcers as early as in 2012 and
by its starting to handle oversized lomortrans among the seven best ing and persistent of the pioneers in harsh climatic conditions. Capa-
and heavy equipment imports. Be- forwarding companies in terms of a chance to demonstrate that they ble of self-sufficient operating in tun-
lomortrans acted as agents for P&O service quality, technical level, and could challenge this world and win. dra, it was servicing the warehouses
Nedlloyd and a few years later CMA personnel training. Fortune favors the brave. of Bashneft-operated Trebs and Titov
CGM, Maersk and other shipping Anna Ermolaeva: fields.
lines. In 2002, it joined the Cham- New lines “Brutal romance is, in fact, hard Outsourcing is a normal practice
work and endurance test for all lev- today, and Russia has been quite ef-
As the Russian economy of the els of personnel including manage- ficient over the past ten years man-
SOZVEZDYE #37 early 2000s was getting overgrown ment.” aging the supply chains and follow-
with new trends, mining and petro- The rapid growth of 2011–2013 ing the main trends on the European
leum sector was receiving more and is interrupted by another crisis. Fu- markets, which imply delegating to
логистика more funds in response to rapid ex- eled by the petrodollar influx, the a professional contractor of the full
logistics ploration and expansion of the raw country’s commodity-based econo- scope of the key operations along
my plummets towards political iso-
with risks and responsibility for ef-
materials market. In this context,
two factors come to the foreground lation and falling oil prices. fective performance and deliverables.
that lead to further development of By that time, the company had The new standards gave way to
Belomortrans – geography and ex- reoriented itself from imports to new opportunities: Belomortrans
perience. The company is located in exports, from container transpor- has developed its own software, FOX
38 the Arctic Zone and has the experi- tation to industrial supply and in- (followed by Condor) and thus fur-
ence handling difficult cargoes and dustrial logistics. With more active nished itself with a strategic advan-