He was 2 meters tall, and a typical German gentleman, who made me raise my head a bit to maintain eye contact during the interview. I met Mr. Frank Dreeke, the next chairman of BLG(Bremen Logistics Group/Bremen Lagerhaus Gesellschaft), in the lounge of the Intercontinental Hotel on 22nd of Feb.

He was just on the verge of going back to Germany after three days' visit to Hyundai Glovis, their long term Korean partner. With my question as to outcome of the meeting, he carefully skirted round the specific answer saying "It was a satisfying meeting. We had a favorable and decent talk such as diversifying co-operative works in Korea and Russia."

BLG, a total logistics service group devoted to the port of Bremen/Bremerhaven, has been maintaining partnership with Glovis since 2007. The export cars of Hyundai and Kia spread out over every place in Europe via the port of Bremerhaven, which is an indisputable leading automobile hub port in Europe.

Mr. Dreeke looked on the success factor of BLG as outstanding labor force. The group is still playing a leading role in European market by recording the highest sales figure ever in container and automobile logistics sector even during the world recession. Being a total logistics service group, onsite services carried out by skilled workers are very important, he stressed.

Secondly he pointed out advanced know-how accumulated through handling global enterprises such as BMW, Tschibo ect.

'Not complacent but constant challenge!' is his strategy to seek. Mr. Dreeke is going to be officially inaugurated as the chairman of BLG as of 1st June.

BLG also has high expectations for Mr. Dreeke, who worked as a CEO of Maersk Germany for a long time.

His rough sketch is 'to maintain current growth of BLG above all things and on the other hand to diversify businesses to Handelslogistics.' He is also thinking about giving more weight to the contract logistics division.

He judges that BLG has optimized conditions for diversification of logistics services as their integrated networks are able to link the port of Bremen/Bremerhaven with every European region by railroad, barges and trucks.

Further, he expects environment friendly transport will be the future value of BLG's logistics business.

His first impression in Korea was 'feel so good in nice weather' compared to gloomy one of Bremen in which he was born. Mr. Dreeke stressed that he is from a BLG family as his father, who worked there for 47 years, was 'a BLG Man' as well.

That is to say, he has made a glorious return to his hometown as a head of BLG after building his career in a global enterprise.

Considering his long involvement in maritime business, it is expected that the company will be able to approach their shippers and other customers from a broader perspective and 'customer-oriented management', which he stressed throughout his interview, could be considerably fulfilled.

While thinking about expanding his management strategy to Asian region, he expressed a positive outlook saying "Asian market is still attractive to BLG in terms of growth potential and we need to increase sustained cooperation considering the competitiveness of Korean automobile industry."

When I changed the topic to the port of Pyeongtaek, which is emerging as an automobile hub port in Korea, he listened carefully to the story.

"I haven't got detailed information about the port of Pyeongtaek, but I am quite interested in the sense of business diversification. We would like to decide whether to cooperate within this year through communication with each other." he showed motivation as a next chairman.

Glovis, BLG's long term Korean partner, transports Kia's automobiles to the port of Bremen via Pyeongtaek.

'Business diversification based on customer-oriented management.' The logistics industry is now focusing its attention on how much his message could be realized in the market.

When I asked him what gifts he had purchased at his first visit to Korea, he laughed aloud "I've got 2 kids and bought T-shirts as presents for them. They're good and cheap."

The senior level delegation of BLG this time consisted of 8 members including both the current chairman Mr. Detthold Aden and the next chairman Mr. Frank Dreeke.

When I said it was rare for the current and next chairmen to have a business trip together, "Though I have yet to take office, I already started working as a member of the management board in Feb." said Mr. Dreeke as he finished the interview.

It was quite impressive to see his consideration to adjust the height by sitting on a window sill when taking a commemorative photograph against the view seen out of the lounge window.

(Interview by Chang-Shup, Shin)