Delamode, the provider of logistics and forwarding solutions, is delighted to be announcing the commencement of new groupage lines for Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Iran, reflecting the growing economic success of this region. The Caucasus region is developing into an internationally significant economic location and the new services provide customers with a high quality and low cost transport solution for delivering shipments from throughout Europe to the Caucuses.
“These countries have been attracting significant foreign investment,” said Stephen Blyth, Chairman of Delamode. “This has come through the respective governments adopting business friendly policies and in Iran’s case opening up to foreign trade for the first time in many years. Todays’ announcement, in part is a response to existing customer demand from across Europe and it is also about us taking a view that trade levels are set to continue to increase across this region.”
The new groupage services will be consolidated in Delamode’s warehouse in Sofia. Shipments will arrive from throughout Delamode’s European network into Sofia and be transhipped, through to Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan & Iran. The main features of this expanded service include:
- Weekly frequent European export services to Bulgaria
- Weekly departures from Bulgaria depot to Tbilisi, Baku, Yerevan & Iran
- Market leading rates
- Customs clearance formalities (Customs clearance procedures are completed at Delamode’s Sofia terminal
- POD documentation
The new service lines enable Delamode’s extensive European partner network and 10 European offices to offer their strong European customer base the option to access these four countries under the same high quality and low cost delivery service they use to transport goods throughout Europe.
With a population of around 95 million these four countries have twice the number of people of the Balkan region. In particular, Georgia, recently described by the World Bank as “the world’s number one reformer” enjoys strong trade links with the EU, with exports in 2015 worth €1.8bn. Iran, only recently open to foreign trade is the second largest economy in the MENA region and real GDP growth across the next two years projected to reach 4.2% and 4.6%, with investment and exports forecast to be the main drivers of national expenditure (source: World Bank).
Commenting further, Stephen Blyth said “We are very pleased to open these routes, servicing the demand for the import and export into these countries, particularly for industrial commodities such as mineral and chemical products among other goods. We look forward to establishing ourselves in this region and expanding our offering to a growing customer base in the future”.