cargo-partner celebrates its 40th anniversary

This year marks the 40th anniversary of cargo-partner’s founding in 1983. From a small air freight specialist at Vienna International Airport to a global transport and logistics provider with over 4,000 employees in 40 countries, the company has grown steadily over the past 40 years, continuously adding new innovations to its service portfolio.

In 2023, cargo-partner is celebrating its 40th global anniversary with various events for customers and employees around the world. In addition, several cargo-partner country organizations are also celebrating anniversaries this year, including the 30th anniversary in Slovakia and the Czech Republic, the 25th anniversaries in Poland and Croatia as well as the 15th anniversary in Thailand and Singapore.

Founding in Vienna and Expansion to Europe, USA and Asia

cargo-partner started out in 1983 as an air freight specialist with only five employees at the Vienna airport. Soon after, the company began to expand its service portfolio to provide integrated air and sea cargo solutions, supported by a growing network of trucking partners.

After the reunification of Europe in 1989, cargo-partner was one of the first Austrian companies to recognize the market potential of Eastern Europe and to expand to include Austria’s neighboring countries. From 1993 on, the logistics company began to grow its presence outside national borders, starting with Bratislava, Prague and Budapest, followed by other major cities in Europe. In 2001, cargo-partner founded its first branch office in the USA, and in 2004, the logistics provider ventured into the Far East with the opening of an office in Taiwan. Today, the company is represented with over 4,000 employees at 160 offices in more than 40 countries worldwide.

Innovative Info-logistics Solutions

In 2000, cargo-partner implemented the first version of its SPOT Visibility & Collaboration Platform, recognizing early on that digitization would soon become a critical success factor in the industry. What started as a simple tracking tool has since evolved into a comprehensive supply chain management platform, with features ranging from order and transport management to warehousing, reporting and parcel dispatch. SPOT can be accessed from any browser and as a mobile app. The platform is continuously updated and enhanced, with the next major relaunch scheduled for 2024.

In 2020, the company established a Digital Office with the goal of creating an end-to-end customer experience along the transport process. Company founder Stefan Krauter explains: “Following our motto ‘we take it personally’, we want to focus on the customer journey to better understand our customers’ expectations and optimize our systems accordingly. Our goal is to provide a seamless digital experience enabling a more intuitive and efficient management of transport processes.”

Strategic Focus on Warehousing

Over the past decade, cargo-partner has placed a strategic focus on warehousing and successfully established contract logistics as the third and rapidly growing main pillar of its service portfolio. With over 300,000 m² of storage space in Europe, Asia, Australia and the USA, cargo-partner covers all major logistics hubs worldwide, creating a solid basis to support its customers’ international production and distribution networks.

Sustainability: “the Most Important Challenge of Our Time”

cargo-partner has always been aware of its social and environmental responsibility as a major player in the global logistics market. The establishment of the internal association "Environmental cargo-partners e.V." in 2006 was a major milestone in this regard. In 2018, the company opened its all-timber iLogistics Center in Austria, a lighthouse project for sustainable architecture. cargo-partner consistently supports the development of fuel-efficient aircraft, is increasingly using electric vehicles and photovoltaic systems, and is further reducing its resource consumption through digitalization. At the same time, the logistics provider also helps its customers to track and reduce their CO₂ footprint.

In the words of company founder Stefan Krauter: “The ongoing global climate crisis is perhaps the most important challenge of our time. We will continue to support environmental initiatives and implement sustainable technologies to work towards a better tomorrow.”