A quarter of a century ago, when the free-market economy in Poland was built, a contract for the logistics service of the construction of the new Okecie Airport was won by the German company ROHLIG & CO. At the same time Mr. Tadeusz Chmielewski started his professional career and went to the company Rohlig Poland. Thus began a 25-year adventure of building one of the largest comprehensive logistics companies on the Polish market.

Dynamic development of Rohlig Poland

On January 29, 1990 the company Rohlig Poland was formed, whose majority shareholder was the German company ROHLIG & CO. Mr. Tadeusz Chmielewski, after a few years with the company, at age 31, he was appointed General Director, and in 1999 bought 25% stake in the Polish company. During this time, alongside projects of cargo and sea-air services, the company responded to the market demand, developing and creating a full truck loads and a first European groupage connections and logistics warehouses.

In 2002, the company's turnover exceeded 100 million PLN, the company employed 100 people, and the Group ROHLIG, appreciating the dynamic development of the Polish company, chose Warsaw as a venue for international conference of Rohlig Global, which was attended by representatives from 24 countries and 6 continents. In 2004 the company for the first time was in TOP4 of the IATA ranking in terms of transported volume by air, while in 2003-2008 Rohlig Poland annually received the prize Gazele Biznesu awarded to small and medium-sized enterprises by "Puls Biznesu" for the most dynamic growth. Soon, however, the company exceeded the number of employed 800 people and was officially classified as a large company.

Change of ownership and re-boost of energy for ROHLIG SUUS Logistics

With time the strategy of Rohlig Poland, assuming comprehensive development in all areas of logistics, ceased to be consistent with the plans of the German shareholder, for which the main area of activity were sea and air services. Mr. Tadeusz Chmielewski, previously a minority shareholder, made a life decision and realized a MBO, becoming in 2006 the sole owner of the company, completely independent of ROHLIG Group's capital. The following years saw a continued buoyant growth of the company and the 2-digit revenue growth year on year. To the sea, air, road and customs services and contract logistics an intermodal and rail products were added. The company built its own national distribution system, which today operates several million pallets per year and is one of four such systems on the Polish market. In 2011 a record of 42 700 TEU were transported, realizing sea freight shipping worldwide (1 TEU = 1 container 20'), although in the previous years a high level of transports of 30 000 TEU was reported.

Another record was broken in 2014, as part of the product of full truck load (FTL). The company completed more than 142 000 orders, which means that every minute a vehicle with the logo SUUS went on the road. As part of the road service, the company also maintains a dense network of international lines - each supports dozens of permanent road connections with all the countries of Europe (LTL).

To emphasize the potential of the services offered and the independence of the company, Mr. Tadeusz Chmielewski conducted in 2009 a rebranding of the company, choosing meaningful Latin word "suus", which means "one's own", which was incorporated in the new company name - ROHLIG SUUS Logistics. From that moment the development of the company gained even more speed, resulting in design and implementation of a completely new IT infrastructure, integrating all the services and a rapid development of logistics centers throughout the country. In 2013 the operator has also started to expand to the East. He opened an office in Russia and offered the widest regular package of services to the East under the name GoEast. Additionally, the company is actively involved in the initiative "Poland Go Global", supporting Polish entrepreneurs in the expansion into foreign markets worldwide.

Long-range plans for the coming years

After 25 years of dynamic growth ROHLIG SUUS Logistics has become a truly comprehensive logistics operator and the only Polish company that competes with international market leaders in freight forwarding and logistics. Among the company's clients are the biggest global brands, and the initial turnover of 4.5 million PLN increased to more than 550 million PLN in 2014. As a result, over the 25 years ROHLIG SUUS has become one of the fastest growing Polish companies in the domestic service sector. But this is not the end of the company's long-range plans. ROHLIG SUUS wants to further increase its competitiveness, developing logistics for e-commerce in the future become a leader among logistics operators across Central and Eastern Europe.