Interview: The aim is to expand international operations in Europe
The threats to the sector continue to come from the slowdown of the economy and from those who want to curtail freedom and the scenario of peace that has long been experienced in Europe and other parts of the world.
Bruno Lemos, head of marketing at Alfaloc
Journalist: Jacinto Silva Duro
Photography: Ricardo Graça
The history of Alfaloc is deeply linked to the close relationship with the metalworking industry, mainly due to the fact that the company originated and is headquartered in Marinha Grande. Therefore, this sector played the role of a major driver in the first years of the company, and continues to be the most significant, especially with regard to the mold industry.
According to Bruno Lemos, responsible for the marketing department of this group of companies in the transport and logistics sector, “the future is today. It’s happening. Just look at the challenges of Artificial Intelligence”. With this vision, he highlights, among the most interesting initiatives recently carried out by the company, the Let’s Find the Way project.
This project, in fact, gave the opportunity to almost two dozen young people to receive specific training in this sector and, in addition, served as a gateway for eight new interns, in a partnership with the IEFP. The experience, according to Lemos, is to be repeated, reaffirming the company’s commitment to talent development.
In addition, Lemos stresses that Alfaloc is extremely committed to the mission, albeit difficult, but absolutely necessary, of digitizing its processes. This digitalization, in turn, is having a significant impact on the way the company conducts its business today. In addition, he points out that the main objective is to provide greater autonomy to customers, thus adapting to the requirements of the modern market.
From an operational point of view, the bet is on extending the logistics corridor, towards the center of Europe.
“We want to be where our customers’ customers are and at the same time facilitate the transactions of goods between the different partners.”
However, threats to the sector continue to arise from the slowdown of the economy and, equally, from those who want to curtail freedom and the scenario of peace that has long been experienced in Europe and other parts of the world.
“The different armed and political conflicts generate unpredictability. They are, therefore, terrible for an environment that should boost investment and consumption. The lack of confidence in the markets is felt in all sectors.”
In addition, political dynamics are also a relevant factor.
The US elections, for example, are viewed with some caution, especially due to the possibility that their outcome could have “very significant foreseeable impacts”.
On the other hand, the adoption of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) rules represents an opportunity to improve procedures and, consequently, performance.
“We have recently become members of the BCSD, an extremely relevant association in this context. In addition, three years ago, we started a project to account for the environmental footprint and distribute certificates to our customers, in which we inform about these values and offer more sustainable alternatives”, says Bruno Lemos.
“Significant investments” have also been made in energy efficiency and the renewal of the short-range fleet.
“From a social point of view, we are preparing an adhesion to the 4590 standard, which governs the management system of organizational well-being and happiness. We have also introduced benefits that seek to value our people, such as the birthday offer, the mom or dad kit , seniority prizes, among others.”
From the point of view of governance, the highlight is the corporate structure of Alfaloc, which was constituted as an economic group, with the distribution of equity interests among employees, in the holding company Corália SGPS.
Alfaloc has been certified by the ISO 9001 standard since 2008.
The company currently employs 106 people, and operates in various branches, in footwear, textiles, logistics-pharma or health.
“In fact, we are present in the sectors of international trade where the urgency, the criticality of the cargo is relevant and where the protagonists of the sector demand personalization of services”, explains Bruno Lemos.
The portfolio of services is diverse, created from the need to “build transport solutions that truly help customers”.
“We transport all over the world. We operate in more than 127 countries, with small orders, samples, documents, but also larger loads, pallets up to 1,200 kilos or even machines weighing 20 tons. We have built our own brand solutions, innovative in the transport market, grouping means, optimizing routes, valuing values of sustainability and sharing of resources. We have services such as Foguete, Partilha, Sonyc or Race”, he adds.
The company from Marinha Grande works annually with about a thousand partners.
“Alfaloc has long structured its business model based on resource sharing. We operate in a sector where cost optimization, the valorization of synergies and the construction of sharing are essential.”
The company receives and dispatches the goods to the end customer, through partnerships with several transport companies, with the particularity that the services continue to be from the Marinha Grande company itself, with its own characteristics.
Created 29 years ago by João Pascoal, who had a business idea to fill a gap in the market, the company has since promoted support for Portuguese exporting companies.
“Among our historical milestones, not least because it is the essence of our business, I highlight the opening of each of our other five business units: Alfalisbon, in 2006, Alfario, in 2010, Alfaprata, in 2014, AlfaEuskadi, in 2017 and Alfagold, in 2021.”
“Alfa Euskadi started as an operational issue. Portugal is a peripheral country and we work a lot with operators and cars from Eastern countries, which bring goods here, because we are essentially an importing country, but then they cannot have enough orders from here to return. This makes him not want to come here. They go to France and Spain and then come back.”
This represented, for Alfaloc, a block to growth.
“In addition, we noticed that more than 80% of our services all passed through Irún, in the north of Spain. It would be enough to go there in a car and then transship the goods. The cost price is divided and lowered. We built what we call a corridor, IFAD. Whenever possible and does not affect transit time, we can gather cargo and take it to the French border and then ship it”, explains the marketing manager.
We already have more than 3,500 active customers annually, most of them Portuguese companies with a strong international appetite, in the areas of export and/or import.”
“In 2023, we had a consolidated turnover of 13 million euros. Despite a first quarter in line with the previous year’s growth, the second quarter saw a significant slowdown in demand for international express services, resulting in a contraction of 2.8% at the end of the year.”
The gap in the market that resulted in a business idea
Almost 30 years ago, the founder, João Pascoal, worked in the field of communication, having worked for several media outlets.
Until he had a business idea that seemed to him to fill a void where no one was operating and that went through this realization: the companies in Marinha Grande needed a simple courier service.
“Some mold companies had people who were not full-time and ran errands. João Pascoal contacted these companies and proposed to become the ‘errand boy'”, says Bruno Lemos.
Opportunities followed one another and some challenges forced us to rethink the model, but the structure grew, became independent and, quickly, it was necessary to expand the scope of action across borders.
https://www.jornaldeleiria.pt/noticia/alfaloc-objectivo-e-alargar-operacao-internacional-na-europa
