WFS set to swoop on Swedish cargo businesses

SATS confirmed its intention to acquire Sweden’s Terminal & Transporttjänst i Sigtuna (TT) and APH Logistics through its wholly-owned subsidiary, WFS Sweden.

Completion of the transaction remains conditional upon regulatory filings and the required subsequent approvals, however.

TT is a cargo warehouse and trucking operator based at Stockholm Arlanda Airport, Sweden’s busiest airfreight gateway. It provides cargo handling and transportation services to airlines, freight forwarders and time-critical medical suppliers.

APH specialises in border inspection services. With perishable and cold chain facilities, it complements the air cargo services provided by TT.

APH is also based at Arlanda.

The acquisitions will strengthen the SATS Group’s presence in the Stockholm market while adding to its already extensive cargo handling footprint.

SATS is a Singapore-headquartered cargo, ground handling and food solutions company. It acquired WFS, the world’s biggest airfreight handler, in April last year.

According to SATS, it has been advancing its twin-engine growth strategy by strengthening its core operations in Singapore and replicating its capabilities to expand internationally.

With the acquisition of WFS, the Group became a global air cargo logistics player, with a network of over 220 locations in 27 countries.

John Batten, CEO of gateway services, WFS EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Africa and the Americas), remarked: “The investment is a significant milestone in strengthening our offering in Stockholm Arlanda Airport, ranked in the top 30 European cargo airports.

“The addition of TT and APH will provide WFS Sweden with an additional

13,000sqm of warehouse space and downstream air cargo handling capacity to allow it to diversify and expand its product offerings to meet customers’ demands.”

Batten continued: “Indeed, seamless end-to-end connectivity that will enable greater efficiency and speedier cargo handling is the way forward to provide added-value service in this evolving industry.

“We will be able to broaden our service to include new services such as Sweden’s local and EU cargo transport and border inspection points.

“The investment will also provide an opportunity for WFS’s global customers to benefit from this expansion in Sweden.”

High tech

Earlier this week, it was reported by ACN that WFS is playing its part in a joint use case of IATA’s ONE Record digital data-sharing standard.

The use case launch sees Cathay Cargo send shipment booking data to WFS in real-time via CHAMP’s 1Neo-Connect server using IATA’s ONE Record application programming interface (API) data standards.

This will replace the consolidated Flight Booking List (FBL) message, currently sent in a traditional Cargo-IMP format over the SITA and ARINC networks, WFS explained.

ONE Record creates a single record view of a shipment and defines a common data model for the data that is shared via standardised and secured web API.