There is still no rust on ‘the man of steel’: Wibo Feijen
The
world of steel is a tough one. Who doesn’t have a fighter’s mentality is not
going to make it. When you work your way up from the bottom of the staircase as
an employee of an expediter, and become the owner of three successful
businesses in the steel industry, you can be classified as a tough one
yourself. It’s about relinquishing and accelerating and a boy’s dream which
came true for Wibo Feijen. The Man of Steel and more.
Expansion
Wibo
got to know the world of steel thanks to his father, who, until 1988, was DMS
of Feijen Staalservice BV in the Beatrix harbour (in Maastricht). Together with
his father and brother he later became owner of a steel company in Belgium,
which was sold in 2002. Several years later, he started working for a small
shipping agent in the Beatrix harbour, the start of an impressive acceleration.
“The Beatrix harbour is the biggest steel cluster in all of Europe. Steel
sometimes has a distant overseas origin. That is why both of the warehousing
steel terminals were realised at the Ankerkade and offer excellent solutions
for the transport of steel. With a lot of service possibilities for its
customers.”
Taking the lead
And
Wibo continued. A management buy-out allowed him to take the lead in 2012. “I
noticed that it wasn’t just the transport of steel goods that needed good
organisation from harbours to customers, but also everything around it. The
steel mills and end-users require a chain direction, someone who has a clear
overview of the playing field and can quickly and efficiently serve the market
and respond to changes. Hence, added value. As a logistic coordinator for
international steel processors, I started focussing on this chain direction.
This is because my customers overseas require a partner who knows the market
and demand. We now connect supply and demand, we make the steel market more
transparent and we are growing as a ‘connector in steel’. All these activities
have been accommodated in a separate company: Steel Solutions BV.”
Smart combinations
There
are however also clients who solely have a logistical question. These are to be
answered by SLE Global Logistics. Wibo Feijen emphasizes that this company is
not just about steel, but about the logistics of completely different goods as
well. “This creates a whole new clientele, with new products. This offers the
possibility of smart logistics, such as the transport of heavy steel goods and
different lighter goods in one container. Containers namely have a maximum
payload. Looking at the fact that steel is, in many cases, indivisible, space arises
for (sometimes voluminous) lighter products, that can be transported in the
same container. In this way, SLE Global Logistics optimizes the container space
available and could one container freight be the solution for multiple
customers. Regardless if it is a big or a small customer, whether they import /
export a lot of containers or only very few, they have a lot or very few cargo
to transport, everybody receives the best possible service.
Extend the lead.
That
is how he extended the lead. Step by step he succeeded to go from Steel
Solutions, a steel distributor in Europe, to a multi logistical leading group
of companies, which offer their logistic services to companies worldwide.
Nowadays, those services are going beyond steel products only. “We are always
looking for possibilities to bundle loadings, looking for combinations of different
types of cargo. SLE Global Logistics is strong in overseas logistics,
especially in the intercontinental import and export in which we want to grow.
We are consciously looking for logistical orders outside of the steel sector.”
Leading group
Since
the start of this years, a third rider became part of this group; Maasterminal
Maastricht BV. This company exploits two conditioned warehouses situated at the
Juliana canal in the Beatrix harbour, accounted for 20.000m2 in total. The
large storage and handling capacity, own covered docks for dry loading and
unloading of inland vessels at all times and its own railway connections,
enable Maasterminal Maastricht BV to offer its services on a wide market. “To
reserve this warehousing capacity exclusively for the steel industry would be a
shame. Therefor both terminals are also available for companies in the region
outside of the steel branch who are looking for smart multimodal solutions.”
Especially companies with project cargo and break-bulk, like machines, paper,
wood and ferrous metal, who are looking for temporary storage, are more than
welcome.
Let’s accelerate.
These
three frontrunners are the result of good entrepreneurship. Of stepping on the
gas at the right moment, of quick thinking, acting and responding. While
undertaking, you have to have a team of people who support you in order to
succeed. They have to understand the strategy and they have to be able to think
and act along. Now that the transformation has been made to three companies, it
is expected of each of them to put food on their own table and to live up to
their leading position. It’s about learning to see and take their own chances
on the market. “Don’t wait in the bunch, waiting for others to act, but choose
your own plan of attack. Accelerate when the time is right and try to finish
first”, teaches Wibo Feijen. “It is a strategy which requires adaptation of the
entire organisation.”
Change of DNA.
In
order to lead the entire process in the right direction, management is
required, rather than entrepreneurship. Now, entrepreneurs and managers as we
all know them have different DNA. Wibo: “Entrepreneurs undertake, managers
manage. You can see that as soon as a manger takes over a company, there is
little innovation. As undertaker, you however have little time to occupy with
management. So to manage your progress, you need to attract good managers or
hire external expertise.
Step on the gas
He
chose both. Internally, the right managers have been put on the right place and
an external HR agency is hired to accompany the organisation as a team leader with
the transformation to a winning combination. The change of culture and the
right accompaniment should lead to three companies in which specialization is
leading. Wibo: “I strongly believe in the power of specialism and the
advantages of smaller companies within one big organisation, where they jointly
benefit from scale advantages. The employees also have to learn to see the
benefits of this new way of working and the chances that come with that. Because
even as three separate companies, we remain one family which supports each
other. But if the opportunity arises, step on the gas en break away from the bunch.
That is the only way to be successful.”
