New Managing Director at a. hartrodt in Turkey
Mehmet Sakaroğlu restructures team in a targeted manner and expands product range.
Turkey is becoming increasingly important as an international logistics hub between Europe and the Middle East as well as the markets of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Therefore, Mehmet İsmail Sakaroğlu has been reorganizing the 17-member team in Istanbul as new Managing Director of a. hartrodt Turkey Lojistik since February 2024. The previous Land Freight and Logistics Director has 17 years of freight forwarding experience. "We want to increase our market share by a third compared to 2023 by the end of the year," he says, setting the course for growth. In addition to sea and air freight, the integrated service now also includes domestic transportation and warehousing.
Three new recruits strengthen local management
In the first quarter of 2024, a. hartrodt Turkey Lojistik strengthened its local management with three new experts: Burak Büyükgünay is responsible for air and sea freight as well as road transportation as Head of Operations. Female recruits as department heads are Sales Manager Esma Leyla Serin and Accounting Manager Sonay İpekçi.
Four growth pillars: sea freight, air freight, road transportation, warehousing
With his fresh team, Mehmet Sakaroğlu wants to "increase our brand awareness". Among other things, he wants to develop sea freight with West Africa and Europe via the Aegean port of Izmir and with the Middle and Far East via Mersin. The plan is to "expand the China import service and the Europe-North Africa lines". He wants to strengthen air freight consolidations with Benelux, Germany, China and Japan. International road transportation with project cargo is the "fastest growing product", ranking second in terms of volume. Warehousing services can be offered in Istanbul and Izmir with cold chain services for Food & Beverage commodities.
For the second half of the year, Mehmet Sakaroğlu has announced plans to grow "in the ports of Bursa, Izmir and Mersin". In 2025, he intends to expand the minivan service to Europe. He sees intermodal transportation on the Middle Corridor as a "serious chance".