In the anniversary edition of our magazine ’10 years of Flows’, we gave companies in the maritime and logistics sector a chance to put themselves in the spotlight. In it, you will also read this interview with Bertrand Deny and Gudrun Verhaeghe.
“Deny Logistics originated in 1904 as a customs agency,” says managing director Bertrand Deny. “We are now the fourth generation at the helm of the family business. The opening of Europe’s internal borders in 1992 gave a real dynamism to the company, because that’s when we started to refocus.”
“Since then, we have grown into a logistics service provider that relies on four pillars: freight forwarding, customs, air and sea and warehousing, enabling us to relieve our customers in every area within the supply chain.
Besides being a strong logistics player, do you have a very important specialisation?
“Gradually, over the past few years, we have started to specialise further in the storage of chemicals. Apart from specific storage areas, infrastructure and buildings, we have also geared our IT support to this. Meanwhile, chemicals or related products take up about 80% of our warehouses. We want to relieve our customers of all their worries and show great flexibility. Of course, all this within the limits of the permits and legal provisions set for ‘high threshold SEVESO facility’.”
I suppose your buildings have to meet a lot of specific requirements?
“Absolutely,” says Gudrun Verhaeghe, logistics manager at Deny Logistics. “Our buildings have dips, a sprinkler system and there is extinguishing water. We also have all the materials and resources to deal with emergencies and our staff undergo regular education and training. There is a lot involved.”
“Within our operations, which we carry out both for smaller accounts from a hundred or so pallets up to very large accounts, we want to be very close to our people and customers. This allows us to be very focused and really tailor-made for our customer.”
What products can we find in your warehouses?
“Cleaning and maintenance products and raw materials for various sectors. So we work for local manufacturers of finished products, but equally for traders from whom we take over the entire logistics flow, from import to storage, associated customs formalities and final delivery to the end customer.”
Your company is a stone’s throw from the Belgian-French border. Is that an added bonus?
“It has grown that way historically. We come from the border region, but we do feel that our company is not badly located with a lot of additional logistics opportunities towards our various neighbouring countries and the UK in particular. Thus, since the Brexit, we have been supporting a lot of carriers and other customers with their customs administration to and from the UK. Our activities as a customs broker have since grown back into a stand-alone business unit as a result.”
What does the future hold for Deny Logistics?
“To further unburden our chemicals customers and create even more added value, this year we will invest in a filling line specifically for filling various solid chemicals in different packages. That line will be operational by November 2024.”
“We are also working to further make our operations more carbon-neutral. For instance, we have had solar panels on our roofs for many years and we try to use all the energy we need for our operations as efficiently as possible. I am thinking here of motion detectors, change batteries for forklifts that we charge during the day.”
“But also in the field of transport, we try to further promote the multimodal approach among our customers. For instance, it would be an absolute plus for us and the transport zone if the rail connections we have here on the LAR were further developed. In that context, we are already in contact with the necessary authorities to make that a reality in the future.”
