COO Jens Kleiner: How he is developing Nagel-Group’s network to meet the demands of the market

Jens Kleiner was appointed Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Nagel-Group at the beginning of the year. In this interview, he talks about current trends in food logistics, new technologies and Nagel-Group’s task force team.

Mr. Kleiner, how do you see the food logistics market developing?

Jens Kleiner: The market for food logistics has been extremely volatile and fast-moving in recent years. It is becoming increasingly difficult to predict when we need to move how many goods – this makes it more difficult to plan our resources and capacities. Known influencing factors such as the coronavirus and currently inflation have significantly changed consumers’ food purchasing behavior. We are currently noticing that consumers are increasingly gravitating towards discounters. For us, this is leading to an increased shift in volumes in the network. People are not eating less, but they are shopping differently. We have to adapt to this.

High energy costs are currently a major challenge for our business. In the dry, non-temperature-sensitive area, we are increasingly competing with industrial logistics, which sees growth opportunities in this segment. We are facing up to this with our decades of experience in the food industry. Like all our competitors, we face the same challenge in the area of skilled workers. In our branches in particular, we need people who can move pallets with forklift trucks, plan tours and distribute our customers’ goods throughout Europe with their trucks.

Jens Kleiner, COO of the Nagel-Group

What specific effects do market developments have on our operating business?

We feel the volatility almost every day. Our operating business has been characterized by special circumstances so far this year – the farmers’ protests, the snow chaos and strikes have put us under great strain. The entire Nagel-Group team has pulled together magnificently and done everything possible to serve our customers in the best possible way. We are currently in the middle of the Easter business, which has started somewhat slower than in previous years. However, the tonnages we are moving are again well above the annual average, and Easter remains the season with the highest volumes after the Christmas business. How things will continue after that depends on several factors: How will inflation develop? Will we have good barbecue weather and how will the European Football Championships in Germany affect business?

What do you want to change in the short term in your new role to improve operational processes?

Last year, we started to expand our Nagel-Group network in a new regional structure in Germany. We have already seen the first positive results. By filling the regional manager positions in North-East, West and South with Achim Sinn, Martin Nether and Mirko Schmidt, we have strengthened coordination and cooperation and intend to intensify this further. Another focus is on improving our network by standardizing and optimizing the regional structures. A uniform management structure and a close exchange between the branches and regional managers are crucial.

An operational task force team was also set up last year in order to be able to react quickly and efficiently to critical situations. Initial experiences have been positive, and the task force has provided good support to affected branches on several occasions. We will continue to expand this initiative and deploy it more abroad in future.

With ServiceNow, we have introduced a new customer service tool that will be rolled out further this year. We want to use it to ensure greater transparency, enable structured processes and increase our overall operational efficiency.

We are constantly scrutinizing and improving our processes. We see our greatest expertise in the delivery and storage of food in all temperature ranges and in the area of value-added services, particularly in co-packing. We are constantly working on efficiently supplying both large food retailers and small area customers.

Which technological trends and solutions are you currently focusing on at Nagel-Group?

We are focusing heavily on artificial intelligence (AI) and app technologies.  A key tool here is the Transport Volume Estimator (TVE). This forecasts volume parking spaces based on data analyses and algorithms. By using the TVE, we aim to simplify our planning and optimise the utilisation of transport capacities, to achieve better cost efficiency and service quality. TVE is currently in the trial phase and will be rolled out further. We are also aiming to improve our transport forecast by predicting the number of future shipments more accurately. This will give us longer lead times for transport planning and reduce incorrect purchases. We digitalise and automate processes or use suitable solutions from the market that make economic sense.

The interview was conducted by Jaqueline Kaldewey, Communication Manager at Nagel-Group.