Schenker has won a tender from METRO to handle the customer's internal distribution in the Ukraine. Schenker is already building up its own network for domestic distribution in this country, with the help of an international team of specialists from the Ukraine, Poland and Finland. With a population of around 48 million, the Ukraine is one of the particularly interesting markets for the future to be found in Eastern Europe.

The collaboration between METRO and Schenker has a successful tradition behind it. For four and a half years Schenker has been active on METRO's behalf in Poland as a provider of logistics services. And just four months ago Schenker commenced services for METRO in Russia. The Schenker network serves to convey both goods and the associated information from the suppliers to the customer's supermarkets, on a just-in-time basis.

The successful implementation of the Polish and Russian projects played an important part in the decision to award the new contract.

The nation-wide distribution is supported by state-of-the-art IT resources. This applies to the Ukraine as well. Here Schenker's existing transport networks in the neighboring countries of Poland and Russia work in close collaboration to create synergy effects. Schenker employees in the Ukraine attend courses set up by the Russian Schenker subsidiary, for instance. And prior to this specialists from Schenker in Poland had passed on their expertise to the Russian team.

Schenker has been represented in the Ukraine hitherto by its own subsidiary, with offices in Kiev and at Kiev airport. In Poland Schenker is a market leader for integrated logistics services. In land operations, it offers over 200 regular truck transports daily between all economically important regions of the country, with the support of a network of 17 terminals and logistics centers and the most up-to-date information technology. In Russia Schenker is building up its own network for domestic distribution based on a defined traffic schedule.

Direct links are being set up between the 20 biggest cities, both in the European part of the country and also in the Urals and Western Siberia.