Bouché, a family-owned transport company, will have more than 100 employees thanks to a platform extension
The Lorraine-based family road haulier Bouché is going to pass the 100-employee mark thanks to a platform extension, which goes hand in hand with its developments in its original business.
Transports Bouché is stepping up its logistics activity. The company has committed to an investment of 4 million euros to open a 6,500 m2 warehouse next June, alongside the 11,000 m2 already installed at its headquarters in Phalsbourg (Moselle). And the expansion is not over yet: “We will soon need 10,000 m2 more”, announces the managing director, Daniel Gehringer. In the meantime, the current project is creating 25 jobs.
The company is reaping the benefits of a successful diversification from its long-time exclusive logistics customer, the packaging manufacturer Amcor in Sarrebourg (Moselle). The latter has concluded a new three-year contract at the end of 2019, although its share in this activity has been reduced to 50%. By capturing several of the large shippers in its area of operation on the border of Alsace and Lorraine, such as Jus de fruits d’Alsace (JFA), Bouché is reproducing in logistics the model of the independent local reference partner that has been successful in its core business, transport.
Turning point in 2016
Above all, it has enabled him to bounce back from the double challenge he had to face in 2012 and then in 2014: first the death of Camille Bouché, his founder 55 years earlier, and then the devastating fire of the Depalor company, which represented almost half of the turnover. The meeting between the founder’s children and Daniel Gehringer, who had long experience in the regional transport-logistics sector, was decisive. “It led to the decision to remain independent, to reinvest and to broaden the range of customers and activities,” says the managing director, who took a minority share in the capital when he arrived in 2016. Three years later, the workforce has tripled to 97 employees. At the same time, turnover – just over 14 million euros in 2019 – has increased by more than 2.5 times in transport (11 million euros in 2019), tripled in logistics (1.5 million euros) and almost doubled for the garage (1.6 million euros).
