INTERVIEW PANEMAR
Main actor of logistics solutions in Lebanon and new Balguerie partner
The Balguerie network of agents continues to evolve and expand across the globe.
Located in Lebanon, Panemar Forwarding has recently joined the many partners affiliated with the Balguerie Group. Joe Bitar, CEO of Panemar Forwarding, and three of his collaborators came to meet with Balguerie Bordeaux teams and visit the premises on March 12 this year. This collaboration will make it possible, on the long term, to develop the France/Lebanon market for the two parties.
Within the scope of this recent collaboration, Nohra Beaini, Business Development Manager at Panemar, has agreed to present us the company and to explain the partnership with Balguerie in the following interview.
Balguerie (B): Can you describe Panemar to us ?
Nohra Beaini (NB): In 1991, Pierre Milad Beaini, a well-reknowned businessman in the world of international affairs and customs clearance in particular, along with Joe Bitar, took advantage of the emergence of the growing sea freight industry to found Panemar Forwarding S.A.L.. Sucessfully implemented in Lebanon for more than 25 years, the company enjoys excellent trade relations.
Today, we find ourselves in the top 10 of the logistics companies in Lebanon. We offer a full range of international transportation services, specializing in sea freight FCL/LCL, air and land freight. We also provide business solutions for customs clearance, warehousing or goods transport.
B: Where is Panema headquarters located?
NB: The headquarters of Panemar is located at Jemayzeh, strategically located near the port of Beirut in which we recently opened our own warehouse with a storage capacity of 4 000 m3 inside the Free zone.
B: What are the geographic areas of your main operations?
NB: We have at heart to provide our customers with tailor-made sea & air solutions that meet their specific requirements. Panemar handles from A to Z transportation of all types of goods to the four corners of the earth, thanks to its important international network counting more than 150 agents.
B: How are your activities divided up?
NB: Europe is our first destination with 48% of our traffic, in particular due to an agreement signed between the EU and Lebanon exempting customs duty for the majority of the products coming from the old continent. Our flows then turn to the Far East for up to 33% of our activity. The remaining 19% cover the rest of the globe. The distribution of our activities is rather on a 85/15 ratio. Import representing the main activity with 4 500 TEUs routed through. Our involvement in customs clearance is also important as more than 4 100 custom entries have been registered for our customers in 2017.
B: Tell us about the human dimension within Panemar.
NB: We are a total of 70 co-workers split into several services. For instance, there are about a dozen sales representatives divided by geographical areas and more than 20 licensed customs brokers in our Customs Clearance department. Our personnel includes many drivers and carriers, handlers, and back-office employees which allows us to offer a complete range of logistics services.
B: What are your prospects for growth and development?
NB: We would like to continue to develop our services in Europe. To attain our goal, we rely on the development of our traffic France - Lebanon and the recent partnership with Balguerie comes within the scope of this strategy. It is an opportunity to identify the market and customers needing regular traffic between these two countries.
B: What do you think of your partnership with Balguerie?
NB: Both are family-owned international companies sharing common values such as:
- Flexibility in decision-making and customized logistics solutions
- Commitment and loyalty towards our partners and customers, offering them advice and permanent assistance.
Our partnership began a few months ago, starting with an analysis of the existing traffic for both companies, targeting new markets and defining market entry strategies.
In addition, Panemar is considered as the leader in consolidation in Lebanon and is supported by many forwarding agents. Creating a direct LCL service between France and Lebanon in partnership with Balguerie would be a possibility