Feature, Forwarding, Freight News, Logistics

Damco back in business in Beirut

[ August 25, 2020   //   Chris ]

Damco says its Beirut team had operations in Lebanon running again within 24 hours of the port explosion on 4 August, thanks to the AP Moller Group-owned forwarder’s business resilience program.

The Beirut team relocated all office functions to its warehouse facility in the suburb of Dekwaneh. The facility can handle 40,000cu m and Damco Lebanon, which has operated with the same agent for over 25 years, has access to a fleet of 15 trucks.

Head of business resilience and security, Zera Zheng, explained: “Our office was badly damaged in the blast, but fortunately there were only a few minor injuries across the team, and we were able to work on getting our processes operational as swiftly as possible.

“Business resilience is only effective with a strong, connected team and we are very fortunate to have that with our colleagues around the world. It is thanks to the perseverance of the local team and our BR Program that office operations were up and running within 24 hours.”

Staff at Damco headquarters in the Netherlands rapidly assessed the safety and welfare of the Lebanon team thanks to communication channels put in place as part of the program.

Damco has invested in its resilience program over the last two years, preparing staff globally for over 47 different supply chain damaging scenarios. A new Instant Message feature launched earlier this year allows specific users or groups to be contacted quickly and speeds up information flow between local and global offices.

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