November 2 - It's been quite a year for Bellville Rodair International (BRI), one which has seen the opening of four new offices already, with Poznan operational from today, and another slated to be up and running by the beginning of 2012.

David Ower, managing director Europe, explains why Poland was the next logical step in BRI's expansion plan: "Poland is the sixth biggest country in the EU by population with around 38 million people and the seventh biggest by GDP, so it is a major market and it still has a strong manufacturing base.

"Many of our existing customers do a significant amount of business in Poland already, so this new office will provide additional support to them. Poznan is in a good strategic location for the main manufacturing centres. A substantial amount of the manufacturing in Poland is still in the industrial goods and machinery sector, which is traditionally of interest to us, and there is also activity in the energy sector which we are aiming to tap into."

In addition, it was also a case of finding the right man for the job: "A really important factor in our decision was that we found a good person there, who we thought had the right attitude and experience and who was just the sort of person to lead the operation - branch manager Maciej Rabiej. He is a welcome addition to the company. It is another example of BRI responding positively to an opportunity, based on good people and the needs of our customers," adds Ower.

A general freight forwarder with three specialist divisions - Energy, Automotive and Couture - BRI now operates offices in 13 countries from more than 20 locations

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