Today we had the pleasure of visiting a family-owned logistics group called GAP Vassilopoulos! We got a wonderful presentation from the CEO and his nephew who talked all about their growing number of services and role in the supply chain. I was very impressed with how many sectors they operate in and how they much they have been able to expand in recent years. They first started as a shipping company but have been continuously adding services since 1965. They added an insurance service between 1965 and 1990 and then added airplane, hospitality, and international courier to their resume. I found it interesting that they managed the Larnaca Airport between 2005 and 2010 as well as the Limassol Port from 2015 to 2020! In terms of vertical integration, they said that they offer a complete package of interconnected services to support the trading community. These include warehousing, distribution, and domestic courier. They have twelve warehousing sites and 350 transport vehicles in order to get goods to their customers in grocery stores, super markets, etc. They even have shelving services to offer if a business desires. They mentioned many projects they are working on in the service sector, but my favorite was a water treatment service used for cleaning pollutants along Limassol Port and some beaches.

They also had so much valuable insight to give us about supply chain management and business models. They noted that a key advantage to their business model is that their customers only have to know and recognize one company for all necessary services, making them a “lock customer.” We also learned about the importance of balancing economies of scale with agility. While more volume translates to lower costs and greater efficiency, covid in particular emphasized the demand for businesses to adapt to fast changes in the market as well. This relates to the ECR (efficient consumer response) model which runs the risk of producing more than is necessary and ending up with waste. The speakers at GAP noted that this waste is largely due to lack of communication and coordination, which were arguably the most demanded skills I gathered from the presentation. When operating in a supply chain, it is crucial that each link is providing a valuable service and pulling their weight because one weak link breaks the whole chain. I liked the iceberg analogy they used where people typically only see the tip of an iceberg, but there must be enough communication and transparency so that even the parts of the mountain beneath the surface can be seen. Overall, this was a super engaging and informative company visit!