FM Logistic, the €1.4 billion French 3PL (Third Party Logistics) company, on Tuesday inaugurated its first owned multi-client facility (MCF) in India at Farrukhnagar in Haryana. This is part of the company’s five-year $150 million investment plan that the family-run company announced in March 2019.

Located on a 31-acre site about 70 km from Delhi, the facility will provide warehousing and handling, co-packing, distribution, e-commerce and omni-channel services to cater to the demands of customers both in India and abroad.

Alexandre-Amine Soufiani, Managing Director, FM Logistic India, told newspersons at the facility that the company has around 70 lakh sq ft of space in India and plans to expand it to 1.2 crore sq ft by 2026 as demand for 3PL logistics services is set to expand multi-fold. The company this year plans to open facilities at Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata, he said.

FM Logistic is active in 14 countries across Europe, Asia, and Latin America with 27,200 employees, including 5,000 in India. Nearly one third of customers serviced in India are also global customers, he told BusinessLine without giving out client names.

“FM Logistic aims to strengthen its leading position in India, gained through a good combination of multi-client and dedicated sites responding to customer needs, the management of a global supply chain (warehousing, distribution, value-added services) according to an omni-channel model (B2B and B2C), innovation, sustainable development and social responsibility,” he said.

“We are in the golden era and we came at the right time to India,” he said. The company entered India in 2016 by acquiring Pune-based Spears Logistics.

The new facility will cater to sectors like FMCG, food, garments, e-commerce, pharma and auto components, he said.

Omnichannel commerce

Jean-Christophe Machet, Global CEO of FM Logistic, said, “FM Logistic in India is ready to cater to the rising demand for omnichannel commerce which is driving the demand for outsourced logistics services. With this new facility, we aim to help our customers efficiently answer their growing business needs and help them build and maintain sustainable omnichannel supply chains.”

Globally, India is the third largest market for the company after France and Eastern/Central Europe. While the global group will grow at 10 per cent, growth in India is expected to be around 50 per cent, he said, without giving any financial number.

Spread across 7.6 lakh sq ft, the new warehousing facility has strategic access to the Kundali-Manesar-Palwal Expressway (Delhi) and provides faster access to major consumption centres in the North. The facility is equipped with a storage capacity of 1 lakh pallet positions and provides for a dedicated space to carry out co-packing and other value-added activities, said a release.

(This correspondent was at Farrukhnagar at the company’s invitation).

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