Change to restore the competitiveness of

TNT Lige Air & Road Hub

Last September Jean Muls took over the position of Managing Director at TNT
Liege. During his career, this civil engineer with a MBA from INSEAD has managed
plenty of large companies instilling in them new dynamics. A few months after his
arrival, he reveals the challenges he intends to take on in order to ensure the
sustainability of the Liege sort center.
You have been leading TNT Lige since
September 1st 2015.
What is your
mission ?
JM : TNT was indeed looking for a new
Managing Director for the Lige Hub for a
while. Whilst I didnt receive predefined
instructions, we agreed that after a
thorough analysis of the situation I would
present my findings and recommendations
to the Board of TNT. One thing was clear
from the beginning : The Lige Hub is at
the heart of the TNT Group : Two out of
three parcels in the TNT world pass
through Liege. The performance of the
Lige hub is highly critical for the service
throughout the group. This position raises
high expectations from the TNT network.
As the hubs performance had been
degrading over several years, a major
change program was going to be needed.
Its not the first time in your career that you
have had to lead huge changes
JM : Indeed. It is with General Electric that I
learned how to drive major change in
corporations. When I returned to Belgium
in 2001 I took over a part of the bankrupt
SABENA and turned it into a competitive
ground handling company, recently
integrated into Swissport. This mission
was considered by all to be a bold gamble,
but it worked.
I also revitalized AIB
Vincotte at a time when it had important
liquidity problems which were jeopardizing
its existence. After 4 years AIB Vincotte
was again expanding internationally,
winning new markets and I hired 800
additional people during my term. More
recently I put the Belgian subsidiaries of
Imtech back on track. Starting from a loss
position, I reorganized parts of them and
launched them on to new business
segments. Today, Imtech Belgium is a
successful company.

CCIMag N 02 February 2016

These changes have sometimes been

coupled with unpopular decisions
JM : Thats true! In some cases I had to
make difficult decisions with important
social impacts. However other decisions
lead to the creation of new jobs. In parallel
I closed some activities while creating new
ones.
No matter what the changes I
undertook during my career entailed, they
were always made to ensure the
sustainability of the company and to
reposition it on the right track to the future.
I do not have any other target within my
role with TNT.
Have you already identified the points on
which you will work ?
JM : So far I have identified 3 main lines of
action. First, as you probably know, TNT
has launched an important renewal
program of the HUB sorting equipment.
This represented an investment of about 70
million and will allow us to improve our
capacity, our ergonomics, our safety and
our productivity. I will make sure this
modernization will be successful to enable
us to improve our performance and meets
the initial targets. Second, we need to
strategically rethink what it takes to turn
the Lige platform into the most
competitive intra-European air hub, and
then develop and implement a plan to get
there. Finally, in order to mobilize the
company, I want to launch a series of
visible short term improvement actions.
The media recently announced the
acquisition of TNT by FedEx. A few words
about this ?
JM : The express delivery market was
heavily impacted by the economic crisis of
2008 which lead to its consolidation. FedEx
made an acquisition offer for TNT. Both
parties are confident this process will be

successful within a few weeks. The takeover of TNT by the US group FedEx is
obviously an excellent option for the future
of the TNT group, which is the smallest of
the 4 big express leaders worldwide. Liege
Hub will join the activities of the 2 main
European hubs of FedEx. As Managing
Director of the Hub I will work on the
improvement of its competitiveness in
order to maintain its position.
Are you confident in the future of TNT
Liege ?
JM : Absolutely. We have many strengths :
an industrial tool being modernized, an
ideal geographical position in an airport
mainly dedicated to cargo transportation,
an undeniable know-how as well as a
strong willingness to succeed.
I will
dedicate this first part of the year to refine
my vision and will make sure my teams
adhere to it. Afterwards I will spend time
convincing all the stakeholders I meet that
the actions we want to put in place have no
other aim than to sustain the activities in
Liege in the context of the new TNT-FedEx
group.

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