photo: Jiří kubát/http://spz.logout.cz/fotoalbum/fotoalbum_zobrazeni.php?stat=ro&rada=40_0&vlastnik=ro_004/GFR´s train
The GRAMPET Group - Grup Feroviar Roman (GFR) has is proudly announcing its more than satisfying results on the European railway market. Based on its preliminary results, it provides the public with a statement that it has managed to offset the financial losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020.
The GRAMPET Group, which is the largest private rail freight and logistics operator and manufacturer in Romania and probably in southern and central Europe, experienced an economic recovery in the second half of 2020.
Even though the estimation of the financial result for 2020 was affected by the pandemic, the turnover increases to approximately EUR 285 million. In 2019, for comparison, it was EUR 281 million. However, net profit fell to about EUR 7,3 million. In 2019, it reached EUR 11 million. Compared to 2019, the investment budget was increased in 2020 by almost EUR 2 million.
If we were to assess the year 2020 for the GRAMPET Group, several important challenges emerged. For example, in April last year, the group received a single safety certificate from the European Union Agency for Railways (ERA). Based on the certificate, the company can provide rail freight services, including the transport of dangerous goods, on the entire Romanian railway network and 13 main Greek railway lines connecting the ports (Piraeus, Thessaloniki and Alexandroupolis) with the capital, Athens, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
Another turning point happened in June when a new prototype of the first train manufactured by Electroputere VFU Pașcani saw the light of day, which also had a completely new design.
The previous acquisition in Hungary was also consolidated in 2020. Specifically, it was the acquisition of land on which the workshop in Debrecen stands. Another important step was the decision and considerable investments in the modernization of the workshop.
The GRAMPET Group also kept pace with the current trend in the field of railway modernization and digitization. Thanks to this, GRAMPET currently uses 20 digitization technologies, which were developed directly within the group, i.e. internally. Another 18 digitization technologies are under development.
“For us, 2020 was a test year confirming what we have built over the last 20 years - a multinational company with a strategic infrastructure for the entire economy. We are getting more and more signals that the GRAMPET Group is attracting the attention of large investors and interest groups in the global industry, at a time when the market is coping with the new economic paradigm and the consolidation trend in the transport industries is accelerating,” said Gruia Stoica, the President of the GRAMPET Group.
The GRAMPET Group also received the prestigious Logistics Group of the Year Award. It received this title for innovations in the internationalization of business. This title was awarded at the end of 2020 by the representative association for the logistics industry in Italy, Assologistica, in cooperation with the web-magazine www.euromerci.it.