Rotterdam refocus
WHAT'S NewS Issue 3 March 1996
Since the Rotterdam office was first set up 15 years ago, it has gone through
numerous changes. Started originally as a service unit for one of the bank's
major Dutch food and agri-clients, Cebeco, over time it developed a variety of
other - profitable - activities and operations. Now, the Rotterdam office is again
undergoing reorganization. Many of its current activities and the people
responsible for them will locate to Utrecht where they can take advantage of the
broad range of expertise available there to support their marketing efforts. But
one aspect of Rotterdam will remain the same - the port service and customer
support activities so essential to our clients and international network. Rob van
Rooy explains.
Rob van Rooy
Staying on location - f.l.t.r. Edwin Gerritsen,
Arthur Mettes, Hans Zwanink, Mariska
Fenthur,Siebe Burggraaf Commercial
Support Officer), Lia van Bergem, Ed de
jager and Ad Luhulima. Not pictured: Ron
•wz der Kolm, jack PeperMarion Schotte
nd Harry Hageman (Commercial Support
Officer)
In the past few years, the Rotterdam
operation has become a streamlined,
extremely profitable unit for the bank.
Pre-tax profitability has tripled since
1993, so you may wonder why it has
been decided to change a winning team.
'It comes down to economies of scale,'
Van Rooy says. 'There are 22
Rabobankers here in Rotterdam and
given the volume of business we're
dealing with, we needed to find a solution
to handling that volume efficiently.' The
awareness that adjustments were needed
coincided with another development
within the bank. 'That's right,' Van Rooy
confirms. 'The customers we serve in
^^otterdam can be major multinationals,
^out can also be what you'd call middle-
market clients. At the same time we were
looking for a solution for Rotterdams
capacity problem, a new, more focused
approach to the middle-market through
the local member banks was also being
implemented (see What's NewS6/95).'
ESSENTIAL SERVICES
After lengthy discussions, the solution
finally arrived at was that Rotterdam's
dedicated food and agri and trade,
industry and services account management
teams and the credit department, or half
of the office's staff, will move to Utrecht.
'It ntakes sense,' says Van Rooy, 'for a
number of reasons. The first is, of course,
the middle-market aspect. The second is
the CBS decision to focus efforts on major
corporates in specific sectors, such as food
and agribusiness, commodities, healthcare,
transport and logistics, media and
telecom, Utilities and a number of other
major industries. In terms of these
decisions, we concluded that it would be
better to consolidate our position by
integrating Rotterdam's large accounts
into the corporate banking division in
Utrecht and transfer our middle-market
clients to the member banks. We can then
put all our efforts into servicing the larger
corporates. And we will also be sending a
much clearer signal to the market.'
IMMENSE VOLUMES
The team that remains in place in
Rotterdam comprises essential operations
and two so-called Commercial Support
Officers. 'It is crucial to have an
operations team here in the port,' Van
Rooy confirms. 'This is the biggest port in
the world and processes immense volumes
every day. This business involves the
actual physical handling of a lot of
documents - bills of lading, import
papers, and so on. We are nowhere near a
paperless era in this business. Many of the
documents have to be turned around
within 24 hours. So you have to be here in
order to ensure they are processed
correctly and efficiently. That is why our
operations team here is so essential.'
ROTTERDAM
REORGANISEERT
Het grooste deel van de
medewerkers van
kantoor Rotterdam zal naar Utrecht
verhuizen.Om de klanten optimaal van
dienst te kunnen zijn blijft de afdeling
Documentaire Betaalservices gevestigd in
de Maasstad. De reorganisatie is een gevolg
van het besluit om de 'middenmarkt'door
plaatselijke banken te laten bedienen
Daarnaast worden grote klanten
ondergebracht bij Corporate Banking in
Utrecht als gevolg van de nieuwe strategie
van het Centrale Bankbedrijf waarbij is
gekozen voor dienstverlening aan bedrijven
in specifieke sectoren.
VALUE ADDED FOR CLIENTS
The operations team and commercial
support officers will work closely with the
international network to provide on-the-
spot service to clients shipping in and out
of Rotterdam. 'This is a very important
service to our clients worldwide,' Van
Rooy says. 'In fact, the team acts almost
as agents on the ground. Not only does it
monitor the arrival of shipments and
transfer of title, it also ensures payment
will be made. This offers real added value
to customers, especially in the food and
agribusiness. Our people have a lot of
expertise in this area and clients know
they can rely on them for real service. We
have provided that in the past in
Rotterdam, and we will certainly continue
to provide it in the future.'