HAE Group is focusing on ventures in emerging markets, areas that it has seen strong growth so far in 2017, managing director Colin White (pictured) tells Air Cargo Week.
He says business has been stable in traditional markets but emerging markets such as Brazil, the Middle East and Africa have seen growth, and HAE is working on ventures in other countries.
White explains: “We have a number of collaborative ventures planned in the emerging markets giving local hero GSSA access to our network solutions products Egypt, Sudan and Kenya for example. We also want to grow recently started South American and Canadian initiatives as they start to mature.”
He adds: “We have also expanded our facilities in East Midlands Airport and Heathrow Airport to take into account the growth we have experienced.”
HAE says the summer months will be quiet, though says: “We await a number of contract awards to be announced in Q3 this year, mainly in the government and defence sector which will benefit a number of our carriers and our solutions business.”
“Our cargo handling business has also secured new business and we hope this will continue to grow though the rest of the year.”
Despite UK Brexit negotiations getting underway, White does not foresee the UK leaving the European Union having a significant impact on business.
He says: “We are fortunate to have a footprint of activity that is to/from the UK and also between a range of third party countries so other than tracking what happens with UK economy for that activity we do not see any major impact on our business.”
Technology remains a bigger challenge, and White says HAE is addressing this with its own software development team, its own web designer and testers for the capability it created.
White says: “We want to integrate as much as we can with our airlines and forwarders alike. Opportunities are to use this new capability in markets where we do not have a foot print, why shouldn’t a GSSA be as easy to use online as he is in person?”