A leading 3PL in Turkey—Ekol Logistics—has entered the Czech Republic and made its first investment in this country in the logistics sector.

The move follows the company’s entering of Bulgaria and in April as part of a progrma of expansion in Europe. The Czech Republic is the thirteenth country where Ekol has established its own facilities.

“Ekol Czech will offer intermodal solutions and road freight, not only FTL but groupage transport as well,” said Martin Zalesky, the company’s country manager. “It will be possible thanks to using the wide Ekol network. Apart from the transport we will offer warehousing and customs services. We are planning that Ekol Czech will generate turnover of five-million euros in 2018 and the level of employment at this moment will be close to 40 employees.”

Ekol Czech will open its first branch by end of June in the Prague area and it will reach operational and commercial readiness in the summer. The next steps are to open a branch in Brno and that is planned for next year.

As the owner of five ro-ro vessels and the operator of 40 round trip block trains per week, Ekol wants to strengthen its presence in Europe.

Ekol offers intermodal transport services in the Czech Republic and elsewhere. Four times per week a train connects Trieste with Ostrava. The plan for 2016 is to increase this number to six. Ekol Czech will develop intermodal transportation using train connections within the existing EU lanes and will offer newly-built solutions within the EU territory.

“Ekol uses advanced technologies developed by its own R&D,” said Zalesky.

In a year or two, the company is planning to offer sea and air services in the territory of the Czech Republic as well. In 2017 Ekol Logistics will open its own company in Slovakia as well.