Can you tell us your story from the beginning, when the company was founded?
Planzer was founded in 1936 by our grandfather, Max Planzer. In 1966, it became a family-run joint-stock company. My father and uncle took over a very small transportation company and, step by step, helped it grow. My father worked in the company until he was sixty as a director. He then gradually retired, first from operational responsibility, then from the board of directors. With a great sense of continuity, he transferred the shares to my sister and me: it wasn't a sudden move, but a transition built up over time.
When did he join the company and how did he come to lead the group?
I started working at Planzer in 1997, initially as an executive assistant. In reality, my story begins even earlier: I was an apprentice truck mechanic, then continued my training in various areas of the company's operations. Six years after joining, my father entrusted me with operational leadership, and since 2007, I have chaired the Board of Directors.
Today, Planzer is a very complex organization. How would you summarize the company in a few numbers?
We have offices in Switzerland and branches abroad, including in Italy, Germany, France, and Hong Kong. We employ more than 6.800 people, including over 400 apprentices completing their professional training with us. We offer our business-to-business clients first-class transportation and warehouse logistics services, as well as comprehensive, customer-focused solutions. We also operate as a 4PL provider in the supply chain management sector.
For private recipients—business-to-consumer—we present ourselves with our elegant, timeless logo, which appears on Planzer Parcel vehicles, those dedicated to Planzer Homeservice, and vehicles transporting pharmaceutical products in accordance with GDP guidelines. It's a way of saying that, even in the most modern logistics, customer care remains something very personal.
What does it mean to you concretely to say that, despite the impressive growth you've achieved, you've always maintained a "family dimension"?
As a family business, we put people first: they are the beating heart of our company. We cultivate a corporate culture based on education, respect, and diligence. Today, the Planzer Group employs thousands of specialists, representing 98 different nationalities. For us, they're not numbers, but faces and stories. Despite being a highly digitalized organization, we continue to value personal conversations, the idea that an agreement is first and foremost a relationship between people.
Education and young people play a central role…
Absolutely. We have more than 400 apprentices in training: men and women, who choose careers in logistics, transportation, and administration. My goal is for them to finish their training and say, "These four years at Planzer were a wonderful time in my life." If they stay with us, so much the better. But even if they leave, we've helped train qualified, responsible people with solid values.
In your search for sustainable solutions, you made the strategic choice to make significant use of the railway…
Logistics is often seen as a sector with a high environmental impact. For years, about 60% of our transport has been by rail and 40% by road. Every night, we move around 240 rail cars across Switzerland: the trains arrive in the cities in the early hours of the morning, and then the trucks only take care of the last mile. It's more environmentally friendly, but also smarter in terms of traffic and quality of life.
Does this also mean concrete results in terms of emissions reduction?
"Yes. In the warehouse logistics sector, we've managed to reduce CO₂ emissions per kilogram processed by over 20%. I'd also like to highlight the ongoing modernization of our fleet, with an increasing number of increasingly less polluting electric trucks."
Modern logistics has become one of the most digitalized sectors. How have you experienced this process?
Until recently, it was considered a very physical activity: warehouses, pallet trucks, trucks. Today, talking about logistics means talking about digitalization, IT, and artificial intelligence. It's one of the sectors that has transformed the most. We still do what we did yesterday, but much more efficiently. We have the know-how to meet the handling and storage needs of all types of products, and we integrate them into our IT systems. We must be able to work with a large, publicly traded multinational as well as a small client with five employees, speaking all the IT "languages": from systems integration to real-time traceability.
Consumer habits are also changing rapidly.
"That's right. Today, an ever-increasing percentage of purchases are made online. The result is that small packages are increasing every year, while sea containers are multiplying with goods arriving, for example, from China. As a family business, we must guarantee our employees stable employment for the future, and that's why we've also invested in the small package segment, even though we know it requires a great deal of commitment."
What impact do ongoing market turbulence and international crises have on a strategic sector like logistics?
"The events of recent years have shown that logistics means security of supply. I am convinced that, in the long run, the winner is not simply the one who is bigger, but the one who is more useful. Well-organized logistics is at least as essential as finance for a country: without it, everything else grinds to a halt."
