The Austrian logistics service provider is strengthening its position in the Balkans by taking over the established freight forwarder and logistics company.

Austrian carrier and logistics company Gebrüder Weiss took a 75-percent plus stake in international freight forwarder Eurocargo, based in Serbia, with effect from 12.11.2009. The present majority owner, Hamburg transporter D-Eckhard Niedermann, is retiring on grounds of age.

The residual shares remain in the possession of existing shareholder and managing director Dragan Simovic. CEO Wolfgang Niessner said: "By taking a majority holding in Eurocargo, we are not only strengthening our local and regional organisation, we are also sending a clear signal that we are consistently pursuing our strategy in order to position GW in the long term as a superb provider of logistics solutions in Central and Eastern Europe."

In total the Gebrüder Weiss Group, headquartered in Lauterach, Vorarlberg, Austria, employs a workforce of 4,500 at 137 locations worldwide.

In Central and Eastern Europe, GW is represented in Austria, Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, FYRMacedonia, Bulgaria, Romania and the Ukraine.

In the 2008 financial year the logistics company's turnover was 985 million euros.