C4L: A success story for 10 years

Cluster for Logistics

The Cluster for Logistics (C4L) has been adding value to the Luxembourg economy since 2009 and on Friday, 14 June 2019, C4L celebrated its10th anniversary at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce with over 120 guests in attendance. In order to revisit the creation of C4L, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy Etienne Schneider and Minister of Finance Pierre Gramegna, as well as former Minister of the Economy Jeannot Krecké, shared their views on C4L and the sector.

C4L president Carlo Thelen welcomed the guests and expressed his gratitude to all the actors that made it happen, ‘today, we are in a much better economic situation than 10 years ago when former Minister of Economy Jeannot Krecké - whom we welcome here today - and the Chamber of Commerce discussed diversification of the economy. Indeed, those discussions led to the creation of the C4L, an association of stakeholders initiated by 7 institutional partners that represents more than 100 members today (slide 2). This happened under the leadership of the Chamber of Commerce and my predecessor and friend Minister Pierre Gramegna, who at the time was Director General of the Chamber of Commerce.’

The first president of C4L, Pierre Gramegna, current Minister of Finance, who sees opportunities in green logistics, looked back fondly at the creation of C4L, a process that was not always easy. He initiated the creation of C4L together with six institutional members and the Ministry of Economy. In his words, ‘we are just at the beginning. New technologies like AI or drones are changing the way logistics is working’.

Before he became Minister, Etienne Schneider was already involved in the creation of C4L in 2008 under Jeannot Krecké. He highlighted the importance of diversification and recalled that the sector plays an important role in Luxembourg and that data driven innovation strategy and simplification will further enhance the importance of Luxembourg in the field. He also stated that projects like the Single Window for Logistics will facilitate import, export and transit flows. He further thanked Jeannot Krecké and Daniel Liebermann for their support during the creation of C4L.

Malik Zeniti then gave an overview of the sector and the major events of the last decade. A promotional video was also part of the evening with input from members, government and logistics managers highlighting the achievements of the sector in the last 10 years. Check it out below.

Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce, LIST, Arthur Welter, Cargolux, CHAMP Cargosystems CFL multimodal and POST.

Partners for the evening: Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Public Works and the Single Window for Logistics and the Silver Sponsors CDC and LuxairCARGO. Our media partner VitalBriefing is the creator of our newsletter.

In order to showcase innovative logistics services in Luxembourg, C4L highlighted the companies FIRIS and FANUC. The well-known robot manufacturer FANUC presented two specialised robots capable of handling packs of various sizes. FIRIS offers innovative handling and training services with the help of augmented reality and guests were able to test it on site.

Awards for the best students
The evening was a good opportunity to show support to young newcomers and an award ceremony was organised as part of the celebration. (Picture of the laureates below.)

The Cluster for Logistics hopes to motivate promising young professionals and the first students finished the Diplôme de technicien en logistique course in 2019. This year, Lucy Kaufmann (left), Jennifer Klautsch (right), and Richard Graul have been designated as the students with the best academic and professional skills and received an award for their efforts.

At university level, Jérôme Schank (middle) received an award for his 2018 Master’s thesis at the Luxembourg Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LCL). Working for Cargolux, he analysed ‘customer balancing acts in transportation networks’.

Customary to C4L tradition, the evening also provided an opportunity for networking in a relaxed setting at the Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce. Check out the pictures for an overview.

Communicated by the Cluster for Logistics