Economy

Porto investment landscape attracts logistics giant Kuehne+Nagel's technological hub

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Installed in the Marquês area since the end of 2022, the German (Switzerland-based) Kuehne+Nagel already has more than 160 people developing technologies for supply chains from Porto. In a visit to present the new director, those responsible admitted that it was the trust and speed in solving issues that made them choose the city to install its technological services centre.

"Happy" with the choice of Porto, the mayor emphazises that the municipality "looks hard for companies like Kuehne+Nagel, which want to develop new forms of business". "With industry leaving the city, we lost a lot of population and our mission has been to bring it back," says Rui Moreira, underlining how, in recent years, Porto has become a city that is "open and attracts talent".

Assuming the role of "facilitators, in the best sense", the president ensures that the municipality seeks to "make life easier for companies that want to join us, to this ecosystem", where the production of talent is inserted.

For his part, the responsible for information technology underlined how "from the beginning, there has always been a relationship of trust with the City Council", something "essential". "It makes all the difference at the moment of establishing a business", reinforces Martin Kolbe, who also recognises the "quick response" given by the municipality.

An equally important point, the head of Kuehne+Nagel mentioned, as did Rui Moreira, talent. "Trivial things can be done by machines, but brilliant things are done by people", underlined Martin Kolbe, adding what he usually shares with his workers: "maybe it is sexy to work at Google or something, but the most exciting thing is to work on something that truly challenges us, to look for new solutions to make people's lives simpler, and that is found here".

The role of the director of the Kuehne+Nagel's Portuguese branch, Gonçalo Sá admitted that the company wants to "grow product-oriented" in Porto. With workers in the areas of software engineering, data engineering, cloud and data science, Kuehne+Nagel employs both nationals and specialists from Brazil, India, Poland and Germany.

Certain that "it is here to stay", Gonçalo Sá recognises the importance of the partnership established with InvestPorto and adds that the company wants to "share and be present" while "working to strengthen ties with the city, with the local community".

The German multinational, provider of transport and logistics services, with 1,300 offices in 106 countries, seeks the digitalisation of its global customers, through standardisation and automation.