INTERLOGISTIC, a licensed logistics firm from Sarajevo, achieved strong business results and managed to hire new employees last year despite the pandemic. In an interview for the Akta.ba portal, Nedžad Turnadžić, the company's director, talks about business operations in the past year and plans for the upcoming period.
Last year, Interlogistic worked on many projects, including "moving services" to various countries. How much did the coronavirus pandemic slow you down and how did it affect your business?
-
Moving is indeed a new service, and it is slowly growing into one of the most significant services we provide. For this type of service, it is most important to have high-quality, responsible, and professional employees, and Interlogistic is widely known for that. The pandemic slowed down or shut down many companies; we searched for adequate solutions for a year, and we continue to do so today to retain the same number of employees. We can boast that we even hired new workers during the pandemic, although we had a drop in turnover of as much as 86% in certain months of the previous year.
Despite the pandemic, you managed to open a logistics center in Stup last year. How significant is this project for your company? Has it made your business operations easier?
-
We started construction before the pandemic; however, we had to make major decisions and face great dilemmas because many things were uncertain, and any mistake would have been costly. A combination of experience, luck, and vision ultimately brought good results. The logistics center gives us added professional weight in our operations, allowing us to provide our clients with a complete logistics service.
Many companies were forced to lay off workers during the pandemic. What is the situation in your company?
-
Retaining employees and ensuring they had regular and the same income as before the pandemic was our primary goal, though it resulted in the suspension of investments and the realization of some earlier plans. We did not lay anyone off; in fact, we were hiring at that time, which I am particularly proud of. Best of all, my colleagues recognized that effort and they appreciate our hard work and commitment.
Your company organized the transport and customs procedures for 12 ventilators that Germany donated to BiH. How demanding was this project, considering you delivered the ventilators in record time?
-
I must admit that the job of clearing "our" ventilators through customs, after the numerous scandals and imports we read about in those days, was a special challenge. However, if you are professional in your work, if you know the rules and procedures, and respect the laws of BiH, then no job is difficult or exhausting. The key is in the expert people that Interlogistic, thank God, has.
What are the currently active projects your company is working on?
-
As a socially responsible and patriotically oriented company, Interlogistic is currently working on cargo transport and the export of Bosnian products to Arab countries. This is something that can help Bosnia and Herzegovina overcome the financial crisis, but it requires much greater engagement from other organizations or institutions.
What are your plans for the future?
-
Before the pandemic, we had a plan to open branches at Bosnia and Herzegovina's border crossings, as well as in one of the seaports in the region's countries, since unfortunately, we do not have our own port. In addition to those projects, together with our partners, we had a project for a more serious approach to air cargo transport and the construction of a cargo terminal. Within that terminal, we would create a showroom for Bosnian products where buyers could directly choose suppliers—all with the aim of creating a serious and complete logistics system that every country relies on, especially in difficult situations like the one we have today. However, we will wait for the end of the pandemic and then continue toward the projects we aspired to. I consider them state projects because they would provide direct support to our firms and our economy in general, as well as more favorable conditions for doing business outside BiH.
What is your message for BiH entrepreneurs and citizens in general?
-
Make plans for the time when all this passes, because it will pass!
Interviewer: Elvedina Obuća, Akta.ba