Managing Partner (Geschäftsführender Gesellschafter), ELA Container GmbH
Tim Albers, Liesel Albers-Bentlage, Günter Albers – Second Generation of Management
Even as children they "lived" ELA at the breakfast table – the three siblings would never have imagined that, within 50 years ...
Transcript (11 segments)
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Günter Albers0:00
This year our family celebrates 50 years of ELA Container. Half a century, operated by the 2nd generation today. Next year the 3rd generation joins in as foundation for further growth. The 3 of us, I guess, still look quite young, but we are not the youngest anymore.
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Tim Albers0:50
I'm Tim Albers, Managing Partner of ELA Container. I'm accountable that the clients always get what they have ordered.
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Liesel Albers-Bentlage1:01
My name is Liesel Albers-Bentlage, I'm 56, and I am a Managing Partner of ELA Container responsible for the financial affairs of the ELA Group and of other clients.
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Günter Albers1:16
I'm Günter Albers, Managing Partner of ELA Container and a skilled shipping agent. I always wanted to earn my money in shipping, but I joined ELA 32 years ago. And it was right to do so. I'm sales-orientated by nature, and I'm in charge of strategy, sales, and marketing here at ELA.
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Tim Albers1:46
50 years of ELA: That means a lot to me. At least I'm part of it for 37 years now! When we were kids, even then we caught something about the company, about the containers, how it started. 50 years of ELA: That we are where we are today, no one of us ever expected, it's beyond our wildest dreams. In order to get contracts, my father always went to Hamburg. And when he saw the amount of sea containers there he always said: 'If only I could buy 50 or 100 of these... in Hamburg harbour... to sell them as theft-proof storage containers for construction sites!' That was the idea. Daddy asked again and again, and finally he bought 100 containers. The comment of Hermann Specken, our 1st employee: 'What's the point of that?' And today, in our anniversary year, we are looking back upon 50,000 rental containers. A tremendous achievement! All this would not have been possible without a strong team.
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Günter Albers3:02
When I joined ELA 32 years ago, we had 50 employees. Today we have 1,200 in the group. We developed from a local provider to an international provider. What might be interesting as well: Originally, we only had 5 trucks, for years. And I vividly recall the 5 drivers of the trucks. Today we are operating with more than 100 trucks. 100 trucks, and still far too few to transport the containers every day from location to location, to have them as quickly as possible where they are needed.
Liesel said before that we 'lived' ELA at the kitchen table, long before we started working for ELA. One day at breakfast father said: 'A client urges me again and again to hire out containers. But there isn't enough money.' High investments and low rental income, that didn't match. And then, a few years later, he said: 'We already have 200 rental containers!' A true milestone, the start of the renting business, but no one ever expected the further dimensions of growth. Actual numbers: 50,000 containers, 600,000 products! A tremendous achievement! This could only be accomplished due to various milestones: 1st employee working in the field: Milestone. 1st subsidiary in Germany, in Saxony: Milestone. 1st foreign subsidiary: Milestone. Deployment of the advisory board in 1989: Milestone. Modification of our CI in 2014, an entirely new visual appearance: Milestone. So we always had a holistic view on ELA. And it always helped us along to look 5 to 10 years ahead in order to act early on, not from one day to the next. That we managed in our anniversary year to acquire this ample hall and now are able to build this fully automated production, this truly is a milestone on its own.
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Tim Albers5:41
That's really interesting, my milestones are quite different. This is my perspective: When we finally had reasonable software: Milestone. The production hall for a faster production of the containers for our clients: Milestone. Because I'm responsible for distribution, my milestones are different. That we own this truck now with this terrific crane: A milestone for me. All milestones, perfectly clear. But if you continue to enumerate all sorts of milestones, we'll still be sitting here tomorrow morning.
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Liesel Albers-Bentlage6:25
Well, when the extra-wide container with 3 metres width went into production at ELA Container in 2004/2005: Definitively a milestone!
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Günter Albers6:42
3 siblings in management: Can there be harmony? That's the big question. We have already been called 'The miracle from the Ems'. There aren't many companies managed by 3 siblings, I guess. Of course there isn't love, peace and harmony every day. Actually, once in a while we have discussions. Sometimes you have to relent. A management of 3 members: I guess that's quite cool for employees, too. What do I regard as typically ELA? The 'Moin culture', of course. A really special culture we implemented in the company for a straightforward atmosphere. Flat hierarchies. Hard work. But everybody knows that we like to have an afterwork-beer or a party as well. You can't impose such a culture overnight: We lived it from day 1.
Our performance in choosing people for our company is masterly, I guess. We know exactly what we do. The nicest experience: Years ago we delivered a large amount of containers to Denmark, to Odense. A construction worker came to me and said that he had seen many workers on the site, but our workers would be absolutely extraordinary, would do a really good job. Nothing would be too much, everything would work well. Such a nice feeling to hear that! As we always say at the end of each year: Everything worked out.