With the purchase of Loginsa in Chile and Transportes Centroamericanos del Futuro, the logistics firm aims to be present at every stage of the commercial chain. Its plans for growth point to more countries and a strong digitalization of processes to double its regional presence.

Constant reinvention is what defines Ransa. Born 85 years ago as Reprensa Algodonera Nacional, the firm of the Peruvian conglomerate Grupo Romero is going through a fairly intense five-year period.

In 2021, the company announced the entry of the US group HIG as a majority shareholder. Ransa's founding family maintained a small stake and also a strong presence of its Colombian shareholders. Then, in 2023, the company carried out an additional integration with the Central American firm Transportes Centroamericanos del Futuro (TCF), which has allowed them to expand their services “from the client to the port and from the port to the client.”

These acquisitions made it possible for the multinational to reach 12 countries in Latin America today: Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and Chile. But their ambition is far from stalling. And this is what Paolo Sacchi, CEO of Ransa since 2017, anticipates to AméricaEconomía.

- How does Ransa take its 85th anniversary?

Ransa is a logistics company that was born in 1939 and what we have sought, since the beginning of this company, is constant reinvention. In the last six years, I have to say that we have been sold, we have been bought and we have been integrated. We have gone through all the stages of any M&A process. Today, we have become a logistics company that operates in 12 countries, we have more than 4,000 clients and over 9,000 people working in different areas of the supply chain. Whether in warehouses, transportation, logistics or distribution, in addition to various ports and in various other spaces.

- How did logistics and Ransa change after the Covid-19 pandemic?

The pandemic, if we want to see it as a milestone in time, was a circumstantial factor that helped us achieve a very great transformation. What happened with Covid-19 is that we had to automate many of the processes we had to operate at that time. It put a lot of stress on our operations because, obviously, even when the world stopped, logistics never stopped operating. The pandemic helped us to have protocols for crises or for managing operations that are much more agile, much more applicable to reality and to the global context of changes that we must have.

- How has Ransa incorporated technology tools, and specifically artificial intelligence, in the different stages of the logistics chain?

Artificial intelligence helps us speed up the digital experience we are giving to our customers and the capacity we have today to process the greatest amount of information. We are implementing transportation management systems and, through an application we call R360, we consolidate all the information so that the client can have it online. We can then dump all this information into a data lake and analyze it. This data and models help us make the best decisions. And they also help clients to be more efficient, to provide better service to their consumers.

- What have been Ransa's investments in this technology and in the training of its human resources?

There is a high investment in technology that returns very quickly, when we can gain more clients or integrate our clients' processes in different geographies. Ransa has acquired international and regional scale, with sales of over US$500 million annually. We have a goal of continuing to grow at 100%, thus, in the last three years we have invested more than US$40 million in technology and expansion of our logistics operations to be able to continue providing our clients with the technology and capacity to develop.

- Regarding acquisitions, what would be the next steps?

We have the objective of being the largest Latin American logistics platform. We seek to achieve sales of US$700 million and continue integrating countries and, at the same time, continue growing in the countries where we are. When we talk about integrating countries, we believe that we still have a great opportunity to grow organically in some Central American countries and in our main markets, which, today, are El Salvador, Peru and Colombia. And obviously [we can] enter some geographies where we have a competitive advantage or where a client needs a service that we can provide there, such as Panama or the Dominican Republic.

- Is the distribution center business also opening up as a niche to explore?

We have 92 distribution centers throughout all the countries where we operate and what we see is the capacity we have to provide our clients with a much more capillary distribution, which goes beyond the large cities. In Colombia, for example, we have Pereira. It is a small city, but it also seeks to improve and become that type of [larger] city. In Bolivia, we are also in three cities. I think that is where the Ransa network and the logistics platform that we have can greatly benefit our customers and also, obviously, the people who live in different countries, whether they are food or appliance retailers .

- What emphasis will you give to the new markets you are reaching with respect to the general operation?

Peru is an important part of the business. It is between 40% and 45% of sales. And the rest is divided between Colombia and El Salvador, which are the next largest. So, what we do is a very important cross-sell when we make these acquisitions or when we do this business. As in the case of TCF, in the matter of container transportation, we had it in Central America and, now, we are expanding it to Peru and other countries in the region.

- And, regarding the last mile, which market looks more attractive? Maybe Chile over Peru?

The Chilean last mile market is very important. That's where we have our largest operations. They have worked very well with some clients and with the technology they have, we will surely be able to expand that to some other region. The thing is that the last mile has two aspects. One is our client and then there is our client's client, who becomes the consumer. Very good road infrastructure is needed to get from the client to the consumer and the last mile, as we are seeing it today, is going to take on a lot of relevance in Latin America. But the per capita income of the population will still have to grow to be able to make these purchases and assume the cost of delivery. There is also an issue of supplier trust and money management, because we are paying for a good that has not yet been received. That mentality in Latin America has to change.

- How do you see the international last mile and fulfillment players, such as Mercado Libre or Amazon itself?

What Amazon, Mercado Libre or PedidosYa, any of them, does is help the development of the logistics business in which we are involved. If the logistics business grows and these players grow, we grow too […] and we can perfectly reach agreements with some of them, alliances to provide them with the service. So, I see it more as an opportunity than a threat.

- How has Ransa prepared for the beginning of operations of the Port of Chancay, which is going to be a key port hub for both Peru and South America?

The Port of Chancay, more than in Peruvian logistics, is going to be a change in the container handling logistics of shipping lines at a regional level. Unfortunately, much infrastructure still needs to be implemented. Not from the port, but from the logistics part, where obviously we are evaluating opportunities on how to continue serving our clients in extra-port issues and in transportation to and from Chancay.

- What forecasts does Ransa have for Latin American and global trade this year?

The trade is constantly growing. We may have some disruptions, as we are having with the Panama Canal and the Suez Canal, but I think that will not stop the growth of international trade. Obviously Latin America is an exporter of raw materials and an importer of consumer goods, whether from China or other countries. 2024 is a better year for Latin America than 2023, where many countries did not have the growth they expected. We can see a quite reasonable growth, between 2% and 3% of international trade, without a doubt.