AVK Group is a Danish family-owned industrial group that develops and produces valves, hydrants, and accessories for water and gas distribution, sewage treatment, fire protection, and industrial use. Headquartered in Galten, Denmark, the group includes more than 100 companies and over 5,300 employees, with production and sales operations across Europe, Asia, the Americas, the Middle East, and Australia.
Their products are heavy castings, often shipped from production centres in China to dozens of destinations worldwide. Coordinating freight across that many companies, carriers, and trade lanes was becoming harder to manage with email and spreadsheets alone. Here's how AVK brought it all into one transport management platform.
The internal solution that outgrew itself
AVK's freight operations span sea, road, and air across dozens of countries. For air freight in particular, the group had built an in-house email solution, internally called the "airbox." AVK companies could send freight inquiries to a shared address, which then forwarded them to pre-selected forwarders in blind copy so they could respond with quotes.
The airbox proved an important point: pooling volumes across group companies led to better pricing. But as more companies joined, it became harder to keep up. What started as one inquiry per day grew to five, with 25 companies and 70 users depending on the process.
"We saw that if we put all the volumes into one basket, we can get the best pricing. But maintaining this manually was no longer realistic."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager at AVK Holding
Belgium tested Cargoson TMS first, then the rollout began
AVK Belgium was the first in the group to look for a multi-carrier transport management system. They needed one for their distribution operations, implemented Cargoson TMS, and were happy with the results.
Shortly after, another group company, Fusion Group in the UK, was setting up a completely new distribution flow, with shipments going to destinations across Europe and beyond.
After Fusion's successful adoption, the momentum continued. Two Spanish companies within the group have also implemented Cargoson TMS, Canada is exploring it, and the rollout across the wider group is underway.
Easy enough for 70 users across five continents
When AVK evaluated transport management systems, usability topped the list of requirements. With 70 users spread across multiple countries and in a range of different roles, the platform had to work for everyone, from procurement specialists to warehouse staff.
"It's an easy system. Nothing overcomplicated. You can show it one time to a person, and the person is able to navigate it by themselves."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager
That simplicity mattered, because the user base spans China, India, Canada, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and beyond, with people of very different backgrounds and technical skills.
Piet Moermans, Logistics & Supply Chain Manager at AVK Belgium, confirms the same from the end-user side: "The system is user-friendly and the users notice the benefit of one platform."
Central team manages carriers, end users just compare and book
A key benefit for AVK is that Cargoson separates strategic work from day-to-day decisions. The central team selects and manages the right forwarders for each region within the platform, while end users simply compare prices and lead times and choose the best option.
"The users don't have to know all the transport rules. They just need to see the price and the lead time, and decide whether it's worth shipping by air or not. Even colleagues who don't deal with logistics regularly can get competitive freight options very quickly."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager
Price transparency changed how teams book freight
Before Cargoson, comparing prices across forwarders meant manual work that often simply didn't happen. Teams stuck with familiar carriers even when better options were available.
"People are busy. When you're used to booking one company, you just book that one company without having time to check the alternatives. With Cargoson, you have the comparison with one click. Sometimes different forwarders have different prices for different zip codes, and no person will check that manually. Now the team can do cherry-picking."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager
AVK Belgium has already seen a reduction in transport costs since adopting the platform. "As a manager, I can already see the financial benefits," says Moermans.
The response from other group companies has been similar. "Just the other day, one of the Spanish colleagues approached me and said, 'I like this platform,'" Skrzypińska adds.
How Cargoson adapted to AVK's complex group structure
Rolling out a transport management platform across AVK's structure came with a specific challenge: each of the group's companies is responsible for its own profit and loss, and each needs to receive its own freight invoices. AVK Holding itself does not take transport invoices.
"One Cargoson TMS account normally means one company pays the invoice. But in our airbox setup, we have 25 companies and 70 users," she explains. To solve this, Cargoson added a mandatory field where users indicate which AVK company will pay for the transport, so forwarders know where to send the invoice.
What comes next: combined group volumes for better rates
AVK plans to use the data collected through Cargoson TMS to negotiate better rates with forwarders. Instead of approaching carriers with volumes from one company at a time, the group can present combined numbers from across its operations.
"The offers we receive from forwarders will be completely different when we show them volumes from five countries and not just one."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager
From a shared inbox to one platform for 25 companies
AVK's internal email freight system proved one thing: pooling group volumes leads to better pricing. But email couldn't scale with 25 companies and 70 users depending on it. Today, AVK Belgium, the UK, and Spain are live on Cargoson TMS, Canada is exploring it, and the group-wide rollout is underway. The central team manages carrier relationships, end users compare rates and book with a click, and for the first time, AVK can approach carriers with combined volume data from across the entire group.
"We are happy to have chosen Cargoson as our partner for transport management."
Piet Moermans, Logistics & Supply Chain Manager at AVK Belgium
"For production companies that ship varying cargo sizes to different destinations at different frequencies, it gives them a good overview and a quick possibility to check the best carrier for the job."
Agnieszka Skrzypińska, Global Category Freight Manager
AVK is one of 500+ manufacturers managing multi-carrier freight through Cargoson. Want to see how it works for your group's carriers and shipment types?
Book a free 30-minute consultation
Just exploring? See how Cargoson works for metal & machinery manufacturers or compare TMS options.
LinkedIn
Cargoson
