4 reasons to locate your logistics in Luxembourg
Luxembourg is a small country, but with huge advantages to be located there. Why? If only for its political and social stability, its skilled and multilingual workforce, its state-of-the-art infrastructure, its excellent connectivity to markets and its attractive legal and fiscal framework?
Major international groups have already chosen Luxembourg for its advantages. For instance, the Japanese pharmaceutical company JCR will soon be arriving in Luxembourg, as will Vodaphone, which has been steadily expanding its activities in recent years with the construction of a logistics centre.
Luxembourg offers exceptional opportunities and advantages for developing business in Europe and setting up logistics activities, let’s analyse them together.
1. At the heart of Europe, the gateway to the European market
Its geographical position is strategic:
- Located at the crossroads of several important transport routes, including the Northeast Sea Route, the Baltic Sea Route and the Alpine Route. It is easy to travel to other European countries from Luxembourg.
- With its central location in Europe and especially between two of Europe’s largest consumer markets, Germany and France, Luxembourg is perfectly positioned to become a leading logistics hub in Europe for international retailers shipping goods.
- From Luxembourg 60% of European GDP can be delivered within 24 hours by road and 2 hours by air
- Already adopted by major international groups, Luxembourg’s ‘human’ size is an excellent test market for new products and services
2. A highly developed transport system
Luxembourg is also known for its highly developed transport system: road, rail, river or air you are spoilt for choice:
- Road transport is the predominant means of transport, even though Luxembourg is keen to favour modes of transport that promote sustainable development, such as rail and inland waterway transport. It is also an important transit country due to its location and its fuel prices which are among the lowest in Europe.
- Its ultramodern international airport (Findel – Luxairport) with short processing times and ultra-fast procedures is the 6th largest air cargo centre in Europe, with a handling capacity of 1.2 million tons per year. Luxembourg ranks after Frankfurt, Paris, Amsterdam, Heathrow and Leipzig.
- With its high-quality rail network, Luxembourg is Europe’s leading country for rail freight transport. The newly announced Sete-Poznan link is an additional strategic asset. In the Allianz pro Schiene 2021 study, Luxembourg is ranked first in Europe for its per capita investment of €607 compared to €124 for Germany and €45 for France.
- Its river port of Mertert-Wasserbillig is connected to a railway line and has a direct access to the motorway. The Mertert-Wasserbillig port has easy access to many major European ports (including Antwerp, Zeebrugge, Rotterdam, Marseille, Genoa and Trieste) via inland waterways.
3. A highly qualified and multilingual workforce
Multilingualism is an important characteristic of the country, which has 3 official languages, French, German and Luxembourgish. In addition to multilingualism, Luxembourg is cosmopolitan, with an astonishing diversity, with 47.1% of the population being foreign and 170 nationalities registered in the country.
The ability to speak several languages is a significant competitive advantage for companies wishing to enter new markets and establish commercial relations with foreign customers. Staff are used to different cultures and therefore different ways of communicating, relating or operating.
The logistics experts of tomorrow are trained at the University of Luxembourg, which offers a Master’s degree in logistics and supply chain management, ranked first in the world.
4. Future-oriented economic and social stability
Compared to its neighbouring countries, Luxembourg has some competitive advantages:
- A business-oriented legal and regulatory framework with easy access to decision-makers.
- Luxembourg doesn’t go on strike! The Luxembourg model is strictly framed to allow the parties to find common ground.
- Ranked 3rd out of 130 worldwide in the 2019 Resilience Index by FM Global consultants, Luxembourg received a rating of 97.5/100.
- The country is rated AAA with long-term growth prospects.
- Trade and political neutrality helps facilitate good international relations.
Its open economy with strong growth potential, balanced macroeconomic fundamentals, international financial centre with diversified industry, modern infrastructure and excellent market connectivity make Luxembourg an ideal place to set up business. Convinced?
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