2023-09-18 12:09:54
“At every moment of the day and night, boats plow for him farthest from the seas », praised, in 1927, Albert Londres, father of literary reporting, who fell under the noisy charm of the port of Marseille. A century later, this quote suits CMA CGM, word for word, local champion, third largest maritime carrier in the world.
In its fleet control center, on an XXL screen, the position – updated every quarter of an hour – of its 620 ships is displayed. One click, and the risk status appears for each boat, in a row of colored icons. For the team – half a dozen seasoned French and Romanian sailors, almost all ship commanders – the priority lies in the safety of the crews, the fleet and the goods.
Optimizing roads to decarbonize
We must therefore protect them against weather hazards, such as these two cyclones above the Atlantic, against geopolitical events, piracy, the presence of blocks of ice or whales… And then offer each ship the least expensive route. fuel-intensive. “Since the start of the year, this optimization has made it possible to reduce our CO2 emissions by several hundred thousand tonnes”assures the head of the center.
A phenomenal adventure for this company founded in Marseille in 1978 by Jacques Saadé, a simple shipping agent fleeing a Lebanon at war. An empire that remained in the family fold after his death in 2018.
“Marseille reminded him of Beirut, says Tanya Saadé Zeenny, deputy general director and older sister of CEO Rodolphe Saadé. This is what prompted my father to found the CMA here, which was then what we call a start-up: the company had four employees and only one boat. But she followed an intuition that would prove to be brilliant: maritime transport was going to be revolutionized by containers, a tool system that Jacques Saadé, during a stay in the United States, had seen used by the American army in the middle of the World War. Vietnam. »
Asia’s bet
The other strength of the company is that it did not confine itself to the outlets offered by the Mediterranean but focused very early on Asia, with the opening of a first office in China, from 1992. What followed was the takeover, in 1996, of CGM, powerful in Le Havre and more focused on America. It is also a breakthrough in logistics. Expected for the beginning of 2024, the acquisition of Bolloré Logistics, for 5 billion euros, should allow the group to consolidate its place in the world’s top 5 in the sector.
Ambitions are asserted on the seas, on land and also in the air. In May, the group signed an agreement with Air France-KLM to develop air freight and is eyeing space logistics, with its partners Thales and Eutelsat.
32 floors, not one more, so as not to go beyond the Virgin of the Guard
This ascent is summed up in a photomontage. We can see the three successive headquarters of the company, about a hundred meters apart, in the Euroméditerranée business district: the small building in which it rented its first office, then an eight-story building, and finally the tower designed by Zaha Hadid, winner of the Pritzker Prize, the “Nobel” of architects.
Tanya Saadé Zeenny immediately shows us this image hanging on the wall in her office, on the 29th floor out of 32. Is it a Marseille legend? It is said here that the tower “only” culminates at 147 meters because the former mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin refused to allow it to exceed the Virgin of the Guard…
At its feet, the port, the mixed cargo ships of La Méridionale, which CMA CGM has just bought, and then the terminals operated by the company. On that of Mourepiane, a 400 meter long rail convoy transports containers to the cranes which will transship them to a ship, already at the dock.
Saadé, “the anti-Tapie”
These port operations only form a small part of CMA CGM’s local activity. The headquarters alone houses 2,500 employees (out of 155,000 employees worldwide). And from the tower, we can see the premises of Provencebought in December from the Tapie group.
“The first time, Rodolphe Saadé appeared to us to be very cold and poor media connoisseur, confides Sophie Manelli, SNJ trade unionist within the daily. But over the course of the meetings, he showed increasing mastery of the file. Above all, he made a written commitment to invest, after ten years of scarcity, and to respect our editorial independence, which has been preserved until now.We have found a social dialogue. Our question concerns our place in the group, while CMA CGM has bought The Tribune and is interested in BFM. » In his eyes, Rodolphe Saadé is “the anti-Tapie”. “Extremely discreet but very fortunate” (more than 9 billion euros, according to Forbes).
The six letters of the company on the OM jersey
“CMA CGM is in the running to take over another totem, the Marseille Fair”, slips the political scientist Jean Viard, who does not exclude “an upcoming takeover of OM”. This season, in any case, the six letters of the company cross out the blue and white jersey.
Corinne, a member of the Dodgers, a supporters’ club, delights in the arrival of a local sponsor. “The company upholds the values of this city, where we are welcomed wherever we come from, and where we can succeed. »
“CMA CGM embodies the Marseille dream”, summarizes Serge Magdeleine, at the head of the Top 20 Club, which brings together the main Marseille companies. In a very cyclical activity, the group has only experienced, far from it, good periods like that of Covid (1) which allowed it to reap a record profit of 23 billion euros in 2022 and made him appear as a crisis profiteer. “The Saadé family commands admiration for its capacity for resilience. »
A contribution to the Pope’s trip
Because, as Damien Denizot, its manager of institutional relations in Marseille, says, CMA CGM wants “give back to this city what it gave it”because “contributing to improving the quality of life also helps attract talent”the group and its foundation permeate the social fabric.
Imane Bounouh, who describes herself as a “influencer giving young people from modest backgrounds the keys to studies and employment”, will for example be supported for a year by a CMA CGM employee, as part of a skills sponsorship, in an incubator in the northern districts. And because the company cannot miss the Pope’s arrival in Marseille, CMA CGM is providing financial assistance, in particular so that Francis’ popemobile ride can finally take place on Saturday September 23, on Avenue du Prado…
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“Marseille finally has its captain of industry”
Jean-Luc Chauvinpresident of the Marseille-Provence Chamber of Commerce and Industry
“Marseille houses or has housed the headquarters of leading companies, such as Sodexo (collective catering) or Onet (cleanliness and security), but it had never known, before the rise of CMA CGM, a champion of a such scale. A champion who is very involved in local development. After purchasing Ceva Logistics in 2019, the group repatriated the headquarters of this company from Switzerland. He also requires certain companies with which he contracts to set up teams in Marseille. And when he launched a network of incubators, this is where the first one opened. Marseille finally has its captain of industry. »
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