Rail Logistics Europe formalizes the creation of two new companies. In early 2025, two new companies, Hexafret, a rail freight operator, and Technis, a locomotive maintenance company, will take over from Fret SNCF, France’s incumbent rail freight operator, as part of Rail Logistics Europe.
This transformation means that Fret SNCF will not have to repay the €5.3 billion debt covered by the European Commission's investigation into the French State for distorting competition. It also strengthens the prospects for sustainable growth of rail freight activities within the SNCF Group, in the context of the major challenges of decarbonizing logistics chains.
Specializing in wagon groupage in France, Hexafret 's ambition is to encourage the modal shift from road to rail and to export its unique know-how beyond its borders. Technis' mission is to provide high-performance, accessible maintenance that optimizes locomotives for competitive, forward-looking freight, with a strategic presence on France's main rail freight routes and a commitment to developing innovative services. The two new companies are expected to generate cumulative revenues of more than €700 million in 2025. This is almost as much as Fret SNCF will generate in 2023 before the impact of the discontinuity.
„I have no doubt that the presentations of the new Hexafret and Technis offers in early 2025 will appeal to our customers. The new, fully-fledged Rail Logistics Europe Group will finance the development of its subsidiaries and generate synergies to remain one of the major players in environmentally friendly overland freight transport,“ said Frédéric Delorme CEO of Rail Logistics Europe.
The two new companies will be directly integrated into Rail Logistics Europe, which on 1 January will become a full-fledged group with a turnover target of almost €1.9 billion in 2025 (compared with €1.5 billion in 2020, the year SA Fret SNCF was created). The group will be made up of a holding company and 6 brands with complementary skills: Hexafret and Captrain as railway companies, Technis as locomotive maintainers, Forwardis as freight forwarders, and VIIA and Naviland Cargo as experts in combined road-rail transport.
