These “semi-knocked-down” (SKD) vehicles then travel to Bulgaria in groups of three with two of the vehicles stacked upon the lowest vehicle, which acts as the means of transport. In Burgas, Bulgaria’s fourth largest city, Kögel’s agent Unitrailer, continues with the further assembly of the vehicles. Customers in Bulgaria benefit from the lower transport costs, faster delivery times, and from having a competent contact partner who speaks their own language. In addition to Bulgaria, Kögel already has SKD centres in Russia, Portugal, and Spain.
Unitrailer, formerly known as Elia Trans, has been Kögel’s dealer in Bulgaria since 2001, and its employees know Kögel trailers down to the tiniest detail. Unitrailer employees were trained at the factory in Burtenbach on how to carry out the final assembly of the trailers. If necessary, the assembly workers have access to detailed assembly instructions and a direct line of contact to Kögel’s factory, too. Unitrailer anticipates that it will carry out the final assembly of around 110 Kögel trailers at its workshops during the first year. In the years to come, it plans to increase numbers of assembly personnel and to expand final assembly operations to grow into a fully fledged Kögel SKD centre with a spare parts warehouse so that neighbouring countries such as Turkey, Greece, and Romania can benefit from the scheme, too.
