Leadership Award is presented to The Raben Group

London, UK, 1 June 2005…The 2005 Frost & Sullivan Customer Service Leadership Award is presented to The Raben Group for its exceptional performance in the Polish and eastern European logistics markets. Outstanding responsiveness to customer needs, a continual focus on long and short-term customer profitability goals and proven flexibility in offering bespoke, value-added services to clients underpin The Group’s receipt of this award. Value-added promotional support has been key to the company’s competitive success. “As the market in central and eastern Europe becomes more price-competitive, Raben offers incentives to some customers as a result of reaching a given turnover,” explains Mr. Sharat Satyanarayana, Senior Research Analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “The company co-operates with customers on a bonus system related to key performance indicators (KPIs).” As part of Raben’s emphasis on strengthening its existing customer base, it has often compromised on its margins to develop new business relationships with its clients. At the same time, the company has worked hard to win new customers with innovative, client-focused offerings. The Raben Group has leveraged IT to provide efficient and effective services to its customer base in Poland and surrounding countries. A system of ‘track and trace’ for export shipments from Poland, provision of Radio Frequency (RF) scanning in their warehouses for select operations and an EDI interface in the transportation and warehouse management business segments for facilitating tracing and managing of dispersed reporting across the supply chain by customers – all these demonstrate the comprehensive scope of the value-added technology and services that Raben provides its customers. Through rapid identification and response to emerging customer and market needs, the Raben Group has reinforced its business relationships with its customers. Over-night deliveries in Poland for automotive after-sales business, fresh product (requiring 2 to 6 degrees Celsius) supply chain including warehousing and distribution along with the use of mega trailers have served to underline Raben’s commitment to fulfilling customer needs. Moreover, following Poland’s accession to the EU in May 2004, the company prepared ‘Project Europe’ within 48 hours to support Polish exporters. Time to market is a critical factor in the logistics market. The Raben Group has endeavoured to maintain a general target of 97 per cent next day delivery within Poland. For key accounts, the group has typically aimed at 98 per cent accuracy in the time-to-market. The company has also made efforts to address its customers’ particular delivery needs. For instance, it delivers to retailers in agreed delivery slots. In presenting The Raben Group with the 2005 Customer Service Leadership Award for Poland and surrounding eastern European countries, Frost & Sullivan commends its excellence in value-added promotional support, the provision of value-added technology and services, responsiveness to customer needs, efficient time to market and the regular monitoring and addressing of customer feedback. “Continuous efforts in expanding its customer base by paying exclusive attention to customer service procedures are set to help The Raben Group join leading logistics service providers in eastern Europe and make it a worthy recipient of this award,” concludes Mr.Satyanarayana. About Frost & Sullivan Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community, by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com Frost & Sullivan Awards are presented to companies that demonstrate best practices in their industry, commending the diligence, commitment, and innovative business strategies required to advance in the global marketplace. Frost & Sullivan rigorously analyses specific criteria to determine award recipients in a broad spectrum of market industries and landscapes (www.frost.com). For further information, please contact: Magdalena Oberland Corporate Communications Frost & Sullivan P: +44 (0) 20 7915 7876 E: magdalena.oberland@frost.com