To ensure the fruits remain in optimum shape during the sea crossing, in January, 2018, Marfret invested in a fleet of 250 brand-new 40′ high-cube refrigerated containers. The containers, which provide a controlled atmosphere thanks to Starcool technology, have become an immediate hit with producers of avocados, the tender flesh of which is especially fragile.
TO “MEDITERRANEAN”
The Mediterranean Sea, cradle of civilizations and strategic axis for the movement of people and goods from both East and West, will soon have its verb. “To Mediterranean” has been submitted to the French Academy by the Art Revue Tête-à-Tête and we hope that it will soon appear in the dictionary.
Every day, we experience both otherness and proximity together as we move from one culture and another. As the Mediterranean Sea, so precious to Fernand Braudel, opens up to distant civilizations via the straits of Gibraltar, the Bosporus and the Suez Canal, to ‘Mediterranean’ is a verb not limited to the geographical area to which it refers.
To mediterranean is to put all your hopes on the other side, to migrate. This new verb means to feel a deep attachment to the shores of the Mediterranean, to feel at home there. It was in the spirit of this meaning that in 1951, Claude Vidil founded Marseille Fret and embarked on the adventure of tramp shipping across the Mediterranean – Algeria Tunisia, Libya, Middle East, Red Sea.
In 1987, he passed the torch onto his two sons and sent us to go ‘mediterraneaning’ elsewhere. Patiently, we have built new regular liner routes with Marfret on the major north-south maritime axes. With its containers, Marfret provides a direct and multimodal service.
For many years, Marfret has also been “méditerraneaning” in the Caribbean with Ferrymar and in the Pacific Islands. The sea is the path to the world, a playground for shipowners dedicated to strengthening commercial and cultural ties between continents. Maritime transport is not only a change of place, it is also a change of mind.
Our successful anchoring in Central and Latin America is the result of this desire for mutual understanding across cultures. Last November, Marfret invited our Colombian clients to discover “Romeo and Juliet”, performed by the Ballet Preljocaj in Bogota and Medellin.
Thirty-one years after the creation of Marfret, our family business has reached a new milestone. On the bridge, Guillaume Vidil has now taken the watch.
As the third generation of Vidils at the helm, he becomes the transformation of the company at a time and in a context where the values of family centred capitalism can act as a bulwark in defense against the troubles introduced by the globalization of our economies, which has faced much criticism both at home and abroad.
Guillaume Vidil, Managing Director of Marfret, will be able to continue the family legacy: its entrepreneurial spirit and without a doubt will also mediterranean in every sense!
Raymond VIDIL
Three questions to Guillaume Vidil, Managing Director of Marfret
At the age of 37, Guillaume Vidil, Managing Director of Fluviofeeder Armement, takes over the general management of Marfret.
The legal reorganization of the company was completed in May 2018, the date of Marfret’s General Meeting (AGM). Marfret became a SAS with a Supervisory Board in which Marseille Fret is the president and Guillaume Vidil the general manager.
You have been managing Marfret since May 2018. Have you been prepared since childhood to succeed your grandfather, father and uncle?
As a child, I dreamed of becoming an oceanographer and travelling the world to discover the oceans. It was implicit that I would one day take over the reins of the company and my grandfather was clearly keen for me to do so. During my high school years, I would have lunch with him every Tuesday and he would always ask me when I would take over the company! It was a kind of joke between us. Once I had the baccalaureate in my pocket, I passed the competition to get into the Ecole Nationale de la Marine Marchande. My first voyage as a student deck and engine officer was aboard an oceanographic research vessel for Genavir.
I then joined Marseille Fret as a junior officer, then as chief officer and as second engineer on container ships. After two years at sea, the Marfret newbuilds required monitoring at the Ulsan Shipyard in Ulsan, Korea. I participated in the delivery of the Marfret Guyana and Marajo and their maiden voyages before finally taking a break in 2009 after the naming ceremony of the Marfret Marajo. In my break year I travelled a lot. That’s when I became fully aware of my growing desire to join the family business. I had to give myself the means, serve my time, climb all the ladders and properly learn the business from the bottom up in order to become a fully legitimate business leader and not be considered to have reached such a position of authority only because I was “the son of”.
How has your career evolved at Marfret?
It started ashore in river transport as superintendent of the Fluviofeeder Armement (FFA) subsidiary. Since Genevilliers, I was in charge of the technical maintenance of the fleet of container barges. It was the discovery of the world of inland navigation. In 2011, I became branch manager and, a year later, I was director of Fluviofeeder Armament. In 2015, I retained my position as Managing Director of FFA whilst becoming Head of the Mediterranean Caribbean line.
My technical curriculum has been extended to include management training. Within IAE school, I discovered marketing, accounting, suppliers and customers! I am a member of the Association for the Progress of Management (APM), a club that brings together business leaders. But I consider that my training is not finished.
What is your vision for the future of the Marfret Group?
To organize the group’s development whilst also diversifying it. We are at the same time shipowners, freight forwarders, stevedores and shipping agents. For several months now, Marfret has been offering logistics and warehousing services as well. We have just experienced a business cycle marked by major mergers in maritime transport and the arrival of mega container ships. Many medium-sized companies have disappeared. Raymond and Bernard Vidil form a fantastic duo. Together they have been able to resist the anti-competitive trend of liner agglomeration and defend our company’s market positioning. I am taking up my new position at a time when Marfret is considering a redeployment both geographically and in terms of diversification into new businesses. I firmly believe in our teams’ capacity for innovation all the while remaining faithful to the company’s DNA, namely our proximity to, our listening to and understanding of and our availability to our customers.