Customs Clearance and Forwarding

Our success in the tobacco industry started with Ahlers Forwarding in the nineties. The most intensive activity is forwarding and customs clearance. Since the tobacco business includes expensive highly liquid (excise) goods, no need to explain that the risks are extremely high. Every delivery of cigarettes is accompanied by armed guards who need to be changed at every border linked to local license legislation. 

Storage and handling

Tobacco and its related products are stored and handled by Ahlers Logistics in multiple countries within the CIS. This includes all kinds of products: tobacco, cigarettes, ingredients for the production but also marketing material.

In 1997 the warehouse dedicated to the tobacco industry was only a few hundred square meters. Anno 2009 the counter is at more than 35,000 sqm spread over 5 locations, including value added logistics like pre-batching. 

Multimodal transport

Cigarettes were sent in containers from Antwerp to the port of St. Petersburg by vessel. From there the further distribution in transit by railway was organized to Almaty and other CIS destinations. Presently, Ahlers organizes yearly 7,000 shipments and 3,000 customs clearances. Sometimes even airfreight shipments need to be organized in case of urgent orders, including full plane chartering on

Tracking and Tracing – KPI’s

According to the legislation the exporter of excise cargo should stick on every item shipped excise stamps issued / registered by the country of the importer. In our case excise stamps are required on every package of cigarettes. Excise goods demand a high level of control; hence tracking and tracing were installed. The system allows via internet to follow every loading through key points (departure, border, transshipment, arrival). The tracking & tracing system facilitated the installment of operational KPI’s to measure the volumes, the quality and processes. An important function is data basing where the background of every shipment is stored.

Ahlers has developed a dedicated international tobacco team, specialized in the industry specific requirements, following the latest trends. Today we propose supply solutions to the top 3 of the tobacco industry.