Company founder Bodo Knop has stepped down from the company’s management as of October 1, 2023.
On the sidelines of this year’s BCO Conference in Antwerp, XSTAFF GmbH announced that Bodo Knop, Managing Partner and founder of the company, will step down from the management board for private reasons, effective October 1, 2023. In the future, the operational business will be led by the two Managing Partners Stephan Schiller as Spokesman of the Executive Board and Antonios Rigalos. Bodo Knop will remain with XSTAFF as a shareholder in an advisory capacity.
Since its founding in the fall of 2016, Bodo Knop has been at the helm as Managing Director of the company, which in just seven years has developed from an innovative start-up to a globally active group of companies with around 50 members from industry and trade. A success story that the 46-year-old played a key role in shaping and for whose achievements Stephan Schiller found words of recognition and thanks in Antwerp: “With expertise, commitment and drive, he made the company what it is today. It all started with him, and without him, neither of us would be standing here today to take over the baton.”
On track for success even in times of crisis
The bundling concept developed by Bodo Knop was and still is the cornerstone of the corporate strategy of XSTAFF, which was founded on the initiative of the two trading companies COOP Swiss and the Belgian Colruyt Group. Under his leadership, the company developed in just a few years into a powerful cooperative in which companies in the shipping industry, the so-called BCOs (Beneficial Cargo Owners), pool transport volumes in order to achieve fair conditions in line with the market from a better negotiating position in talks with shipping companies and other logistics service providers.Major milestones along the way were the founding of Cross Staff Iberia in 2017 as a joint venture between Noatum Maritime and XSTAFF AG (now GmbH), the expansion of the founding board to include the two Spanish fashion companies Mango and Tendam (2018), the founding of another joint venture between Unitrans Group Shanghai and Cross Staff Asia Pacific (2019), and the expansion of the network to include branches in Katowice/Poland (2021) and Hamburg/Germany (2022). The company also survived difficult times such as the Corona years, military conflicts and economic bottlenecks unscathed under the leadership of Bodo Knop, not least thanks to his prudent and people-oriented management, which was always important to him: “Ultimately, the strength of organizations and especially people only become apparent in a crisis. That’s why it’s also so important to keep an eye on their needs and philosophy of life, because despite digitalization and automation, we will never be able to disregard the human factor.”
XSTAFF: Well, positioned for the future.
Around 50 members from trade and industry, a tightly knit logistics network with just as many network partners and just under 100,000 TEU cargo volumes – XSTAFF GmbH is well prepared for the economic, ecological, and political challenges of the present and future. These include the effects of demographic change and technological changes, as well as the need to map the entire value chain as a provider of logistics services, including the last mile. Complex scenarios that Bodo Knop is calm about for good reason: “With co-partners Stephan Schiller and Antonios Rigalos, two experienced leaders who share my vision and in whom I have absolute trust are taking over the reins. I am sure they will bring the great potential of XSTAFF to even greater fruition.” After 18 years of entrepreneurship, he himself will initially devote himself more to private issues but will continue to fulfill his duties as a shareholder with expertise, commitment and verve.
