Wirtschaftsforum: Dr. Reinhardt, with DG Nexolution Procurement & Logistics GmbH, your group has been ready for 'the next smart thing' for a year now - what mission is behind this step?

Dr. Sandro Reinhardt: The field of activity of DG Nexolution eG has been closely intertwined with the cooperative financial group for over 100 years – a connection that, of course, remains intact. At the same time, as part of this commitment, particularly with the strict regulatory requirements in the banking sector in mind, we have developed extensive expertise that also meets strong demand among a wider customer base. We now want to offer these competencies outside the cooperative world as well. 

Wirtschaftsforum: To what extent does the cooperative approach of DG Nexolution shape your company beyond your customer structure?

Dr. Sandro Reinhardt: I believe that our cooperative structure leads us to act very values-oriented. Firstly, this coincides with a strong customer orientation because we consistently think long-term instead of in individual quarters. Secondly, it also involves a strong network approach. The realization that one cannot do everything on their own is an essential part of our DNA. Cooperatives have always seen themselves as part of a greater whole and have confidently relied on strong partners to thus play out their own capabilities more decisively. Especially in times when all market participants experience rapid technological and economic upheavals, this belief is an important foundation to remain capable of acting in the long term – and to tirelessly drive forward our own technological development. 

Wirtschaftsforum: At the same time, with your triad of procurement, e-commerce, and logistics, you cover a very extensive range of services.

Andreas Malorny: This is crucial for our sustainable success – because it allows us to participate at various points in the value chain depending on the configuration of customer requirements. Often, we do not appear as a singular logistics provider, but rather as a long-term technology partner, providing our clients with a holistic e-commerce solution including the resultant logistics – this involves not only managing the respective e-shop appearance but also handling the entire logistics of all articles sold through it right up to returns management and setting up a support function. Moreover, one of our partners has even outsourced their entire inventory along with procurement responsibility to us – in this context, our shop solution serves the entire needs of the customer and bills down to the cost center, which is made possible by comprehensive integration into their ERP system. Thus, we can offer a substantial share of value creation entirely as a Service – without this close integration of procurement, e-commerce, and logistics, and our strong technology competence, this would never have been possible.

Wirtschaftsforum: What are the most powerful cross-cutting issues that arise from the connection of procurement, e-commerce, and logistics for your company?

Andreas Malorny: In most use cases, our diverse expertise allows us to contribute to improving the sustainability balance at more than one critical point: it starts with procurement, where we place high demands on our suppliers and their range of products, and also extends to the optimization of logistic processes, where we apply strict criteria in the selection of packaging materials and the choice of the right freight carrier. Also, in the e-commerce segment, there are numerous levers to effectively reduce the CO2 footprint – such as suggesting sustainable product alternatives to the end customer in the shop environment with the greatest possible transparency and consolidating shopping carts to fewer shipments if necessary.

Wirtschaftsforum: What developments will DG Nexolution Procurement & Logistics experience in the coming years – and how do you intend to position the company in the market long-term?

Andreas Malorny: We certainly want to emphasize our holistic approach even more – some of our customers are already using the full range of our toolkit, while others only use individual elements from it. Our goal is to create even greater customer benefit through further innovations. Therefore, we have been relying on the support of AI in logistics, procurement, and e-commerce sectors for quite some time now, to ensure even more stringent processes.

Dr. Sandro Reinhardt: Before working for DG Nexolution, I had been actively involved in the corporate environment. I ended up in medium-sized businesses rather by chance – and since then, my heart has been dedicated to enabling medium-sized companies to do everything that was previously only possible for large market players. For a year now, as a start-up within the structures of the cooperative financial group, we have been relentlessly pursuing this goal – and will continue to develop relentlessly.