“You’ll never know if it’ll work if you don’t give it a try.”
Great entrepreneurs stand out with their ability to take the right decisions at the right moment in time. Like Jakob Weets. The man from Emden worked his way up from being a qualified car mechanic to a successful entrepreneur. Because when the crucial moment arrived, he said: “I’m going to set up my own business!”
Elegant prevarication? Not with Jakob Weets, born in 1950. He speaks plainly, even when talking about himself. He was a “really lazy pupil”, he says with a grin. Not just a lazy pupil but a pretty poor one too, he adds. “School lessons were just not my thing”. In the end, the son from a working family in the Larrelt district of Emden just scraped through his school leaving examinations.
The rest of the self-made man’s life story is much more positive. After all, Jakob Weets has become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in Ostfriesland. He reckons that the workforce of around 550 employees working for his Weets Group that has specialised in providing logistics services generated an average annual turnover of more than 100 million Euro in recent years.
25,000 D-Marks for his first used truck
Back in the mid-1980s, no-one would have dreamt he would be successful. Jakob Weets had trained as a car mechanic. He subsequently put his military service to good use and obtained his truck, bus and tank driving licence. Later on, he found a job as truck driver for a local haulier. He was on the road nearly every day, transporting all kinds of goods right across Europe. In 1985, his boss asked him to give thought to restructuring the company, a task he took on willingly.
But the proprietor had no intention of giving him more responsibility as a result. Weets was just expected to get back behind the steering wheel again. “That was when I finally decided to go self-employed and start driving for my own account.” A brave jump in the deep end? “No, because I’d already got a number of highly promising, lucrative contacts and knew how the business worked.” And anyway: “You’ll never know if it’ll work if you don’t give it a try.”
Even so, before he could get his business started he needed a vehicle. Weets started looking and eventually found what he wanted at a dealership in nearby Ihlow. He put 25,000 D-Mark on the table for the second-hand Mercedes truck. It was a worthwhile investment, as there was no shortage of work. Soon he was driving regularly between Emden and Brussels and back, as well as transporting containers between Emden, Bremerhaven and Hamburg.
Although one of his first clients soon went into administration, the setbacks were few in number. Business went well, and just a few months after going self-employed it was clear that he needed a second truck, as well as an employee to take on some of the work. Weets found the right man: his first employee stayed with the company for 27 years. “Gut feeling!”, he says, still happy today with his business instinct, which incidentally rarely left him in the lurch as time went on.
From driver to boss
The fleet grew constantly in the years ahead. Up until the fifth truck was purchased, the boss was regularly to be found behind the steering wheel. “Weekends were then spent doing the office work.” But that was now no longer possible. When Volkswagen offered him a major contract, Weets reluctantly decided to stop working as a driver.
Apart from the occasional relapse, since then his main focus has been on taking care of the company’s strategic alignment. Aspects such as commissioning, warehousing and quality assurance grew increasingly significant. At the same time, during this period Weets established the prerequisites for the range of services provided by the company today, including standard curtainsiders and container logistics for road haulage as well as transport by rail and barge. Meanwhile the company has branch offices in Hamburg, Soltau and Wolfsburg. “We’ve always been guided by what our customers want”, says Weets in explaining the rapid development.
Lots of courage particularly at the start, together with a bit of luck and the necessary degree of strategic vision: is there anything else that has impacted on the entrepreneur’s career? According to Jakob Weets, reliability is one of his main virtues. “If I commit to something, then it gets done.” He also made an early start in establishing a network. This was based on always keeping his eyes and ears open. “That’s the quickest way to find out about new potential customers.” He also encourages his staff to be alert for any new possibilities of doing business.
En route for green logistics
Nearly every day, Jakob Weets occupies himself with the future of the industry. Actually, it has already begun in his company. He knows for sure that forwarding companies won’t run out of business. But there are many obstacles that keep on blocking the way: red tape of course, and also far too many roadworks, and ports operating at their absolute limit. The lack of qualified drivers is also a problem.
That’s why it’s so important to make sure the drivers already working for the company are kept happy by offering the best possible working conditions. Another approach is in training the next generation of drivers. This seems to be working well, with a constant number of applications for apprenticeships. In 2020, the company received the “Top Training” quality award from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry for Ostfriesland and Papenburg.
The entrepreneur was and is always open for innovation. He bought his first mobile phone, the legendary C1 by Siemens, way back in 1986. It’s hard to imagine today, but the bulky phone weighed around eight kilos. “I just had to be available 24/7 for my customers.”
Today he is interested in research into alternative vehicle powertrain systems. “We must make sure we don’t destroy the basic principles of our existence, we have to do everything we can to protect the environment and the climate”, says Weets, outing himself as a friend of “Green Logistics.” His aim is to convert the whole vehicle fleet from diesel to zero-emission drive systems by 2024. Reducing emissions is even anchored in the company mission statement. Furthermore, he has joined forces with other companies in Ostfriesland to found H2NORD. “Local hydrogen will let us stay fit for the future”, explains Weets. Meanwhile, 17 of altogether 80 trucks run on LNG.
And what does he think of electric trucks? That makes Weets frown. He’s rather sceptical. At the moment, they’re just not suitable for long routes in particular. A lot of development work and testing still needs to be done. On the other hand, he can certainly imagine them running on shorter distances. They’ll be testing two electric trucks in Emden in late 2023 or early 2024.
He’s not going to stop, just do a bit less
Next future topic: autonomous driving. Together with MAN Truck & Bus and HHLA (Hamburg port logistics company), a pilot project has been launched, with test drives taking place on the premises of Hamburg port. Jakob Weets is not quite sure what he thinks of it all. If indeed one day his semitrailer trucks really will be running on the motorways without a driver, it’s probably the workers who’ll suffer most. And they matter a great deal to the entrepreneur. After all, every morning he goes through the office and greets everyone in person.
Although the company founder is well over 70 years old, he has no intention of stopping. Instead, he’ll probably just do a little bit less. An extra day off during the week, a few hours less, and no work on Saturdays and Sundays. That’ll have to do for now. That should give Jakob Weets time for the good things in life. Like go-carting and running, for example. He is also involved in social and cultural activities. Every year he donates the screenplay award for the Emden-Norderney film festival.
Arrangements are already in place for his three children to take leading roles in the company one day. Julian, Sarina and Nicolas already work in the company – in logistics, marketing/HR and IT. After all, the next chapter in impressive history of the family company needs to be written.
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