History

The business was founded in Vienna by Mr Riccardo Gropaiz as an agency of Billitz Trieste. The forwarding agency was established in Vienna’s 1st district, Am Trattnerhof 3.

The main activity lies in representing and supporting the historic transports of refractory bricks, paper and southern fruit. For decades we have been cooperating with the leading Austrian refrectories company “Österr, Amerikanische Magnesit AG”, later called “RADEX und Veitscher Magnesitwerke AG”, one of our major contractual partners. The national companies and the companies abroad are being incorporated in the RHI AG group. The company intends to act as independently and expanding its contacts to northern ports. The first independent transport consists of Austrian wooden houses that are shipped to Peshawar, Pakistan via Trieste in full charter.

The company continues with the policies, also supplying shipment via Adriatic ports. Billitz Vienna now also concentrates on rail freight.

The 70ies are one of the most intensive years in the sector of shipment. The company is striving to offer a complete service package for its customers. We are working on the transport of Kaolin, a mineral essential for the Austrian paper industry, from England via Lübeck , or alternatively per rail via the Eastern route, to Austria. Agricultural transport from South America for the Austrian importers “Brüder Herrnfeld”, as well as shipment from Turkey to Rijeka for the company “Österreichische Magnesitwerke” are transacted on a large scale. In these years we also experienced the beginning of containerization which is a revolutionary innovation for forwarding businesses. It is the beginning of logistic concepts.

The 80ies are characterized by the traditional transports of our main customers in the magnesite and paperindustry. The transport of southern fruit has increased. 20,000 tons are distributed per year. Today it is interesting to see that most goods were transported by rail. In the mid 80ies the transport of hazardous material and sensitive goods is taken up. These transports are conducted by rail, road, waterway and air. At the end of the 80ies, a time of political and economic change, Billitz starts to specialize in three fields of transport.

The three main fields of transport Billitz is now focusing on, are bulk, hazardous goods and ??project transports. In addition to the regular transports our customers are offered the possibility of partial and full charter per waterway and air mostly concerning the following products: refractories, agricultural fodder, cotton, perborates, cellulose, plants and equipment, and special goods. The ISO certification is successfully introduced, and adapted to the market through constant audits, which result in a high customer satisfaction.

New logistic challenges of various products turn our previous traffic concepts upside down. Vienna is very active in the field of domestic shipment. This has led to a close cooperation with a shipment company. The pre-carriage and on-carriage bulk is not only transported by rail but also by combined transport. Exact timing in our logistics is of highest importance. The transport of hazardous goods does not only deal with the transport and the logistics but also offers the customer a 5-point package including all essential criteria for instance preparatory training for hazardous material, transport, logistics, ADR-emergency service and a commissioner.

At the turn of 2010/2011 a new branch was opend in Krems/Donau. We want to complete our range of services with a focus on land transport - domestic, West-/East-/South-Europe. Thus, we as Billitz Group Austria and Hungary, can offer our customers not only dangerous goods, bulk cargo, but also consolidation services, partial and full loads, removals, heavy haulage and storage business.

2012, the foundations were laid for expansion in Eastern Europe. By April 2013 a partnership with the Bulgarian forwarding PROXIMA BG Sofia could be fixed. It is here to focus on transport of dangerous goods to / from / through Bulgaria. Further collaborations with freight forwarding offices in Romania are in negotiation.

In 2016 there were two celebrations: Billitz was 65 and Dr. Franco Gropaiz (founder-family from Triest) was 80 years old. This occasions were celebrated on a small scale at the Hotel Sacher in Vienna.

In order to emphasize the already almost branded name BILLITZ, we have decided to change our company name from Alessandro Billitz Nachfolger GmbH to Billitz GmbH. Since the beginning of 2017, all modifications have been completed and we are looking more closely at the new challenges.

Through the steady expansion of our third sector, the dangerous goods advice, we are setting new quality standards. True to our motto "all from one source", we offer service on the highest level.