THE INTERPARKING GROUP
Top quality car parks for the customers’ benefit
For over 50 years, the Interparking Group has been consolidating its position as an acknowledged expert in the design, development and operation of off-street public car parks for the benefit of over 50 million customers a year.
The Interparking Group helps to take the pressure off urban spaces in approximatively 350 towns in which it is present today. Adding up all of the car parks at airports, hospitals and shopping centers that Interparking operates on the outskirts of those cities, this makes more than 481 car parks totalling some 250.000 parking spaces (76,000 on-street parking spaces) in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Spain, France, Italy and the Netherlands that generate a turnover of over 240 million euros. This puts Interparking among the top three in the European market in this sector.
From Belgium to Europe
Spread across 7 countries, the Interparking Group is the only company whithin its industry able to claim a genuine European presence. As the undisputed leader in Belgium, the Interparking Group is constantly looking to expand internationally. Today more than 60% of Interparking's turnover comes from other countries. Through its subsidaries of the Contipark Group, Interparking is now number one on the German market. By managing railway station car parks through its joint venture with Deutsche Bahn (the German railway), the Group has proved its potential as a key player in mobility infrastructure. The Contipark Group is also a reputed name in Austria, where it is present in towns such as Salzburg, Vienna and Lintz.
In Spain, the Interparking Group has carved out an excellent place for itself thus ensuring a significant presence in cities such as Madrid, Barcelona and Bilbao.
The Interparking Group also operates under its own name in France (formerly Uniparc and Codeparc) and the Netherlands.
In Italy, the Interparking Group has been managing car parks in Venice and Rome since the end of the 1990s and has been managing and controlling over 62,000 on-street parking spaces in 150 towns in Tuscany, Sicily, Umbria and Apulia.
Avant-garde car parks for 50 years
Long gone are the times when a car park was merely somewhere to leave your car. As the years go by, new standards of comfort and security naturally come to the fore.
Both in terms of new car parks and through a policy of systematically upgrading old ones, the Group is constantly making significant advances: more room for easy manoeuvring, pleasant pedestrian access points, welcoming floor and wall surfaces and decor, a suitable level of lighting, the availibility of staff and effective surveillance systems and services, as well as electronic guidance are now very much a part of what the public can expect from the Group's car parks.
To lead the way day to day
The Interparking Group stands out from its competitors due to its full mastery of the three key elements of the car park profession in Europe: construction and financing, urban integration and management of a secure car park network at European level.
- With regard to construction and financing, the Interparking Group has nearly 50 years of proven experience acquired through several hundred projects undertaken within Europe. The Group has built up extensive know-how over the years. Each project, each development calls for full mastery of knowledge of urban planning, and of statistical, strategic, economic, technical and financial skills that are the prerequisites for ensuring that a site successfully fulfils its role as a public car park. The Interparking Group is constantly incorporating key state-of-the-art features into its new car parks and its older car parks as part of its policy of systematic upgrading. Highly manoeuvrable spaces, pleasant pedestrian entrances, welcoming floor coatings and decoration, adequate lighting, availability of staff, effective surveillance systems, electronic guidance, and licence-plate recognition are now some of the services to be found in the Group's car parks.
- With regard to urban integration, the Group focuses on maximising cooperation with the other players involved in mobility infrastructure and town planning. It has, for example, become a key partner in 335 European towns, 7 hospitals, 29 shopping centres, the Brussels Airport and 163 railway stations. The Interparking Group is renowned for specialising in the development of public car parks and is therefore the preferred partner of public authorities seeking to implement urban landscaping policies. The Group is keen to integrate its car parks into towns by designing them so that they are neither obvious nor obtrusive and that makes it possible to preserve and enhance a town’s tourist and cultural attractions and the quality of life offered. Its success with urban integration is demonstrated by the presence of Interparking car parks in towns such as Bruges, Salzburg, Speyer and Groningen. All these towns have sought to have been able to allocate appropriate urban space to cars for the benefit of all concerned.
- Finally, Interparking manages, 24/7, a truly European network of wholly owned secure car parks in seven countries. Its presence at European level fosters a constant interchange of experiences between the Interparking Group and its 1,800 staff on matters such as the design, construction and management of car parks, to the benefit of its 50 million customers. The Interparking network is constantly looking to provide maximum satisfaction to its visitors, by reducing the stress of looking for a parking space and by providing easy access to well-lit, clean, and secure parking areas with a constant human presence and state-of-the-art security systems combined with highly affordable prices and pricing packages. In particular, the Interparking Group offers a range of products through its subsidiary Servipark. The P Card gives private individuals and professionals immediate access to car parks without the need to go to payment kiosks, saving them time and making it easier for their accounting.
A sound Group with long-standing experience
In a market that is constantly developing and growing, the Interparking Group has opted to focus on its core activity and not only to act as an operator but also to invest heavily in its sites. This long-term strategy gives its real-estate partners, even those who only want to commit to the Group in the short term, the assurance that they are dealing with an operator that is fully aware not only of the need to maximize investment in the short term but also of the need to conserve and enhance the value of the property in the long term. To design, put in place and/or manage car parks in its own name or on behalf of real-estate partners, be they public or private, calls for a combination of highly diverse know-how and skills. Each project and each infrastructure calls for full mastery of the urban planning, statistical, strategic, economic, technical and financial skills that are the prerequisites for ensuring that a site successfully fulfils its role as a public car park. Bringing together and coordinating state-of-the-art skills cannot be achieved by spreading them thin. Our public and private-sector partners realise this.
The added value contributed by a group such as Interparking is that it provides the owners of the car parks it manages with the assurance that the takings are managed transparently, reliably and even with foresight, thanks notably to the use of state-of-the-art computer systems and audits. As a result of its simple and flexible structure, the Interparking Group is able to offer reliable and imaginative co-operation to its partners. In addition to the administrative side of operations, this co-operation can include maintenance contracting, performance monitoring, repairs and other trouble-shooting activities.
The Group’s key strength is undoubtedly the fact that the skills it possesses cover every possible segment. There are specialists for everything, that is to say each stage in the lifespan of a car park, from beginning to end. The unrivalled experience that has been built up by the Group enables it to provide its partners with full mastery of all the specialisations required to put in place and make optimum use of public car parks. From the siting study, through design, financing, construction and site coordination, to management, it constantly ensures that its skills are honed to the highest level.
A key player in urban mobility: 30% fewer traffic jams!
We have to rise to the challenge of providing for cars in town. The one cannot live without the other for a very simple reason: if we claim that cars will kill the city, we forget that without cars, the city loses its power of attraction and ends up dying...
This applies in terms of accessibility, of course, but also to the commercial life and soul of the city. If our city centres want to fight against the increasing competition from the outskirts of town towards which much of the city's economic activity is moving (warehouses, zoning, etc.), and especially if they want to win back their share of the four tons of miscellaneous goods that each household buys on average every year, the right conditions must be in place.
Preferably by using private funds, so that a maximum amount of community resources can be used to develop public areas, the public authorities can promote the building of underground public car parks, which will then return the streets and squares to pedestrians, ease traffic at ground level and free up spaces on the roadway that are essential for loading and unloading goods.
The Interparking Group shares the view of public authorities that in addition to safe and efficient public transport, promoting the city needs to include the best possible traffic and parking management. In particular, if a town is famous for historic or cultural attractions (and so by definition not designed to cope with modern mobility requirements), only discreet and non-disruptive car parks can help preserve or strengthen both quality of life and tourist attractions.
The Interparking Group is particularly experienced in this regard, with a presence in cities such as Bruges, Salzburg, Speyer, Groningen, etc - all of which have made a concerted effort to put the car in its place as part of the urban environment to the significant benefit of one and all.
The Interparking Group is a partner in urban mobility policies within Europe directed towards providing urban living areas that are more easily accessible, more secure, more lively and more environmentally friendly. The latest Mobility studies confirm that car parks can reduce city centre traffic jams by 30%. Slowing of traffic in towns is, indeed, primarily caused by cars going round and round in search of a place to park. By going directly to an off-street car park with the number of free spaces clearly indicated on all the access roads, contributes significantly to reducing urban congestion.
The Group cooperates fully with other mobility and inter-modal infrastructure policy players with a view to making towns ever more accessible. This concern is mirrored by its slogan: “With Interparking take the city the right way!".
No fewer than 335 towns, 22 business centres, 7 hospitals, 29 shopping centres, 25 tourist and seaside resorts coordinate with the Interparking Group in making towns ever more accessible. An excellent example of the key role played by Interparking in policies that make towns more accessible is the joint venture concluded in 2005 with the Deutsche Bahn for the management of car parks located near the 5,000 railway stations in Germany.
The Group also contributes towards making towns safer, more lively and more agreeable to live in for its inhabitants and for its visitors, be they on business or on holiday. By helping to overcome fear of the town and feelings of insecurity by providing clean and monitored car parks with a musical atmosphere that is reassuring, Interparking helps to prevent the shift to the outskirts and contributes to the development of commercial hubs and living spaces in towns.
The Interparking Group has become a preferred partner for businesses wanting to set up partnerships directed towards promoting commercial hubs close to car parks.
Interparking is also developing a series of partnerships with the organisers of key events in the towns in which it is present.
Made-to-measure car parks
Alongside city centres with a commercial, cultural or historical focus, public car parks have also become essential components in the transport of infrastructure, just like stations and airports.
Each of these various functions requires a level of design and management that the interparking Group is able to provide.
While cars may no longer fully meet the demands for mobility and speed of business people for travelling to distant places, they nevertheless remain the preferred if not the only means of reaching the transport infrastructures.
Major railway stations tend to attract international traffic and airports have to be equipped with effective car parks with a design and method of operation that are suited to the specific needs of their users: longer-term use requiring a greater degree of security, the right fee levels, ease of access, comfortable transfers, reservations, facilities for transporting luggage, etc.
All of which can make the difference in the eyes of users and may even be determining in their choice of transport!
The Interparking Group also applies its skills to property construction, bringing its management experience and imagination to more specialised projects.
A hospital car park is a very specific example of design and usage approach. It has to provide solutions to a variety of specific requirements: those of patients coming by car for a long, short or even undefinded stay in hospital; those of of their family and friends coming to visit at specific times, those of the hospital staff, or the surgeon called in for an emergency!
In the same way, car parks serving conference centres (for example, the Group has car parks at top locations, such as the Palais du Festival in Cannes, the Congress Centrum in Hamburg or the International Congress Center in Berlin) or shopping centres have to meet specific requirements.
The design and construction of these facilities requires highly specific skills. Specialist teams within the Interparking Group are fully capable of organising these facilities and providing the best possible standard of management on an ongoing or turnkey basis.
Managing a car park is anything but simple. This very different trade requires a level or professional skill that the Interparking Group, more than any other, is able to provide.
The Group's savoir faire is based on sound experience that enables it to provide its partners with skilled management and staff capable of optimising their investment and of course making it cost effective. Operational management includes defining the operation terms for the car park, as well as setting parking rates, opening hours and customer services - all of which require very close attention.
Car parks for the customers’ benefit
The services offered have to be modular to cater for the target customer's need. The secure, high-surveillance VIP and Lock Park car parks at Brussels Airport that offer rigorous guarding services are a good example of what can be achieved through the technology developed by the Interparking Group. More generally, Interparking Group seeks to ensure that all of its car parks are safer to use than on-street parking. And this is backed by the statistics.
Electronic equipment has an increasingly important role to play in the Group’s car parks, in particular for automated payments and surveillance. This calls for trained staff and for car parks that are genuinely at the service of the customer with a high-visibility team that is attentive to the needs of their users.
In 2007, Interparking launched the Interparking School to improve the skills of its staff on an ongoing basis. Each Interparking employee has a continuous training programme covering areas as diverse as customer reception, management techniques and even fire fighting and prevention. The professionalism of Interparking staff has been acknowledged, with the European Parking Award being awarded three times: Front Park I at Brussels Airport, the Bruges Station Car Park and the Ghent "Zuid" Car Park.
Key figures (2009)
Interparking is part of Fortis Real Estate, an international financial services provider active in the field if insurance, banking and investment.
- Operating profit: 284.3
- Operating Results: 65.4
- Consolidated profit: 25.5
- Net current cash flow: 68.2
- Total equity capital: 289.9
- Equity capital of the Group: 284.0
- Profit for the year (Group share): 24.8
- Total assets: 670.3
- Liabilities: 359.0