In an interview with PropertyEU at Expo Real, Apcoa CEO Philippe Op de Beeck said that under this new initiative, car parks could be used not only for charging electric vehicles, but also for car renting and sharing, scooter renting, any distribution of goods, and temporary storage.

‘Apcoa is a conversation partner for all logistics companies, but also for instance for car companies,’ Op de Beeck said. With the increasing switch to electric vehicle use, Apcoa and its parking operations are especially well positioned for offering charging points, noted Op de Beeck, who is at Expo Real to promote the Urban Hubs concept.

Apcoa has 1.5 million parking spaces across 12,000 sites in 13 countries. Its biggest market - where its headquarters is also based - is Germany. The firm also operates car parks in the Nordics, Austria, Switzerland, Benelux, Italy, Poland, Ireland, and the UK, with leading positions in nearly all of its markets.

In Poland, Apcoa’s historic growth rate is more than 30%. The compound annual growth rate of the entire Apcoa Parking Group on the other hand is 12% for the 5 years leading up to the crisis.

The firm was heavily affected by the pandemic. Italy, a big market for the company, was impacted at an early stage and saw business drop about 70%. March and April of last year showed the steepest decline, and after that business went up and down. Remarkably, Apcoa still had revenues equalling 75% of the previous year and even made a small profit.

Since countries have been opening up again everywhere, the firm has seen a good recovery and improvement in all sectors. ‘We expect 2022 to be a better year than 2019,’ Op de Beeck said.