10 years Donau Trucks: From 3 to 100 trucks

the story of a successful company

The beginning is in 2012 – the CEO Edi Mateosyan goes to Deggendorf to visit a friend and is impressed by the city. Located on the Danube, beautiful and calm, it grabs him with its charisma.

At that time, Mr. Mateosyan is already the CEO of a very successful company for import and sale of heavy trucks in Bulgaria – Fenix Trucks, and wants to expand the business to a larger market. Having spent his university years in Düsseldorf, Edi is raised by German culture and considers the country his second home. For this reason, he turns to Germany as the base for the new venture.

One visit to Deggendorf is the key. Deggendorf has always been a strategically important location – once a trade centre where the Isère River connected Lower Bavaria with the Danube and the rail traffic, now it’s the link between the motorways to Regensburg, Passau and Munich. Edi appreciates the good conditions and decides that this is the place where he will locate his next holding company - Donau Trucks.

"I love the surroundings! I like the tranquillity, the good transport connections and the nearby port. When Fenix Trucks became successful in Bulgaria, it was time for growth. After the years I spent in Germany, it was clear to me that the next step would be here. After visiting Deggendorf, I had no doubt that this is the right place," said Edi Mateosyan.

In the late spring of 2012, the CEO returns to Deggendorf and founds Donau Trucks GmbH. He starts with a team of two people, three trucks and a small piece of land. In the beginning, the truck yard is just a parking lot - no fence, no lighting - a piece of rented land with an empty hall next to it to clean the trucks. But as the years go by, Donau Trucks grows quickly - the interest in the company is increasing, so is the number of trucks, the property area is getting bigger. In 2014, the team already consists of 8 people and the number of trucks has increased to 80 by the end of 2018.

Of course, not everything has always gone according to plan. In 2013, one of the worst floods the region has seen in years threatened to overflow our car park, but the city raised the river wall and the car park was saved. There are challenges in every business, but we don't give up. The Covid 19 crisis is perhaps the most recent example. Like any other company, we are feeling the effects of the pandemic, but we are quickly adapting our business model. We are optimizing it and changing the way we work, which helps us handle the situation.

Today, the auto park of Donau Trucks is located on an area of almost one hectare, where more than 100 trucks of different models and years of construction are offered for sale. This year, our CEO signed the lease agreement for the land, securing the future of the company for the next 20 years in Deggendorf, because this is the home of Donau Trucks - the place where the team and the trucks are at home.