The two major freight forwarders have successively acquired
Two well-known European freight forwarders, DACHSER and GEODIS, achieved expansion of coverage network and upgrading of business capabilities through acquisitions respectively. At present, the international shipping market is gradually returning to rationality. However, due to the continuous increase of global inflationary pressure and geopolitical risks, the market still faces multiple challenges. Against this background, further consolidating and improving the market position, and strengthening the team’s business capabilities, so as to better serve customers and maintain corporate profitability has become the key to victory in shipping logistics tracking. Horizontal mergers and acquisitions between enterprises have always been one of the important ways to quickly obtain these key advantages. International freight forwarding and logistics companies seem to have set off a new wave of mergers and acquisitions these days.
On March 14, DACHSER, a well-known European freight forwarder, announced that it has acquired ACA International, a sea and air freight forwarder, and integrated it into DACHSER Oceania. According to the announcement issued by DACHSER, ACA International is a private company founded in 1982, headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with offices in 6 cities in Australia and New Zealand, mainly providing comprehensive international freight services for customers in Australia and New Zealand.
Edoardo Podestà, chief operating officer of DACHSER air and ocean logistics and general manager of air and ocean logistics in Asia Pacific, said that the acquisition will enable DACHSER’s ocean and air logistics network to cover Australia and New Zealand, thereby filling DACHSER’s Australia and New Zealand business shortcomings. Coincidentally, another well-known freight forwarding company headquartered in Europe has also made frequent moves in the field of acquisitions in order to strengthen its operating network. GEODIS, the world’s 13th largest ocean freight forwarder and the 17th largest air freight forwarder has successively acquired two companies recently. By acquiring two freight forwarding and logistics companies, it has strengthened its operation network in Europe and strengthened its service capabilities in the main market.
On March 13, GEODIS announced that it has acquired the French freight company Transports DEVOLUY. GEODIS announced that the acquisition consolidated the company’s operating network in some regions of France, strengthened the distribution and express delivery department, and improved the last-mile delivery capacity. Transports DEVOLUY is a family business established in 1932. Stéphane Cassagne, CEO of GEODIS France, said that Transports DEVOLUY’s professional freight skills and service quality are worthy of recognition. As a long-term partner of GEODIS, the acquisition of Transports DEVOLUY makes it a part of GEODIS, which will deepen the foundation of successful cooperation between the two parties.
In addition, on March 7, GEODIS also announced the completion of the acquisition of trans-o-flex, a German pharmaceutical temperature-controlled logistics company. The acquisition will make GEODIS one of the important players in the medical logistics market and will significantly increase the company’s delivery capabilities in Europe, especially in Germany, one of the main markets, providing fast and reliable transportation services. According to reports, trans-o-flex was founded in 1971. It is a professional logistics company in the field of healthcare. It has the largest temperature-controlled distribution team in Germany. It has nearly 2,000 employees, 77 points, and warehouses in Germany and Austria, and has established its own service network to provide temperature-controlled logistics solutions.
Marie-Christine Lombard, CEO of GEODIS, said that the acquisition of trans-o-flex has greatly increased GEODIS’s share in the core market, and at the same time can further consolidate the market position of trans-o-flex in Germany, and will make trans-o-flex market share expanded to more countries in Europe. GEODIS also said that the integration of the trans-o-flex business will further strengthen GEODIS’ existing freight forwarding business and contract logistics business. Leveraging trans-o-flex’s strengths and resources will create opportunities for both companies. After the completion of the acquisition, trans-o-flex will continue to retain an independent brand, all management will remain in office, and Wolfgang P. Albeck will continue to be the chief executive officer and operate under the supervisory board with Marie-Christine Lombard as the chairman.
In fact, news of mergers and acquisitions of European and American freight forwarding companies has been heard in the past three years. However, judging from the current acquisitions of DACHSER and GEODIS, this round of mergers and acquisitions seems to have spread from leading companies to medium-sized freight forwarding companies. The current merger and integration tendency of freight forwarding companies can be divided into two types: one is reinforcement, that is, through the acquisition of other companies, consolidate the market position and widen the scale gap with other freight forwarding companies. The other is to make up for weaknesses, that is, to make up for shortcomings and enter new fields by acquiring professional logistics companies in some subdivided fields, or by acquiring excellent operators in markets that they have not focused on.
In the past few years, freight forwarding companies have made high profits along with the booming shipping market. Therefore, by expanding their business scale and business capabilities, these companies have acquired some advantageous logistics companies in subdivided industries to strengthen their global logistics layout and operating capabilities. So, those acquired companies usually have stable customers in the corresponding segmented industries, can provide professional services, and can further expand the market scale after being acquired by a more famous company.
