The Rhenus Group is an international logistics service provider based in Holzwickede near Dortmund, Germany. The company has branches in Europe, India, North, Central and South America, Asia, Africa, and Oceania.Company profile – Rhenus SE & Co KG. Marketline. 7 August 2023. It is a subsidiary of German Rethmann Group.
History
Foundation and development until 1998 On 13 November 1912, Badische Actiengesellschaft für Rheinschifffahrt und Seetransport and Rheinschifffahrts Actiengesellschaft established a joint company with headquarters in Frankfurt"Rhenus AG & CO. Kg – History". Marketline. 22 July 2004. under the name Rhenus, after the Latin word for the river Rhine.Lepél, Sabine (28 January 2023). "Rhenus bricht Verhandlungen ab". Hamburger Abendblatt. Branch offices were established in Antwerp, Mainz, Mannheim, and Rotterdam."Rhenus-Halle muß weichen". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. 11 August 2006. The business was initially active in freight transport and forwarding on the Rhine, as well as warehousing. In 1934, Hibernia Bergwerksgesellschaft, a subsidiary of VEBA, acquired a majority shareholding in the company.
When VEBA was restructured in 1969, Rhenus was acquired by Hugo Stinnes AG. In 1971, Hugo Stinnes AG restructured its inland waterway shipping activities and set up Fendel-Stinnes-Schifffahrt AG near Duisburg. Rhenus Gesellschaft für Schifffahrt, Spedition und Lagerei was transformed into Rhenus AG, based in Mannheim.
The company was renamed again in 1976 when a joint venture was formed between Rhenus AG, Fendel-Stinnes-Schifffahrt AG and Westfälische Transport-Actien-Gesellschaft (WTAG). The new company under the name Rhenus-WTAG had its headquarters in Dortmund, with 40 branch offices throughout Germany. The subsidiary CCS Combined Container Service was founded simultaneously.
In 1984, Rhenus-WTAG merged with WTAG and resumed under the name Rhenus."Rhenus AG of West Germany, a subsidiary of Veba via Stinnes, recorded satisfactory business levels in 1984". Textline Multiple Source Collection (1980–1994). 6 August 1985. In 1988, Rhenus formed three management companies: Rhenus Weichelt handled road freight transport, Rhenus Lager und Umschlag took on warehousing, transshipment and inland waterway shipping and Rhenus Transport International was responsible for international freight forwarding and air freight.History 1956-1988 Rhenus Group
In 1990, Stinnes AG (Hugo Stinnes AG until 1979) entered into a strategic alliance with Deutsche Bahn subsidiary Schenker AG through acquiring a 24.9 percent stake."Stinnes AG to acquire 24.9% stake in Schenker". Textline Multiple Source Collection (1980–1994). 30 March 1989. In 1991, Stinnes purchased Schenker AG outright and the three Rhenus divisions were restructured again. Rhenus Transport International became part of the newly formed Schenker International; Rhenus Lager und Umschlag operated under the former name Rhenus, and Rhenus Weichelt was merged with Schenker Eurocargo. In 1996, Schenker-Rhenus AG was formed to combine all logistic activities of the Stinnes Group. The three business divisions formed in 1991 were integrated into it. Prior to this, the inland shipping activities of all Stinnes subsidiaries had been pooled in RS PartnerShip and integrated into the Rhenus Group together with Midgard Deutsche Seeverkehrs-AG."Alle Stinnes-Binnenschiffsreedereien in einer Gesellschaft zusammengefasst. Erweiterte Angebote sollen das Ergebnis verbessern". Handelsblatt. 25 October 1995.
After a 60,000 m² logistics centre was opened in Berlin in 1993, the 1990s saw the opening of further logistics centres throughout European cities such as Langgöns, Giessen, Mannheim, Stuttgart, Hanover and Prague.
Expansion since 1998 Rhenus was acquired by Rethmann in 1998 and went on to develop into a full-service provider for logistics services."Rethmann erwartet Umsatz von 3,3 Mrd DM". Handelsblatt. 19 February 1998.
In 2000, Rhenus acquired Schweizerische Reederei und Neptun and rebranded it Rhenus Alpina."Logistics firm Rhenus buys Swiss shipping firm". Reuters. 21 February 2000. In the same year, Rhenus started operating the IKEA central warehouse in Salzgitter and launched the International Consolidation Centre in Giessen. In 2002, Rhenus Alpina took over Cargologic and began handling air freight at Bern, Geneva and Zurich Airports. Rhenus changed its corporate structure and the management company was renamed Rhenus AG & Co. KG, with the business segments:
Contract Logistics (contract logistics) Port Logistics (full-service provider for sea and inland ports) Intermodal (handling and transportation in container traffic)
In 2003, Rhenus set up a joint venture with Kerry Logistics in Asia. In 2004, Polish logistics provider Polta was purchased. Through the acquisition of Interspe Hamann Group (IHG) in 2006, Rhenus gained access to the company's land transport network and global freight services.Wanner, Claudia (3 May 2006): "Rhenus kauft Spediteur IHG". Financial Times Deutschland.
Rhenus acquired Transport Management International Holding (TMI), Hoofddorp (Netherlands), in July 2007, which supplemented Rhenus IHG's European network in the freight logistics division, particularly in the Benelux countries, and contributed further contract logistics sites. The takeover of TMI also led to an expansion of the Rhenus Group's international air and sea freight business.
At the turn of the year 2007/2008, Rhenus Group took over Hamann International SAS with 4 sites in France (Bordeaux, Cholet, Angers and Lyon) and founded Rhenus Freight Logistics in France."Rhenus kauft Hamann Int. SAS". Deutsche Verkehrs-Zeitung (in German). 3 April 2008."Rhenus acquires Hamann". Marketline. 1 April 2008.
Rhenus acquired a majority shareholding in the Pro-Log Group in 2010 in order to consolidate its own network in Asia.Company profile – Rhenus SE & Co KG. Marketline. 7 August 2023."Pro Logistics India enters into JV agreement with Rhenus". Cargo Talk. 1 November 2010. In the same year, Thüringer Verlagsauslieferung (TVA) in Gotha was transferred from the Langenscheidt Publishing Group to Rhenus Medien Logistik. Additionally, Rhenus took over the forwarding companies Weckerle GmbH Spedition + Logistik, IFS Inter Freight System Internationale Spedition GmbH and Grossmann Sea & Air Logistics. Rhenus and Mierka Donauhafen Krems agreed a strategic partnership to expand the Danube activities, which led to the acquisition of a majority shareholding in 2013."Rhenus increases stake to 51% in MierkaBeteiligungs". Marketline. 25 April 2013. The complete takeover took place in 2018 and the company was renamed Rhenus Donauhafen Krems."Germany: Rhenus becomes the sole shareholder of Mierka Donauhafen Krems". Emirates News Agency. 16 November 2017.
In 2011, Rhenus signed an agreement to take over the European activities of the Wincanton Group and strengthened its position in contract logistics and multimodal transport with the purchase."Rhenus Buys Wincanton Europe Operations". The Journal of Commerce. 15 August 2011. The activities were initially managed by the company Rhenus Midi Data and since 2019 in Rhenus High Tech. The company acquired a 20 hectare deep-sea terminal in the port of Rotterdam.
In 2014, Rhenus took over the warehouse logistics operations for the car manufacturer BMW at the Regensburg-Neutraubling plant. In December of the same year, Rhenus purchased a 50.1 percent shareholding in Swiss rail freight operator Crossrail AG. At the end of February 2015, Rhenus took over KOG Worldwide AG,"German logistics company Rhenus buys Swiss peer Kog Worldwide AG". SeeNews Germany. 9 March 2015. which still operates as a Rhenus Group business unit for project logistics and plant transportation in the USA, Europe, and Asia. In October 2015, the Rhenus Group acquired 50 percent of the shares in LTE Logistik- und Transport from the previous sole shareholder, Graz-Köflacher Bahn,"Australia, Germany: Rhenus acquires 50% stake in Austrian rail-freight operator LTE". Arab Finance. 7 July 2015.Rhenus Group to take 50% stake in LTE Railway Gazette International. 2 July 2015. and in 2016, Rhenus expanded its involvement in the automotive sector through the acquisition of Ferrostaal Automotive."Rhenus acquires Ferrostaal Automotive". Financial Deals Tracker. 29 April 2016. Since the takeover of the freight forwarder O'Brien Customs and Forwarding Pty Ltd. in 2017, the company has been represented in Australia by a national company, Rhenus Logistics Australia.Desormeaux, Hailey (5 July 2017): "Rhenus acquires Australian freight forwarder". American Shipper.
In the same year, the company entered the area of end customer delivery of furniture in the UK with the acquisition of Network 4 Home Delivery."Rhenus enters British home delivery market". CEP Research. 17 February 2017. Rhenus expanded its network in Brazil by purchasing the company Pirâmide SeaAir Comércio Exterior in 2018.Landrum, Elizabeth (12 January 2018): "Rhenus snatches up Pirâmide SeaAir". American Shipper. The logistics service provider also acquired the Dutch forwarding company Jos Dusseldorp Vastgoed B.V., which had more than 90 employees and was added to its home delivery business segment."Rhenus Home Delivery acquires Dutch freight forwarder Jos Dusseldorp Transport". CEP Research. 4 July 2018. Since August 2018, the company has also been active in New Zealand."Rhenus Opens its First Branch in New Zealand". The President Post. 31 August 2018. In the same year, Rhenus took over the shareholding in Niederrheinische Verkehrsbetriebe from its subsidiary Rhenus Veniro, before it was merged with the German subsidiary of Transdev.Whitfield, Paul (2 October 2018): "Veolia Secures Exit from Train and Bus Operator Transdev". The Deal."Veolia out of transport as Rethmann acquires Transdev stake". Metro Report International. 11 January 2019. In 2019, Rhenus also took over the South African freight forwarding and logistics provider World Net Logistics (WNL) based in Johannesburg,"Germany's Rhenus acquires World Net Logistics in South Africa". Hong Kong Shipping Gazette Daily Enews. 29 March 2019. and expanded its medical division in the high-tech sector as the MTS Medizinischer Transport-Service GmbH.
In 2020, the Rhenus Group acquired a majority stake in Deutsche Binnenreederei from the Polish capital group OT Logistics and the Hamburg-based company Carl Robert Eckelmann."Logistics Signs Deals With Rhenus Partnership On Sale Of Stake In Unit And Group's Assets". Reuters News. 15 July 2020."Rhenus wants to acquire control over Germany’s olders river shipping company". Transport News. 27 May 2020. Rhenus also acquired 100 percent of the shares in Simon Hegele Hightech Transport & Service, a subsidiary of the Simon Hegele Group,"Rhenus High Tech to Acquire 100% Stake in Simon Hegele". Financial Deals Tracker. 5 March 2020. and furthermore took over the operating companies of the New Zealand-based Malcolm Total Logistics Group."Rhenus takes over the Malcolm Total Logistics Group". LiveNews. 2 March 2020.