Rhenus

Rhenus SE & Co. KG
legal form	SE & Co. KG
founding	1912
Seat	Holzwickede , Germany
management	Klemens Rethmann , ; CEO; Marco Schröter , Chairman of the Supervisory Board
Number of employees	33,000 (2019)
sales	EUR 5.5 billion (2019)
Branch	Movement of goods and people
Website	www.rhenus.group

The Rhenus SE & Co. KG , based at Dortmund Airport in Holzwickede in Westphalia is an international logistics service provider . The company had a turnover of 5.5 billion euros in 2019 and employs over 33,000 people at 750 locations worldwide; The partner is the Rethmann Group .

Rhenus semi-trailers for use in goods traffic

Company history

Rhenus in the north port of Wilhelmshaven

Founded and developed until 1998

The Rhenus Transport GmbH was founded on 13 November 1912 as a joint venture of Baden AG for Rhine shipping and sea transport and the Rhine Navigation Actiengesellschaft founded. The name is the Latin name for the river Rhine . The company was based in Frankfurt am Main . Branches were set up in Mannheim , Mainz , Groß-Gerau , Antwerp (Belgium) and Rotterdam (Netherlands). The business purpose was navigation on the Rhine . Against the background of the global economic crisis , the Badische Actiengesellschaft , the Rheinschiffahrts Actiengesellschaft , the Rhenus and other companies came together in 1929 to form an interest group. In 1934, Hibernia Bergwerksgesellschaft , a subsidiary of VEBA , acquired the majority of the interest group.

When VEBA was restructured in 1969, Rhenus was taken over by Hugo Stinnes AG . The inland shipping activities were bundled around Duisburg in Fendel-Stinnes-Schifffahrt AG . The Rhenus company for shipping, forwarding and storage was transformed into Rhenus AG , based in Mannheim.

A Rhenus-WTAG trailer truck on federal motorway 61 (1981)

Another change of name took place in 1976 with the formation of an interest group of Rhenus AG , Fendel-Stinnes-Schifffahrt AG and Westfälischen Transport AG (WTAG). The new company was now called Rhenus-WTAG AG and had its headquarters in Dortmund . At the same time, the subsidiary CCS Combined Container Service GmbH & Co. KG was founded. In 1984 WTAG AG and Rhenus-WTAG AG merged to form Rhenus AG . The Rhenus AG now had 100 locations in Germany and another 80 abroad.

In 1988 Rhenus formed three company management companies: Rhenus Weichelt AG operated the road freight transport , Rhenus Lager und Umschlag AG took over the areas of storage, transshipment and inland shipping, and Rhenus Transport International was responsible for international forwarding and air freight . In the course of the takeover of Schenker by Stinnes, Rhenus Weichelt AG was merged with Schenker Eurocargo AG in 1991 and the tasks of Rhenus Transport International AG were taken over by the newly founded Schenker International AG . The Rhenus camp and envelope AG maintained its business and changed its name back under Rhenus AG .

Rhenus strengthened its logistics division in 1993 by building a logistics center with 60,000 m² of storage space in Berlin . Further centers followed in Langgöns , Gießen , Mannheim, Stuttgart , Hanover and Prague . Schenker-Rhenus AG was formed in 1996 to bundle all of the Stinnes Group's logistics activities . The three business units formed in 1991 were combined in it. In the run-up to this, the inland shipping activities of all Stinnes subsidiaries were bundled in the RS PartnerShip and integrated into the Rhenus Group together with Midgard Deutsche Seeverkehrs-AG .

Development since 1998

Rhenus storage silo at Basel's Rhine port

Rhenus Logistics in Krems an der Donau

The Rhenus AG was founded in 1998 by the Rethmann AG & Co. KG acquired and entered afterwards as a complete provider of logistics services. Dr. Hermann Niehues. In the following years, Rhenus AG expanded its portfolio of logistics centers in Europe and bought various companies in the logistics sector.

The company structure was streamlined in 2002. The Rhenus AG & Co. KG became a holding company with several business areas:

Contract Logistics ( contract logistics )
Port Logistics (full-service provider sea and inland ports)
Intermodal (handling and transport in container traffic)

In 2006, Rhenus took over the INTERSPE Hamann Group (IHG) and thus had its European land transport network and global freight services. Further European warehouse locations were acquired. Rhenus was thus an integrated European logistics service provider; With an increase in sales of over 90 percent in Germany, the company climbed from 9th to 5th in the ranking of the “Top 50 logistics service providers in Germany 2007” compiled by the trade and business magazine “Logistik inside”.

In July 2007, Rhenus acquired Transport Management International Holding BV (TMI) based in Hoofddorp (Netherlands). In the Freight Logistics division, TMI supplemented the European network of Rhenus IHG , particularly in the Benelux countries, and brought in further contract logistics locations. In addition, the management of TMI carried out the expansion of the international air and sea freight business in the Rhenus Group. TMI was one of the most important logistics companies in the Netherlands and Belgium with 35 locations and the companies Road Air , Copex and Transmarcom and has grown to around 400 million euros in sales in recent years.

In October 2007 Rhenus took over 50 percent of the shares in Swintrans Bevrachting BV , Zwijndrecht (Netherlands) . At the time, the Swintrans group had ten modern coupling associations , 16 additional coupling associations had been commissioned or were under construction. The takeover was still subject to the approval of the competent competition authorities . At the turn of the year 2007/2008, the Rhenus Group took over Hamann International GmbH Spedition + Logistik , based in Hamburg . Hamann International was a forwarding company with a focus on international land, sea and air freight. With this merger, the Rhenus Group expanded its international freight logistics network in northern Germany and strengthened itself in the area of land, air and sea transport.

Hermann Niehues died in September 2008 after an accident. Klemens Rethmann became the new CEO.

In 2010, Rhenus acquired a majority stake in the Pro-Log group in order to consolidate its own network in Asia. Rhenus and Mierka Donauhafen Krems agree a strategic partnership to expand Danube activities. The Thuringian publishing house delivery (TVA) in Gotha changed from the Langenscheidt publishing group to the ownership of the Rhenus Medien Logistik . Rhenus took over the shipping companies Weckerle GmbH Spedition + Logistik , IFS Inter Freight System Internationale Spedition GmbH and Grossmann Sea & Air logistics .

In 2011 Rhenus signed a contract to take over the European activities of the Wincanton Group and, with the purchase, strengthened its position in contract logistics and multimodal transports. The company acquired a 20 hectare deep-sea terminal in the port of Rotterdam . In Traben-Trarbach , Rhenus bought the Wilh freight forwarder . Schon GmbH & Co. KG . The remaining shares in Rhenus eonova became the property of the Rhenus Group. Rhenus opened new logistics centers in Weil am Rhein , Barcelona and Hörselgau .

In 2012, Rhenus celebrated its 100th birthday worldwide with employee parties at the locations.

In 2014, Rhenus took over the warehouse logistics of the automobile manufacturer BMW in the Regensburg- Neutraubling plant as well as the majority in the Swiss freight transport company Crossrail AG . In the same year the Rheinhafen Rheinfelden was renovated.

On June 17, 2015, the Rhenus Group acquired 50 percent of the shares in LTE Logistik- und Transport-GmbH from the previous sole shareholder Graz-Köflacher Bahn . This railway company is assigned to the Rhenus Rail division.

In 2016, Rhenus expanded its commitment to the automotive industry with the takeover of Ferrostaal Automotive . In 2017, Rhenus took over the shipping company O'Brien Customs and Forwarding Pty Ltd and is thus also represented in Australia with its own national company, Rhenus Logistics Australia . In 2018, Rhenus expanded the Brazilian network of locations with the purchase of the Pirâmide SeaAir Comércio Exterior company . The logistician has also been on site for its customers in New Zealand since August of that year. In 2019, Rhenus took over the South African freight forwarding and logistics provider World Net Logistics (WNL) based in Johannesburg and is now represented on all five continents and in more than 50 countries.