All press releases

• Sales increase to some EU 1.09 billion
• EBT increased by 8.8 percent
• Megatrend digitalization a major topic for BLG LOGISTICS

At the financial press conference on April 18, 2018 in Bremen, the Board of Management of BLG LOGISTICS presented the results of the past business year. CEO Frank Dreeke expressed his satisfaction: “In many ways, 2017 was a good year – in some aspects even better than expected. We increased sales revenue by four percent and the total result for our AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions alone is more than EUR 1 billion.“

On the basis of the works council agreement signed today by the works council of BLG AutoTerminal Bremerhaven and BLG LOGISTICS, up to 170 new employees will be hired at BLG AutoTerminal Bremerhaven in the next months. For the first time ever, about 100 of the new jobs will be part of a recently adopted part-time employment model that offers family and care-friendly shift times and a shift length of six hours.

40-foot standard containers are the most frequently used sea containers worldwide. With internal dimensions of roughly 12 by 2.3 by 2.4 meters, they have a loading volume of 65 cubic meters and a cargo load of up to some 26 tons. Unloading these containers is heavy work, still mainly carried out manually in the world's ports. Now there are plans for an innovative robot to take over this job. The research is being carried out by BIBA – the Bremen Institute for Production and Logistics at Bremen University, in cooperation with development partners BLG Handelslogistik and SCHULZ Systemtechnik in Bremen plus FRAMOS in Taufkirchen near Munich. The new project is named “Interactive Robot System for Unloading Sea Containers” (IRiS).

On Thursday this week, the foundation stone was laid for a new distribution center in Elsdorf. BLG LOGISTICS will start operations there from fall 2018 for its customer IKEA. From Elsdorf, BLG will in future be responsible for goods supply to final customers throughout northern Germany.

This year's Diversity Prize went to BLG LOGISTICS and Bremerhaven Adult Education Center. The jury selected BLG for its systematic development of an organization that respects diversity. The prize money of EUR 2,500 will go into a project organized by BLG management trainees for a football championship for disabled players in Bremerhaven.

“2017 was a good year for BLG LOGISTICS in many respects, and that will also be reflected in the earnings of the BLG Group,” declared BLG CEO Frank Dreeke at the Bremen State Press Conference on Ports on December 11. “Automotive handling in Bremen grew once more, the high and heavy segment handled more cargo than ever and the Neustädter Hafen port facility is rapidly picking up speed,” he continued. In the CONTAINER segment, represented by EUROGATE, BLG expects a steady or slightly reduced handling volume at its German container terminals as compared to the previous year.

• The project “CROSS” (Competence Rotation Over Several Sectors) promotes cross-sector exchange between companies in Bremen
• Participants complete a three months internship in a partner company with the aim of enhancing cooperativeness and willingness to change
• The exchange is scientifically supported by Jacobs University
• The pilot project is to be extended to other cooperation partners after successful completion

The new building houses all technical activities on a floorspace of 6,500 m².

At the beginning of November, BLG LOGISTICS Group and BORGWARD China Group signed a cooperation agreement for the export of Borgward vehicles.

Where is anything at any given moment, and how can it be provided at the desired destination by the best means at the right time?  For instance, a vehicle to be loaded aboard a ship in Bremerhaven.  Up to now, this has mainly been a manual process.  But in future, the operational processes at BLG LOGISTICS’ AutoTerminal Bremerhaven will be controlled and planned with the aid of real-time status reports and mobile data acquisition. To this end, the research project “Isabella” has been launched in Bremen.

After half a year of successful cooperation in handling of new cars BLG Logistics Group and LLC Fenix agreed on long term plans for joint future development of the business at Port Bronka in the Big Port of St. Petersburg. For the definition of the future strategy Elena Glukhova, representing the shareholders of Port Bronka, and Frank Dreeke, CEO of BLG Logistics Group, recently signed a Letter of Intent on joint projects and activities at the Port of Bronka  in St. Petersburg.

At its Erfurt location, BLG LOGISTICS has been supplying services to IKEA since 1997. Having grown to a total floor space of 478,000 square meters, the Distribution Center Erfurt (DC Erfurt) offers the capacity for some 360,000 pallets. Goods are stored in 13 conventional warehouses plus one fully automated and two semi-automated high-rack warehouses. This makes the Distribution Center among the largest warehouse locations in IKEA's global distribution network.

As of April, BLG LOGISTICS in Berlin took over the inbound logistics for the gas turbine manufacturing plant of its customer Siemens. The logistics expert began performing initial individual services for this customer last October.

With retroactive effect from the beginning of 2017, BLG LOGISTICS has taken over forwarding company Kitzinger & Co. (GmbH & Co. KG) as well as its subsidiary Arno Rosenlöcher (GmbH & Co. KG). Both companies have been well known on the market for many years under the umbrella brand KICO. Representatives of the two enterprises came together to sign the contract in Bremen on May 3. After takeovers in 2016, KICO is a key component in BLG's strategy of expanding its forwarding business.

Since mid-April, ships of the Normed Line have been calling at Bremen’s Neustadt Harbor. At the Terminal in Neustadt Harbor operated by BLG Cargo Logistics GmbH, they load double-deck coaches weighing up to 70 tones each, manufactured by Bombardier Transportation GmbH in Görlitz. A total of 60 coaches will be delivered by rail to Bremen in the coming months; from there they will be shipped to Ashdod, Israel, in multiple contingents. The shipping agent COLI Schiffahrt & Transport Bremen GmbH is responsible for shipment.

At the press conference on the financial statements in Bremen on April 5, 2017 the Board of Management at BLG LOGISTICS presented the results of the past financial year. CEO Frank Dreeke was pleased “because we were able to achieve what we forecast a year ago and managed to increase sales in all three divisions in 2016. The operating result of the BLG Group is slightly above that of the previous year. In our estimation the economic situation of the BLG Group remains stable, but is capable of improvement.”

• Increase in sales in all three divisions
• EBT rises to 30.8 million euros
• CONTRACT Division expands Freight Forwarding segment

BLG LOGISTICS is contributing to road safety by attaching safety notices to some 500 semitrailers in its fleet. The large stickers on the rear of the trucks instruct other drivers to form a rescue corridor in traffic jams.

Christian Dieckhöfer will boost the management team at BLG Industrial Logistics effective as of February 1, 2017 and assume responsibility for further expansion of the segment in Europe.

Go on a trip around the world and get to know the various climate zones of the Earth. Nearly four million visitors have gone on this journey since the opening of the Bremerhaven Climate House in 2009. For school classes, the exhibition is an exciting change to the classroom. Every year more than 100,000 pupils visit the Climate House.

BLG LOGISTICS GROUP AG & Co. KG sells 51 percent of its shares in the Bremerhaven cold store to the Dutch enterprise Kloosterboer. In future the joint venture will bear the name Kloosterboer BLG Coldstore GmbH. The cooperation targets joint positioning in the temperature-controlled logistics sector in northern Germany.

The German automobile logistics provider BLG Logistics and LLC Fenix, owner and operator of Port Bronka, signed a long lasting cooperation agreement for the handling of automobiles via the Port of Bronka.