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Logistics company Dachser has reported significant growth, driven by acquisitions, and eyes Americas and Asia expansion in light of Europe’s stagnating economy.
In its 2024 full year earnings report, the family-owned German company revealed its group revenue and increased by 13% to some €8bn ($8.6bn).
This growth is largely due to the acquisitions of DACHSER & FERCAM Italia, Frigoscandia, and Brummer, explained Dachser, which appeared on the balance sheet for the first time in 2024.
This also resulted in an additional 3,300 employees, expansion to a further 56 locations and 720,000 more pallet spaces in its warehouses.
Excluding acquisitions, Dachser grew by 4.7% compared to the previous year, primarily due to its European groupage network and rate increases in both air and sea freight – revenue in the Air & Sea Logistics business field rose by 22% to around €1.6bn in 2024.
“Dachser benefited mainly from short-term special developments that caused freight rates in air and sea freight to rise. These include the crisis with capacity bottlenecks on the Red Sea and the ecommerce business between China and Europe,” it explained.
Despite a positive year for Dachser, chief executive Burkhard Eling noted that a lack of growth impetus from Europe, particularly Germany, had stunted business development.
“High costs, weak industrial production and a decline in personal consumption have also had an impact on our business,” said Mr Eling.
Dachser’s total transported volumes rose 7.6% to approximately 83.2m shipments and tonnage increased by 10.2% to some 44.1m, while the European Logistics business handled an additional 6.5% of shipments and grew tonnage by 2.8%.
The company added that “investing during the crisis” helped to strengthen Dachser’s competitiveness.
In 2024, it doubled its expenditure on company acquisitions, network locations, workforce, digital innovation, and climate action, from the year before, to total some €490m.
While still planning to invest heavily in 2025, Dachser revealed it will scale back investment this year from 2024’s levels to around the €400m mark.
“Those who act during a downturn to invest wisely and consistently will enter the next upturn with the wind in their sails. In the past, we’ve emerged stronger and more competitive from crises by following this countercyclical business policy,” said Mr Eling.
“That will happen again this time around,” he predicted.
He noted that Dachser’s investment this year will primarily be used to achieve growth outside Europe as “economic performance in Europe is largely stagnating”.
“We will increasingly focus our attention on strengthening our presence in the Americas and Asia and connecting these markets with our unique competitive advantage: our European groupage network. Because the broader our global footprint, the greater our resilience,” Mr Eling concluded.
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