ACQUISITION APPROVED: FENTHOLS OFFICIALLY PART OF RABEN GROUP

With the integration of Fenthols, two successful logistics providers will unite and concentrate their central activities in Germany, in the heart of Europe. With the German subsidiaries Fenthols, Raben is acquiring first-rate logistical positions. This merger also offers Fenthols a new perspective.

"Thanks to the European standard we are able to benefit from Raben Group's international know-how and thus to further increase the quality of our services", says Jens Hirschberg, Branch Manager at the Hamburg office.

Both companies have already worked together successfully in recent years.

Fenthol & Sandtmann GmbH, founded in Leipzig in 1827, is one of the oldest forwarding companies in Germany. The owner-managed company offers road, sea and air transport services as well as contract logistics and it achieved a turnover of 125 million euros in 2019. With the complete integration into Raben Group, customers now can benefit from a much more powerful and larger network with 39 branches throughout Germany. More than 10,000 employees work for Raben throughout Europe. The Group also has 8,500 means of transport and warehouse capacity of around 1,150,000 square meters.

Raben Group acquires locations in excellent locations

Raben Group is expanding its range of services due to the agreement with Fenthols. In addition to gaining strategically excellent locations, such as near the Frankfurt Airport, Raben Group will be adding a hazardous goods warehouse in Erlensee, Hessen, and a branch at the Leipzig Cargo Airport next to the A14 motorway to its network, where the subsidiary, Fenthols Kontraktlogistik GmbH, organizes warehousing and distribution logistics for numerous companies. With the acquisition of Fenthols headquarters directly at the Port of Hamburg, Raben Group is expanding its portfolio in the sea freight and thus strengthens the know-how in intermodal transport. The sea and air freight activities will be bundled in a separate company, Raben Sea & Air GmbH. With this move Raben Group clearly puts a new focus on the development of these activities independently from the existing European network.

Customers enjoy the advantage of a unified transport management system, Fenthols customers now have access to the customer platform "MyRaben" and benefit from a uniform transport management system.

"This is a significant improvement because it increases process transparency. The entire logistics process becomes more homogeneous," explains Hirschberg.

Via the shipment tracking tool ETA (Estimated Time of arrival), customers receive complete information on statuses of their shipments. Raben also has a new Picture Confirming Delivery (PCD) solution - a service that enables contactless confirmation of delivery with almost no involvement of the recipient.  Fenthols branches received support from Raben Group teams. The implementation of the IT infrastructure and all other processes required close cooperation between all departments in the past few months since the signing of the purchase agreement. The four Fenthols branches in Germany were supported by Raben Group teams from different European locations. The Corona crisis also made the merger process more difficult for the two family-run companies.

"However, thanks to the support and a precise timetable, all necessary processes will be completed by June 1," says Hirschberg. Partners will then form a strong team.

In recent years Raben has invested dynamically in the German market and consistently implemented its long-term strategy of building its own independent general cargo network.