RABEN GROUP CELEBRATES 90 YEARS

We want to set trends in the market in the area of sustainability not just by having green trucks and warehouses or planting trees, but by all the processes we use. We are trying to make them as environmentally friendly as possible. This is our responsibility. And because our relationship with our customers is based on partnership, I am confident they too will join us in this sustainable way of doing business.” explains Ewald Raben

Raben Group currently has over 150 branches in 13 European countries, it offers approximately 1,200,000 m² of warehouse capacity, employs 10,000 employees and each day dispatches over 8,500 trucks on the roads of Europe. However, it all started really inconspicuously from a small Dutch family business. Today, the values ​​characteristic of family-owned organizations are still important to the company, which positively affects employee engagement and relations with customers.

Birth of the global brand

In 1931, in the small town of Meddo-Winterswijk in the Netherlands, Jan W. Raben, grandfather of the current CEO, started to transport products of the local farmers to the market. He started the company which is a global brand today. The next milestone in the history of Raben Group was when the founder's son, Theo Raben, took over the helm of the company in 1960, and he developed e.g. the transport of textiles to and from Poland. But the first step abroad was taken by the grandson, Ewald. He knew the company from the inside out; he washed trucks on Saturdays already at the age of ten and he worked as a truck driver when he was in college. After the transformation of 1989, he spotted the opportunity for development on the Polish market, and he went there with the aim of setting up a Raben branch. It was then when he bought a map of Poland and marked twelve locations which were to become branches in different parts of the country.

The last 30 years have been a history of continuous development of the company and dynamic expansion into foreign markets, and one of the secrets of the success is the skilful combination of the best of a family business with models taken from corporate management.

“A family-owned company has an advantage over other businesses because it treats customers and employees as family members. We offer logistics ‘with a human face’. Partnership and loyalty fit this style of cooperation. We have many long-term customers. Their business has been changing over the years and we adapt to them. We are partners and together we respond to the challenges which emerge. We also grow together. This constant development is inscribed in the DNA of our company. We do not just deliver a service, but a promise, and this promise must be delivered - always on time, with care for details and of the highest quality. Therefore, we have been looking for innovative solutions for many years, always putting our customers first. In this way, we invest in the future, in sustainable solutions and projects that benefit in the long term.” – says Ewald Raben, CEO Raben Group. – “We still have more than one road ahead of us, but already today I am convinced that together we can get anywhere we want.”