Safmarine will be integrated into Maersk while the Damco brand’s air and less than container load (LCL) offering will be combined with Maersk’s logistics and services products as the Danish conglomerate looks to boost its end-to-end service delivery.
The restructuring means that by the end of 2020, the Safmarine and Damco brands will no longer be marketed, while Maersk will also look to simplify its organisational structure across Ocean and Logistics by integrating the back offices of Maersk and Hamburg Süd.
According to the company, these changes represent a major step towards becoming an integrated container transport and logistics company, connecting and simplifying customers’ supply chains.
Vincent Clerc, CEO of Ocean and Logistics, A.P. Moller – Maersk, said: “Our customers are at the heart of our vision. Their evolving supply chain needs are increasing the demand for multiple modes of transport and to meet these needs, we’re bringing our company’s expertise and capabilities even closer together. Taking these steps are key to accelerating our transformation.”
Over time, the value propositions of Maersk and Safmarine have converged, noted the carrier, as both brands have been focusing on building a customer-centric culture and as the digital interactions with customers have increased.
Clerc added: “With the integration of Safmarine, we can present Safmarine customers with the full ocean and supply chain offering and more scale. At the same time, I’m very excited to have Safmarine’s passion for customers closer to Maersk by uniting our teams.”
Since focusing purely on freight forwarding in 2018, Damco has demonstrated significant value to customers in the Air and Ocean LCL space, according to Maersk.
During this time, it has become apparent through close customer engagements that the value proposition of Maersk can be greatly enhanced with the expansion of multiple modes of transport, it added in a statement.
It believes that the integration of Air and LCL into Maersk will give businesses access to a simplified, connected and agile experience under the Maersk brand, as well as to its scale.
It further noted that since Maersk uses its own assets to offer unique value propositions, it will not pursue the Ocean FCL Multi-carrier product (NVOCC) as a general offering.
Clerc continued: “Businesses need Air and LCL products to connect their supply chains and with these offerings firmly placed in our global integrated portfolio, we aim to serve our businesses better and more efficiently across their supply chains.
“Our colleagues in Damco have delivered a remarkable effort under challenging market conditions, serving customers through focus, discipline and expertise which will now be a strong asset for our customers in Maersk.”
Meanwhile, Hamburg Süd and Aliança will remain independent brands with differentiated service models while the back offices of the German brand and Maersk will come together into “more customer-centric teams”, aiming to enable more effective decision-making.
The optimisation of Hamburg Süd’s organisational structure is scheduled to be completed by the end of the third quarter, and a multi-brand regional ocean management team will be set up.
In addition, Hamburg Süd has established an extended management team in the brand headquarters in Hamburg to ensure a holistic approach and a sustainable brand with a differentiated service model.
This team comprises of the CEO and CFO along with the global heads of marketing, key account management, customer experience, IT and HR.
Clerc added: ““Hamburg Süd is a strong brand with its own value propositions complementing those of Maersk. By bringing the product teams closer together we want to secure stronger alignment across the teams and stronger brand positioning based on insights into our customers’ needs, enabling us to serve all customers with an optimal product and service offering.”
Dr. Arnt Vespermann, CEO of Hamburg Süd, stated: “Hamburg Süd is known in the industry for its unmatched customer proximity, for its long-term and direct customer relationships, for being reachable in person, and for providing advice at the local level.
“We want to further enhance these advantages for our customers in order to differentiate ourselves even more.”
Sealand will remain as a separate brand under A.P. Moller – Maersk, serving as an intra-regional service provider it is today.
