AUTOMOBILE – intelligent vehicle logistics from A to Z

BLG’s AUTOMOBILE Division is the leading technical and logistics service provider for the international automotive industry. In this business area, the company offers multimodal transport concepts with global logistics reach and dovetails individualized and innovative technical service packages. Distribution takes place by road, rail and inland waterway. In addition to the seaport terminals in Bremen, Bremerhaven, Cuxhaven, Hamburg (Germany), and in Gdansk (Poland), the AUTOMOBILE Division also operates several inland terminals on the Rhine and the Danube Rivers. The bases of our truck fleet extend from Paderborn in Germany to Moscow. BLG AutoRail is a special provider of vehicle transport by rail. It owns 1,500 open, double-deck railroad cars, including 200 flat wagons, and thus has Europe's most modern and versatile rolling stock at its disposal. This means that the logistics supply chain from the vehicle manufacturers to the end customer is fully covered. Each year, our worldwide AUTOMOBILE network generally handles, transports or technically processes over six million vehicles, making BLG LOGISTICS one of Europe's leading automobile logistics companies. The impact of the coronavirus pandemic led to a major crisis in the automotive sector. As a consequence, in the 2020 financial year the volume of vehicles handled in the division’s network was considerably lower than in the previous year at 4.8 million (previous year: 6.3 million vehicles).

But our wheels are constantly turning: BLG’s AUTOMOBILE Division consistently supplements its logistics network with smart digital solutions and sustainable concepts for climate-friendly transport. Thus, we are currently converting our car terminal in Hamburg to make it climate neutral. And we actively advise and support our customers in the area of electric mobility. Alongside sustainability, digitalization is the big topic of the future for the automotive and logistics industries. BLG is contributing to this by working with partners on a research project to develop complex planning and management tools for car terminals.

In the reporting year, we expanded the Dodendorf location from a car transportation base into an independent car terminal, which started operations in May 2020 under the name BLG Autoterminal Deutschland. It was also developed into an electric mobility location, with an area extension already planned for 2021. Here and at other terminals, BLG LOGISTICS provides services for various manufacturers, including handling, technical processing, quality assurance, and customs clearance for electric vehicles, and in this way contributes to the energy transition.

CONTRACT – tailor-made logistics solutions

In the CONTRACT Division, we manage complex projects and offer our customers in industry and retailing reliable upstream and downstream logistics solutions. The focus of our know-how and experience lies in car parts, industrial and production logistics as well as in retail and distribution logistics. Here, we provide conventional logistics services such as transport, storage and picking as well as value-added services such as assembly and returns management. We also plan, design and implement highly automated logistics centers, ranking us among Germany’s leading providers of logistics services. At locations in Europe and overseas, we handle a wide variety of goods ranging from automotive parts, railroad components, trainers, printers, fashion, furniture or frozen foods through our own logistics centers and those of our customers.

On January 1, 2020, BLG LOGISTICS opened a new location in Meerane, Saxony. The logistics center boasts a hi-tech automated small parts warehouse and specializes in handling and storing cable harnesses for electric vehicles. At the Ludwigsfelde site, our industrial logistics business area was able to acquire additional new business. For our customer Siemens Energy, we dedicate 35,000 m² of warehouse space to storing and retrieving spare parts for gas and steam turbines and handling worldwide shipping. At the end of March 2020, we began with the step-by-step commissioning of the “Prototype Park” in Waiblingen. With this project, a well-known automotive manufacturer realized the plan to consolidate the warehouse locations of several divisions at an off-campus location and transfer them to a service provider.

At the beginning of January 2020, BLG LOGISTICS increased its shareholding in BLG Sports & Fashion to 100 percent. In this context, customer areas were restructured and new managers and blue-collar employees were hired. For the 150,000 m² multi-user logistics center in Hörsel, Thuringia, we were able to conclude a multi-year contract with fashion provider Hallhuber in November 2019. With an area of 25,000 m² dedicated entirely to fashion logistics, the logistics center in Ochtrup in the Münsterland region was also newly commissioned in the reporting year. At this location, an automated picking and storage system designed as a goods-to-person system helps to ensure efficient and ergonomic processes. The CI Factory of our customer Engelbert Strauss in Schlüchtern, Hesse also started operations on January 1, 2020. Here, BLG LOGISTICS operates the new highly complex and fully automated logistics hub. Also in Hesse, we have been operating a second logistics center in Butzbach since April 1, 2020 for our customer Bosch. This new business enabled us to welcome some 65 new employees. We supply Bosch plants worldwide with factory and supplier components. In addition, we are responsible for distribution logistics for individual business units and maintain warehouses close to the plants. In the “Warehousing General” service area, Bosch awarded us the status of “preferred supplier” at the start of 2021.

At locations that we closed during the reporting period – for example because the cargo volumes handled there were transferred elsewhere or because individual customers decided in favor of cooperating with competitors – we redeployed employees working there to other locations or they were able to transfer to new employers as part of a transfer of operations. In the few instances where this was not possible, we made use of reconciliation of interests and redundancy plans.

CONTAINER – box services

In the CONTAINER Division, the EUROGATE Group, in which we have a 50 percent stakeholding, confirmed its position as one of Europe’s leading shipping line-independent container terminal operators. The Group’s core business is container handling at seaports at ten terminal locations. Secondary services include seaworthy packaging or container depot, maintenance and repair services as well as intermodal transport. EUROGATE GmbH & Co. KGaA, KG is a company consolidated using the equity method of accounting and managed separately from BLG in all CSR-relevant areas. The information in this report relates to the fully consolidated companies of the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions, including BLG AG and BLG KG (central departments).

The map provides an overview of the distribution of our fully consolidated companies as well as other countries with activities of the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions.

BLG Logistics | Automobile and contract logistics

On a clear course to the future with over 11,000 employees

Our employees assume responsibility for smooth logistics of high-quality products day in and day out. In 2020, in its fully consolidated companies plus the CONTAINER division (50 percent), BLG LOGISTICS employed an average of 11,609 employees globally (calculated in accordance with Section 267 (5) German Commercial Code). On the reporting date of December 31, 2020, there were 9,874 employees at more than 70 German locations in the AUTOMOBILE and CONTRACT Divisions as well as at the central departments, plus a further 654 employees at the international locations of our fully consolidated companies. Further information about personnel statistics and development is provided in detail in the SOCIAL section.