Dear readers,
Working together – this is the guiding principle for the 2025 financial year. In an environment shaped by geopolitical tensions, economic weakness and volatility in trade policy, one thing has once again become clear: Resilience does not emerge in isolation, but through close collaboration – with our employees, our customers, our partners and you, our shareholders.
For us, working together means more than mere collaboration. It means sharing knowledge, constructively bringing together different perspectives and taking clear responsibility. Especially in times of accelerated change, this mindset is a decisive competitive factor. Internally, it provides guidance and externally, it builds trust.
The global economy remained under considerable pressure in 2025. The tariff policy of the US administration under President Donald Trump, ongoing wars and geopolitical conflicts – along with generally subdued economic conditions – had a direct impact on goods flows, production decisions and investment appetite. Despite this challenging environment, the BLG LOGISTICS Group delivered a robust performance in the 2025 financial year. Group revenue amounted to EUR 1,165,460 thousand, and earnings before taxes (EBT) reached EUR 77,417 thousand, exceeding our expectations. We further strengthened our liquidity and equity base and continued to enhance the Group’s financial stability. This provides a solid foundation to remain agile in a volatile environment and to pursue our strategic investments.
This performance reflects clear priorities. We acted early – rigorous cost and capacity management, stringent liquidity control, and a value-oriented pricing strategy safeguard our resilience. At the same time, we have continued to advance our operational excellence across all locations. Digitalization and automation are powerful drivers of this transformation.
In the AUTOMOBILE Division, volumes fell short of initial expectations. Nevertheless, the division remained profitable, supported by a high level of value creation, efficiently managed processes and successful price negotiations. The expansion of our site network increases value-added depth and customer proximity. We see the transformation of the automotive industry as an opportunity to further develop our service portfolio, particularly by expanding technical services and integrated logistics solutions.
The CONTRACT Division felt the effects of subdued demand, particularly in the automotive and consumer goods industries. Despite operational stability at many sites, overall performance fell short of expectations. We responded with structural adjustments and a stronger focus on future-oriented, high-margin activities.
The CONTAINER Division delivered stable to positive performance. Our shareholding in EUROGATE once again made a significant contribution to earnings in 2025, underlining the importance of strategic partnerships to the resilience of our business model. Strategic developments – including those related to the Gemini cooperation between Hapag-Lloyd and Maersk – are strengthening key locations over the long term and improving the predictability of global goods flows.
Highlights of the year
Throughout our nearly 150-year history, we have consistently navigated change and crises successfully. We are broadly positioned, globally connected and sufficiently experienced in the market to respond dynamically to market shifts while unlocking opportunities. In 2025, both the Board of Management and our leadership teams engaged intensively with the DNA of BLG and our strategy for the next five years. Clearly on course is the compass guiding BLG into the future, even in rough seas – toward growth, innovation and progress. Our ambition is clear: By 2035, we aim to be the pan-European seaport and logistics service provider with Hanseatic roots here in Bremen.
A key milestone was the expansion of our site network. With the new inland terminal in Ahlhorn, we are creating an integrated logistics hub that systematically links storage capacity, technical services and efficient transport connections. This strengthens our value creation in vehicle logistics and provides additional flexibility for our customers.
The turning point has reached the quay. Following our active and collaborative efforts of BLG, the State of Bremen and other stakeholders to secure funding from the defense budget (Section 14), the German federal government will invest EUR 1.35 billion in the Port of Bremerhaven in the coming years. We welcome this decision, which creates the infrastructure needed for us to remain a reliable partner for Germany’s and NATO’s defense capabilities in the future.
Sustainability is also the result of working together. The path toward more climate-friendly logistics can only be shaped jointly – with our employees, customers and partners, and with the industry as a whole. In the reporting year, we therefore continued to embed sustainability more firmly in our decisions, processes and priorities.
A key element of this is our Group-wide strategic initiative, the Roadmap to Decarbonization. It bridges the gap between the status quo and our climate targets: By 2030, we aim to reduce our own greenhouse gas emissions by 50.4 percent compared with the 2018 base year, and emissions along the value chain by 30 percent. One milestone has already been achieved: Since 2025, we have sourced all our electricity from renewable energy – through a combination of in-house generation, supply agreements and certified guarantees of origin.
We are also preparing our reporting for the future, with a clear focus on transparency and comparability in our sustainability performance. Accordingly, this report is for the first time aligned both structurally and methodologically with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). The foundation for this alignment was laid through collaboration. The double materiality analysis used to identify reporting topics involved numerous departments and in-house experts.
One thing is certain: The transformation of logistics will not be driven by individuals or individual companies, but by many stakeholders working together and taking responsibility. We are embracing this challenge and actively shaping the transformation together.
For the 2026 financial year, we expect the environment to remain challenging. Geopolitical tensions, wars, economic uncertainty and structural changes in key industries will continue to shape the landscape. But trade is like water – it always finds its way. And in that, we see opportunity. The transformation of entire industries, new international partnerships and shifts in supply and production chains are opening new possibilities. We are responding with a clear sense of direction, entrepreneurial courage and consistent execution. Wherever markets shift, industries transform, and companies realign their supply chains, partnerships and processes, we can create value together.
THE BOARD OF MANAGEMENT
Matthias Magnor
Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
Michael Blach
Member of the Executive Board & Head of the Division CONTAINER
Christine Hein
Member of the Executive Board & Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
Axel Krichel
Member of the Executive Board & Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Ulrike Riedel
Chief Human Resources Officer & Labor Director