Twenty one years since its acquisition of Safmarine, A.P. Moller - Maersk today announced that the Safmarine brand would be integrated into Maersk – a move which brings to an end an era for the South African line which was established in 1946.
The purpose of the move, says Maersk, is to “improve end-to-end service delivery and enhance customers’ access to the global integrated offering”.
The same applies to Damco’s air and LCL (Less than Container Load) services which will be combined with Maersk’s logistics and services products.
“These changes represent a major step towards becoming an integrated container transport and logistics company, connecting and simplifying customers’ supply chains,” according to Vincent Clerc, CEO of ocean & logistics.
“With the integration of Safmarine, we can present Safmarine customers with the full ocean and supply chain offering and more scale,” said Clerc.
“Since Maersk uses its own assets it will not pursue the ocean FCL multi-carrier product (NVOCC) as a general offering,” he added.
The Safmarine and Damco brands will no longer be marketed by the end of 2020.
In terms of Hamburg Süd, Clerc said the back offices would be merged but the lines would continue to be marketed as separate brands with a differentiated service model.
At the time of the acquisition both Safmarine and Maersk made it clear that the multi-brand strategy would remain in place.
When certain of its corporate functions merged with those of Maersk in 2011, Safmarine told Freight & Trading Weekly, the legendary forerunner of Freight News, that there was no intent to merge any further with Maersk Line and that “the message is clear, both from our owner, the AP Moller-Maersk Group, and from our own perspective”.
But circumstances change.
