Hellmann announces record results in 2022

Group also made several acquisitions in support of further growth

Hellmann Worldwide Logistics has concluded the 2022 financial year very successfully, continuing the company’s strong performance of recent years in the face of persistently challenging market conditions, the company reported recently in a press communique.

Hellmann was able to increase its total sales by 24 % to EUR 5.0bn (2021-EUR 4.1bn) and shipment volumes significantly grew year-on-year to just under 20mn (2021-18.1mn).

Beyond its positive financial performance, Hellmann also successfully continued its strategic development last year. For example, even during continued market disruptions from the Covid pandemic and the war against Ukraine, the Group stuck to its digitalization strategy and invested significantly in digitalization of business processes and forward-looking technologies.

Acquisitions

Hellmann also made several acquisitions in support of further growth, such as the takeover of the joint venture in Peru and the acquisition of OptimNet, an overnight express provider operating in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The international growth course and the expansion of the Hellmann network also continued to show success: Having already expanded its business activities to Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Oman and France since 2020, Hellmann also opened its own country organization in Switzerland last year to expand its product portfolio and its footprint into the Swiss market.

In line with the global family-owned company’s corporate net-zero mission and sustainability vision, the Hellmann Group has been in the forefront to foster a culture of adherence to limit carbon emissions and enforce decarbonization. The company motto is founded on the principle ‘For the better. Together’, the vision that defines its sustainability-driven culture and objectives.

Challenges

“2022 was once again a challenging year in many respects: While the first half of the year continued to be characterized by capacity bottlenecks, particularly in the air- and sea freight sectors, demand for transport services declined significantly from the summer of 2022 onwards due to changes in consumer behavior worldwide,” explained Jens Wollesen, COO, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“Despite these challenges, thanks to our strong global and regional teams and our solid network, we succeeded in offering our customers tailored logistics solutions throughout the year and were able to achieve another record result in 2022,” he added.

“The goal is to continue to expand our global competitive position across all product areas in the coming years. As such, we are planning further strategic acquisitions as well as sustainable investments in the modernization of our systems and processes,” noted Martin Eberle, CFO, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

“Together with and for our customers, employees, and partners, we are committed to further developing our sustainable logistics solutions,” emphasizes Reiner Heiken, CEO, Hellmann Worldwide Logistics.

on a strong leadership which sets goals and pursues them consistently. With our IMEA team, we are in a strong position to drive sustainable growth together.

The merging of the two regions into IMEA is crucial as South Africa, the biggest Hellmann country on the African continent, is strategically a very important market for Hellmann, and more importantly for the new IMEA region. With the integration of the two regions, we create the conditions to fully exploit this potential.

In the Middle East and Indian SubContinent, we cover our own operations in nine countries—namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and strong partner setups in the remaining. For the past two years, Hellmann has become the leader in the Sea/Air solution via Dubai, expanded our warehousing footprint in majority of countries, with growth in our specialized teams from Healthcare, Automotive, Fashion, FMCG, Chemical and Oil & Gas projects. In the Middle East, we have attained market leadership in the automotive, healthcare and fashion verticals through state-of-the-art infrastructure, globally bench-marked systems and, most importantly, best-in-class specialized resources.

We have always been the trend-setter in the market with innovative and out of the box strategies to drive our growth in the region. I like to think that we have taken Hellmann, over the last 15 years, from a small transactional freight forwarder to now stand among the top five fully integrated and exhaustive logistics services providers.

This year, we will also focus on expanding our business in the Hi-Tech and Industrial sectors, where many unique solutions are needed moving past the typical handling of Air, Sea, Land and warehousing.

GSC: Your tenure as CEO with Hellmann Worldwide Logistics, IMEA, now spans over 15 years. Briefly, how would you characterize your corporate and professional journey?

MK: Personally, the journey has been incredibly humbling and at the same time exciting. I joined Hellmann as the CEO of the Middle East in 2008, then expanded my responsibility to the Indian sub-continent in 2016, and now to the African continent.

I have also been a member of our International Executive Board since 2016. When I joined the company, we were around 100 employees in the region and now the region has more than 2500 employees.

When I started there were two legal entities in the region and today, we have 20 operating entities in the region. We have created niche expertise in automotive spare parts, healthcare, chemical, fashion and E-commerce.

GSC: What is the geographical extent of your current network, and which are among the top three performing countries in the region?

MK: The redrawn region extends from Bangladesh in Asia to South Africa in Africa. It has 14 countries with its own operations and more than 50 countries within the partner networks. We also have five wellassessed vertical joint ventures in UAE, Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia.

All countries are doing exceptionally well including our recently opened two countries in the Sultanate of Oman and Egypt. The key markets in the region that are driving growth are India, UAE, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

GSC: How are Hellmann’s E-commerce operations performing in the region?

MK: Our relationship with Dubai CommerCity (DCC) started two years ago and has grown substantially with more than 25 customers today using our multiuser facility for their B2C fulfillment. The partnership with DCC has been extremely satisfying and we look forward to making it a grand success in the coming years.

GSC: How is the Hellmann Caliper Healthcare Division faring, post Covid?

MK: Hellmann Caliper has been growing very well since Covid, and today we are operating at full capacity with more than 30 global pharma companies using it as a regional hub. We have also expanded our operations into VAS activities by ensuring the Hub concept brings more value to the supply chain of our customers.

At present, we are planning further expansion by increasing our capacity DWC by an additional 40%. Our pipeline looks very good in the pharma sector.

GSC: How did regional Hellmann fare in 2022 and what is your outlook going forward for 2023?

MK: We had an exceptional year in 2022 and it was one of the best performing years in the history of the company—globally and also within the IMEA region. Our newly opened entities in Oman and Egypt are also performing very well. However, 2023 is going to be tough in the freight forwarding business due to availability and excess capacity, declining demand, and growing pressure on freight rates.

Retail demand in Europe and North America will continue to decline and this has cascading effect on South Asian countries where exports are mostly related to fashion.

GSC: What are the opportunities and the corresponding challenges for HWL going forward?

MK: Generally, we are expecting further growth—despite ongoing challenging market conditions. We are also about to launch a new road freight entity for the GCC.

As logistics is a people business, it is our teams at the global and regional levels that make the difference and enable our continued success. Therefore, this is an area we invest in significantly. With the ‘Hellmann Promise’, we have just launched a new corporate culture that inites the Hellmann FAMILY and which is the basis of all our actions.

GSC: How are new technologies and automation changing the landscape and face of the industry and how is HWL adapting to these innovations?

MK: Hellmann has always been in the forefront of investing in new technologies and back in 2019 we have launched major investments in the field of digitization. For example, we are going through a major transformation by making investments in TMS (Transportation Management Systems) across all products plus in Finance, Sales, and HR. We are getting ready for the future, both digitally and from an organizational culture perspective.

GSC: Comment on your CSR and Sustainability initiatives?

MK: Hellmann has always been committed to sustainability and the subject is firmly embedded in our corporate culture, the ‘Hellmann Promise’ and also our vision ‘For the better, Together’ We understand and embrace sustainability and we see it as the only way forward.

We live sustainability through multiple factors notably leaders’ commitment; sustainability investment in facilities and product service; compliance to local requirements and engagement with society; work with our partners towards sustainability goals; welcoming diversity and measuring and reporting ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) data.

With our people and reliable partners, Hellmann aims to passionately lead a global sustainability strategy using technology and compliance framework.