Our History
deugro is one of four specialized companies belonging to the deugro group, which redefines the one-stop-shop concept for complex logistics services and unifies the dedication, synergies and competences of all its companies.
Carl Press, Sr. founded deugro in 1924 as the Deutsche Großtransportgesellschaft mbH in Frankfurt, Germany. From the start, he implemented deugro’s business approach, and it has remained so ever since: “It takes the best minds to make the right moves.”
deugro soon developed into a leading and excellent service provider in the global freight forwarding industry, specializing in the logistics of turnkey industrial projects.
A lot has changed in the freight forwarding industry since deugro was founded, but our ambition of excellence has always been constant, driven by our team of over 1,100 experts providing highly-specialized project and freight forwarding solutions for international clients.
Our clients benefit on a global scale from our diversified portfolio of services, which include freight management and project logistics solutions by air, ocean and land.
Carl Press founded the deugro group’s first company, deugro, in 1924 as Deutsche Großtransportgesellschaft mbH in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. From the very start, deugro was specialized in oversized and heavy cargo.
Upon his father’s passing in 1966, Carl Eberhard Press took over the helm at deugro, which was soon to become a leading service provider in the international freight forwarding industry, upholding and strengthening its expertise in turnkey industrial projects logistics. Carl E. Press retired in 1998, having already turned deugro into a globally operating group that continued to specialize in solving complex cargo requirements and challenges.
The new millennium marked the successful transition to the third generation. Thomas C. Press continued to develop, establish and steer the family-owned enterprise. His core focus was to build and strengthen the deugro brand as a specialized freight forwarder. This was achieved by offering global client services for project logistics and supply chain management, as well as air, ocean and land transportation.
A corporate identity relaunch resulted in a more modern and expressive logo to communicate deugro’s core values: high-quality staff and the best skillset in the market. The logo was complemented with the slogan “Minds over matter” in order to communicate this unique selling point. Up to the end of 2010, deugro had grown to 52 offices in 31 countries, with over 700 employees.
Only three years later, deugro had rapidly expanded to 70 offices in over 35 countries, with 900 employees.
deugro redefined its reputation and image and introduced a new claim—“the deugro difference”—which underlined the client benefit and competitive edge of working with the best minds in the freight forwarding business.
Parallel to the growth in offices worldwide, deugro also invested in and expanded its shared services divisions. After establishing the deugro Shared Functions (DSF) in the fields of Compliance, Transport Engineering, Key Account Management, QHSES, IT, HR and Marketing, these new areas of expertise and standards were essential “business enablers” for deugro in their respective fields, allowing the company to succeed in the challenging business environment in which it operated.
The unique and dynamic combination of project freight forwarding expertise, in-depth shipping industry knowledge, inventive quality engineering expertise and a deep understanding of clients’ needs was showcased by launching a new DSF: the deugro Breakbulk & Heavy Lift Chartering Division.
deugro Germany received its first ISO 9001 certificate in the early 1990s, while other subsidiaries achieved their own certificates in the following years. As a result, this essential aspect of quality and safety needed to be streamlined. Therefore, the decision was made to globally certify deugro in all three standards: ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and BS OHSAS 18001. This was made possible by achieving a global certificate in 2014.
To reflect the group’s continuous growth and a new structure, the following independent companies were integrated under the umbrella of the deugro group brand:
deugro
dship
dteq
dhaulage
With a new corporate identity and design, a streamlined tone of voice and clearer company structure, deugro group’s companies are now better equipped than ever to take on exciting challenges in the future.
In 2018, we refreshed our brand with a modern logo. deugro has experienced a decade of continuous growth. Expanding globally, deugro has opened a total of over 70 offices, developing a collaborative environment for our 1,400 employees and setting the stage for our 100-year anniversary celebration in 2024 under the motto “Moving Mountains.”
