Dachser keeps it in the family

European logistics company Dachser has become a Societas Europaea (SE) – a modern, pan-European company structure – but insists that it will remain a family-owned firm and is not planning to list on the stock market.
Dachser spokesman Christian Weber said: “Dachser is and will be a 100 per cent family-owned company. We will not turn ourselves into a publicly listed company. There has never been a discussion about that.”
Dachser GmbH & Co. KG has transferred its Air & Sea Logistics and its Road Logistics (including the European Logistics and Food Logistics Business Lines) businesses to a 100 per cent-owned subsidiary, Dachser SE.
Dachser GmbH & Co KG itself will operate as a holding company called Dachser Group SE & Co KG.
Introduced in 204, the SE is a type of public limited-liability company regulated under European Union law that allows firms to reorganise their activities under a single European label and to transfer registered offices to another EU country without having to dissolve the company.
The Dachser spokesman added: “As a family-owned company Dachser is proud of its heritage and its roots in Kempten, Germany, which will remain the corporate headquarters.
“Dachser’s  business is international and so is now also our legal form. We have grown considerably over the last years throughout Europe and also on global markets – organically and also via acquisitions."
He continued: "Over the years, the legal structure has become quite complex  – so the SE offers Dachser the ideal framework to combine a  corporate holding company structure with our subsidiaries in Germany and abroad.
"The transition to SE streamlines the overall organisational structure, and it also makes the integration of future acquisitions into the company easier – not that we plan any concrete ones right now.”
Around 700 SE registrations have been made since 2011, their number including household names such as chemical producer BASF, insurers Allianz and truck-maker MAN.