Maersk to absorb Safmarine & Damco brands to simplify supply chains

September 1, 2020: A.P. Moller - Maersk today announced its plan to integrate its container carrier brand Safmarine and Damco brand’s Air & LCL (Less than Container Load) offerings into Maersk to provide simplified end-to-end integrated ocean & logistics offering to its customers.

Though both are A.P. Moller–Maersk Group companies, Safmarine is a container carrier focused on trade to and from emerging markets in Africa and West Central Asia, while Damco is one of the largest air & ocean freight forwarders in the world. Due to the changes, the Safmarine and Damco brands will no longer be marketed by the end of 2020.

Vincent Clerc, chief executive officer, ocean & logistics, A.P. Moller – Maersk, said, “Our customers are at the heart of our vision. Their evolving supply chain needs are increasing the demand for multiple modes of transport and to meet these needs, we’re bringing our company’s expertise and capabilities even closer together.”

A.P. Moller - Maersk announces changes in Ocean & Logistics to enhance customer experience. The Safmarine brand and Damco’s Air and LCL will be integrated into Maersk’s logistics and services products to complement its end-to-end offering. Learn more: https://t.co/ooyfWSFL8r pic.twitter.com/SoqJnekpXF

— Maersk (@Maersk) September 1, 2020

Safmarine
Over time, the value propositions of Maersk and Safmarine have converged, as both brands have been focusing on building a customer-centric culture and as the digital interactions with customers have increased.

“With the integration of Safmarine, we can present Safmarine customers with the full ocean and supply chain offering and more scale. At the same time, I’m very excited to have Safmarine’s passion for customers closer to Maersk by uniting our teams,” he said.

Damco
Since focusing purely on freight forwarding in 2018, Damco has demonstrated significant value to customers in the Air and Ocean LCL space. During this time, it has become apparent through close customer engagements that the value proposition of Maersk can be greatly enhanced with the expansion of multiple modes of transport.

The integration of Air and LCL into Maersk will help meet these needs and give businesses access to a simplified, connected and agile experience under the Maersk brand, as well as to its scale. Maersk uses its own assets to offer unique value propositions, hence it will not pursue the Ocean FCL Multi-carrier product (NVOCC) as a general offering.

“Businesses need Air and LCL products to connect their supply chains and with these offerings firmly placed in our global integrated portfolio, we aim to serve our businesses better and more efficiently across their supply chains,” he said.

Organisational restructuring
In addition, Maersk will simplify its organisational structure across Ocean & Logistics globally to further improve customer centricity and efficiency. As part of this, the back offices of Maersk and Hamburg Süd will come closer together into more customer-centric teams, while continuing to meet customers as two separate brands with a differentiated service model.