Maersk acquires Dutch company B2C Europe

Container shipping company Maersk is taking over B2C Europe, an e-fulfilment service provider based in the Dutch city of Almere. The acquisition is aligned with the Danish company’s ambition of evolving into a fully-fledged logistics service provider. It also offers new growth opportunities for B2C Europe.

Founded in 2000, B2C Europe currently has 180 employees and offices in the Netherlands, France, Spain, the UK and China. It has its own fleet of trucks to transport e-commerce orders to parcel delivery companies’ distribution centres.

“Up until now we have financed our own growth, but e-commerce is scaling up and we have to keep pace,” stated Martijn van der Geer, Commercial Director of the Almere-based company, in the Dutch financial newspaper FD.

B2C Europe has access to the distribution networks of various courier companies, including DHL, PostNL and DPD, which enables it to identify the most suitable partner for each customer’s shipments. “We source delivery contracts for our customers on a large scale,” explained Van der Geer, whose clients include Amazon, eBay, L’Oréal and the Chinese-American company Wish.

Securing a foothold in e-commerce

Acquiring B2C Europe will help Maersk to secure a foothold for itself in e-commerce. As the world’s largest container shipping company, it is striving to expand its logistics services for customers so that it can take care of their goods all the way from the factory to the warehouse or distribution centre – in other words, including road freight and air freight.

Takeover of US-based Visible Supply Chain Management

In addition to B2C Europe, Maersk is also acquiring the company called Visible Supply Chain Management based in Salt Lake City, USA. Founded in 1992, it too is specialized in e-commerce logistics. The price tag for the acquisition of both B2C Europe and Visible Supply Chain Management is not to be sneezed at. The takeovers are costing the Danish container shipping company approximately US$924 million in total.