According to our latest records, out of 5.3 million companies registered in Germany, 27,334 operate in the goods transportation industry. In this overview, we look at the 10 largest of these companies. Our ranking may not be completely accurate because some companies have separate legal entities in individual countries while others consolidate results from several countries within one legal entity.
Deutsche Post DHL Group is the largest company in terms of sales
The largest company in terms of sales is Deutsche Post DHL Group. This company’s predecessor was Deutsche Bundespost, which was privatized in 1992 to form the company it is today. Later, the company bought, among others, DHL International. In 2021, Deutsche Post DHL Group had consolidated sales of more than EUR 81B, which represents a 22.5% growth compared to 2020.
Schenker AG is second. In 2021 the company generated EUR 47B in consolidated sales, which represents a 18% increase compared to the year before. DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG is third. Last year, the company made EUR 7.1B in sales (a 24.07% increase compared to 2020).
In these three cases, we used consolidated data for the entire company (including their foreign branches). Sales numbers for the following three companies represent unconsolidated data.
Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG is a global transport company that was founded in 1890 in Bremen (Germany). In recent years, its sales were above EUR 3.5B per year. Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG is a company from Osnabrück (Germany) founded in 1871. According to our latest records, the company's sales were above EUR 2.4B per year during the past several years. DPD Deutschland GmbH’s parent company operates throughout Europe and is part of the French La Poste Groupe. Between 2018 and 2020, DPD’s annual sales were around EUR 2B.
Hermes Germany GmbH is a relatively young transport company founded in 2009. Sales numbers are publicly available only for 2020 and 2021. In 2020, Hermes Germany generated EUR 1.18B in sales. In 2021 the company generated less than half of that amount (EUR 452M).
Among the remaining three companies is Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition which was founded in 1946 in Germany. The company transports liquids for the chemical and food industries. According to our latest records, Hoyer’s annual sales were around EUR 1.1B in the past couple of years. Next is Innight Express Germany GmbH, which focuses on overnight B2B delivery of goods. During the past several years the company generated more than EUR 200M per year in sales.
The last company on our list is World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH with annual sales of more than EUR 70M (2020). Its parent company, World Courier, was established at the end of 1960s in New York (USA).
Sales of the TOP 10 German transport companies (in EUR)
| Company | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deutsche Post DHL Group | € 61.55B | € 63.34B | € 66.72B | € 81.75B |
| Schenker AG | € 44.06B | € 44.43B | € 39.90B | € 47.08B |
| DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG | € 5.653B | € 5.729B | € 5.722B | € 7.100B |
| Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG | € 3.599B | € 3.734B | € 3.943B | - |
| Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG | € 2.624B | € 2.469B | € 2.620B | - |
| DPD Deutschland GmbH | € 1.879B | € 1.981B | € 2.244B | - |
| Hermes Germany GmbH | - | - | € 1.184B | € 452.4M |
| Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition | € 1.167B | € 1.177B | € 1.119B | - |
| Innight Express Germany GmbH | € 253.9M | € 238.3M | € 224.8M | - |
| World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH | € 57.92M | € 61.37M | € 72.47M | - |
Deutsche Post DHL Group has the highest profit before and after tax
Unlike some of the other companies on the top 10 list, Deutsche Post DHL Group managed to increase its pre-tax profit from EUR 2.5B in 2018 to EUR 7.3B in 2021. According to the 2021 annual report, this success was primarily caused by increased demand during the pandemic.
Schenker AG, the company that had the second highest sales in 2021, reported a pre-tax loss of EUR 788M. DPD Deutschland GmbH, Hermes Germany GmbH and Innight Express Germany GmbH also reported a loss. The remaining companies - DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG (+EUR 344M), Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG (+EUR 280M), Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG (+EUR 74M), Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition (+EUR 34.3M), World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH (+EUR 3.2M) - all reported a profit.
Earnings before tax (EBT) of the TOP 10 German transport companies (in EUR)
| Company | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deutsche Post DHL Group | € 2.586B | € 3.474B | € 4.171B | € 7.359B |
| Schenker AG | € 1.172B | € 681.0M | € -5.484B | € -788.0M |
| DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG | € 268.4M | € 271.7M | € 344.1M | - |
| Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG | € 79.51M | € 136.8M | € 280.5M | - |
| Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG | € 71.04M | € 19.57M | € 74.02M | - |
| DPD Deutschland GmbH | € -40.84M | € -23.98M | € -19.70M | - |
| Hermes Germany GmbH | - | - | € -90.93M | € -13.82M |
| Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition | € 40.22M | € 38.05M | € 34.38M | - |
| Innight Express Germany GmbH | € 3.496M | € -5.631M | € -18,117 | - |
| World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH | € 1.553M | € 2.171M | € 3.241M | - |
Deutsche Post DHL Group also leads with profit after tax (EUR 5.4B in 2021). Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG (+EUR 238M), DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG (+EUR 228M), Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG (+EUR 56M), and World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH (+EUR 2.2M) also reported a profit after tax.
Schenker AG (-EUR 911M), Hermes Germany GmbH (-EUR 13.9M) and Innight Express Germany GmbH (-EUR 55 thousand) all reported a loss.
Earnings after tax (EAT) of the TOP 10 German transport companies (in EUR)
| Company | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deutsche Post DHL Group | € 2.224B | € 2.776B | € 3.176B | € 5.423B |
| Schenker AG | € 542.0M | € 680.0M | € -5.707B | € -911.0M |
| DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG | € 171.0M | € 173.4M | € 228.9M | - |
| Kühne + Nagel (AG & Co.) KG | € 62.51M | € 110.9M | € 238.4M | - |
| Hellmann Worldwide Logistics SE & Co. KG | € 45.52M | € 5.442M | € 56.13M | - |
| DPD Deutschland GmbH | € -41.41M | € -23.50M | € -19.70M | - |
| Hermes Germany GmbH | - | - | € -91.31M | € -13.92M |
| Hoyer GmbH Internationale Fachspedition | - | - | - | - |
| Innight Express Germany GmbH | € 3.101M | € -5.657M | € -55,372 | - |
| World Courier (Deutschland) GmbH | € 1.060M | € 1.394M | € 2.201M | - |
Deutsche Post DHL Group and DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG have the highest earnings after tax
During the past 4 years Deutsche Post DHL Group was the most successful German transport company. While in 2018 it generated EUR 61.5M in sales, in 2021 it increased sales by 32.8% to EUR 81.7M. At the same time, Deutsche Post DHL Group more than doubled its profit after tax from EUR 2.2M to EUR 5.4M. DACHSER Group SE & Co. KG was similarly successful - it increased sales from EUR 5.6M in 2018 to EUR 7.1M in 2021 (a 26.7% increase). The company with the highest losses in the past two years was Schenker AG.
If you want to do a more detailed analysis of European companies, you can use HitHorizons Financial Reports. Financial Reports allows users to search in the European database of company reports, and the results can be downloaded as PDFs or JSON files for further processing in any software.
