Are 90 years of drybulk experience sufficient?
Just add to it.
From humble beginnings through turbulent times, OLDENDORFF CARRIERS can look back on a long and storied history. This past has given us the experience for our ongoing success.
Click the points on our timeline to see important milestones:
Our story began on 19th February 1921 in Hamburg, when young Egon Oldendorff became a partner in the small shipping company that he had joined as a trainee nine months earlier. At 21, he had just come of age. The company was renamed Lilienfeld & Oldendorff and at the end of the same year, Egon Oldendorff took control of the remaining shares. He was born on 17th February 1900 in a North Sea village, where his father ran a small bank.
The first steamer, built in 1881 in Rostock, was "SS Planet" of 870 tdw, a sturdy ship that was to last for 62 years. More vessels were acquired and at the outbreak of World War Two, the company was operating 13 steamers in European waters. Most of the ships were later either requisitioned, seized, sunk or scuttled. Egon Oldendorff had to start all over again after the war with the remaining two vessels, "Gisela Oldendorff" and "Nordmark".
After the war.
After the Allies lifted restrictions on what size of ships German owners were permitted to buy or build, the fleet was built up quickly. Post-war reconstruction and the 1950–1953 Korean War created a freight-rate boom.
From humble beginnings in the Baltic bulk and forest products trade, the company grew to become Germany's largest bulk shipowner. Henning Oldendorff joined the company as CEO in 1980 at the age of 23 – his father had turned 80 a few months earlier – and became the majority shareholder at 26, when his father died on 9th May 1984.
His vision was to push for "bottom-up management" by delegating most decision-making to those employees who work closest with the cargo clients and suppliers. After opening the first base in Asia in 1989, he started up a separate cargo/parcel operator by the name of Concept Carriers in 1995. Both companies merged into OLDENDORFF CARRIERS in January 2001 and Peter Twiss became its CEO in 2003.
Download 75th Anniversary Book
