A.P. Møller - Maersk has announced the integration of Safmarine and DAMCO, aiming to further improve customer experience and end-to-end service delivery. Due to the strategic changes, the Safmarine and Damco brands will no longer be marketed by the end of 2020.
These changes represent a significant step towards becoming an integrated container transport and logistics company, according to the company's announcement.
"Taking these steps are key to accelerating our transformation," commented Vincent Clerc, CEO of ocean & logistics at A.P. Møller - Maersk.
"With the integration of Safmarine, we can present Safmarine customers with the full ocean and supply chain offering and more scale," added Clerc.
"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," said the Danish company in its statement.
The Damco brand’s Air and LCL (Less than Container Load) offering will be combined with Maersk’s logistics and service products to complement its end-to-end offering. Also, a more simplified and customer-centric global Ocean & Logistics organisation is being introduced.
Maersk highlighted its use of the carrier's own assets to offer unique value propositions, hence it will not pursue the Ocean FCL multi-carrier product (NVOCC) as a general offering.
Moreover, the container shipping company stated it 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 operate as two separate brands with a differentiated service model.
