PANALPINA_history

The Panalpina Holding in Basel was founded in 1954 by the Schweizerische Reederei AG (Swiss Shipping Ltd) and several of its owned forwarding- and transport companies, were put together under the umbrella of this holding. Panalpina today is one of the major logistic companies, operating worldwide, mainly in the sea- and airfreight business, employing about 15'000 people in over 80 countries and with a turnover of about 7 billion CHF in 2010. The company logo was designed in 1960 and the idea originated from the ink drawing "Das Glück" of the German master Peter Vischer the Younger of the 15th. century.

The base of Panalpina was formed by the the company Hans im Obersteg, Basel, which was founded in the 19th. century and was acquired in 1935 by the Schweizer Schleppschiffahrtsgenossenschaft, later in 1938 renamed Schweizerische Reederei AG (SRAG). The SRAG intended now to make better use of the Rhine fleet and participated in various other forwarding companies, such as Marchesi Lombarda S.p.A. Milano in 1938, Comptons Ltd. London in 1939, Rohner, Gehrig & Co. Inc. New York in 1947 (founded 1923 by Swiss immigrants), as well as in a subsidiary of the same name in Vienna in 1948 (this company also owned later Rhine vessels under the Austrian flag). In 1954 these forwarding companies were all united in the newly founded subsidiary company Panalpina Holding Ltd. Basel. The acquisition of Hans im Obersteg and of the other forwarding companies was an important complementary activity to the shipping operation.

In 1969 the Ernst Göhner Foundation in Zug took over some of the shares. Through further step by step purchases the foundation became the sole share holder during the eighties. Ernst Göhner (1900-1971) was a Swiss building contractor and a friend of Gottlieb Duttweiler (1888-1962), see also www.ernst-goehner-stiftung.ch. In autumn 2005 the company went to the stock exchange of Zürich and became public company.

In the founding year, Panalpina also commenced its business activities in Nigeria, which amongst others, developed into the largest heavy road transport enterprise of the country. However due to some corruption cases the Nigeria business was given up in 2008.

Today the head office of Panalpina Welttransport AG is located in its own office building (built by architect Richard Meier) in the Viaduktstrasse in Basel. In 1999 Panalpina took over the Jacky Maeder Group and became one of the world's leading logistic companies with about 800 employees in Switzerland only. Since 2006 the Panalpina Group is directed by Mrs. Monika Ribar.

In simple words, Panalpina is mainly occupied with sea- and airfreight and logistic services. The company conducts all the necessary work to bring a cargo from the shipper (sender) to the consignee (receiver), meaning, for example the cargo is collected by truck, transported to the airport or port, all documents are prepared, sea or air freight arranged, the custom's clearances carried out, import- and export licenses obtained, on the destination the cargo is delivered to the receiver's address. A large part of the transport volume is taken by the oil and gas production industry, but also other industrial goods, such as parts for car manufacturing and health care products are moved.

At the begin of the 70ties, the time of the oil boom in Nigeria, the company decided to charter complete freight planes in an effort to offer the clients at all times the necessary air freight capacity. Today Panalpina chartered cargo planes fly according to schedules to all continents. Informatics and communications were promoted intensively at an early stage. The new communication technics in the 80ties and the advent of the internet in the 90ties contributed considerably to the development of Panalpina.

End of 1986, begin of 1987 the Alpina Reederei AG (Alpina Shipping Ltd.), which managed the deep sea vessels of the Schweizerische Reederei AG (Swiss Shipping Ltd.) was closed down. The share capital was owned at equal parts by the Ernst Göhner Foundation and the Bührle Group of Zürich, it was therefore the obvious choice to delegate the management of their last two vessels, the small reefer ships BASILEA and TURICIA to Panalpina. The two vessels were taken-over in February 1987. The names remained the same, but the ships were registered in Cyprus. Initially the commercial and technical management was carried out by Panalpina, but in 1990 it was handed-over to Harmstorf Shipping Co. Ltd., Limassol. In 1996 the two ships were sold abroad.

At the same time, begin of 1987 Panalpina purchased the landing craft OSA MERLIN from OSA, Offshore Supply Association, Bremen and opened its own coastal liner service for the oil industry along the West African coast, mainly between Angola and Nigeria. The vessel sailed as MS MERLIN under the Cyprus flag. In March 1990 the new building MS MERLIN II followed, constructed in Bodenwerder on the river Weser, FRG. In November 1995 the technical management of the two vessels was allocated to ABCmaritime, Nyon, Switzerland. In August 2004 another new landing craft MERLIN III was delivered from a Turkish shipyard. Once MERLIN III arrived in West Africa the aged MS MERLIN was sold.

In summer 1992 a combined express freight service, the "African Star Service" to West Africa was introduced, a service with cargo plane and a fast crew boat. In collaboration with ABCmaritime the small crew boat CORMORAN was purchased and put into service as AFRICAN STAR. Express cargo was transported by cargo plane from Luxemburg to Port Harcourt in Nigeria, then loaded onto the AFRICAN STAR for distribution to the centres of the oil industry, as Port Gentil (Gabon), Pointe Noire (Republic of Congo) and Soyo (Angola, on the estuary of the Congo River), all ports without major international airports. As this service developed very well, a new, purpose built fast aluminium boat was ordered and constructed in New Orleans, USA. This vessel, the AFRICAN STAR 2 was delivered in December 1995 and after arrival in West Africa replaced the small, now unsuitable AFRICAN STAR, which was sold. Later Sao Tome, an island off the Gabon coast was chosen as transhipment point, a place more centrally located and with much shorter distance between airport and the harbour. However, time goes on, the conditions on the West African airports improved and in May 2010 the AFRICAN STAR 2 was sold, as she was not required for the "African Star Service" anymore.

In 2005 Panapina commenced a special project for the Caspian Sea. For the construction of a crude oil processing plant in Atyrau (in soviet times called Guryev), Kazakhstan, the prefabricated moduls (up to 650 tonnes) had to be transported to the construction site. Various projects were studied, including a possibility to use hover barges, but a transport solution with two barges on the Ural River was put into action. In cooperation with ABCmaritime two Ro-Ro barges were built in 2006 in Russia, the BELUGA in Volgograd and the BELUGA 2 in Astrakhan. After the first contract on the Ural River was completed, the barges transported heavy cargo from Poland and from Turkey over the Volga river and canal system to Kazakhstan.

HPS-SwissShips, September, 2011