Through the eyes #18
Wednesday 23 November 2022
This week we take you to Germany to discover the eighteenth and final story from UniCredit's 2021 Annual Report. The Dettmer Group, a company specialised in logistics, has always recognised the importance of sustainability, investing in sustainable business models to secure its future. The longstanding strategic banking partnership with UniCredit HypoVereinsbank has helped them achieve new heights and will continue to do so. Read this success story!
The Dettmer Group is a logistics company, active throughout Germany with around 1,200 employees.
The Group was founded in 1947, recognizing from the outset the importance of investing in sustainable business models in order to secure its future.
To demonstrate this commitment, it began extensive activities in inland shipping, one of the least environmentally damaging modes of transport, in addition to operating 25 tankers in Europe’s waterways.
Today, a total of 32 different companies are united under the umbrella of the family-owned company. As well as inland shipping, it deploys container logistics, project logistics, air freight, waste disposal, and recycling at the “Die Grünen Engel” plant in Nuremberg, which it owns.
This responsible approach has also led it to employ innovative new propulsion systems using hydrogen technology.
Sustainability is fundamental to the Dettmer Group’s activities, and it will remain fundamental as the Group expands with further acquisitions in the future. “Sustainability and in particular the recycling of valuable raw materials is a growth market from our point of view”, says Heiner Dettmer, Dettmer Group CEO, who has been at the helm of the Bremen-based company for more than 30 years.
We need banks that not only want to sell us something but advise us so that we can expand and breathe in other areas as well.
UniCredit HypoVereinsbank has been the Dettmer Group’s strategic banking partner for many years. The bank has assisted with financing bilateral acquisitions, allowed a high degree of flexibility, and provided both competent advice and knowledge from experience of company takeovers. The relationship has imbued the Group with the confidence to make quick decisions and has helped to make unusual solutions possible.
UniCredit HypoVereinsbank’s close cooperation and intensive involvement with the Dettmer Group’s business model can be seen as recently as 2021. UniCredit coordinated a debut syndicated loan for the company, which bundled and refinanced almost all bilateral loans and credit lines of its subsidiaries.
The Group was confident in allowing UniCredit to act as bookrunner, mandated lead arranger, and doc agent in this transaction, based on its positive experiences with the bank in previous years. Once more the support of UniCredit is ensuring the Dettmer Group can achieve new heights, as this solid financing foundation allows the company to continue investing in growth and sustainability.
“We need banks that not only want to sell us something but advise us so that we can expand and breathe in other areas as well. This is not a matter of course, but it works very well with UniCredit HypoVereinsbank”, commented Heiner Dettmer about the successful cooperation.
Discover more stories from our 2021 Annual Report here: