BLG Logistics

BLG Logistics Group AG & Co. KG is a seaport and logistics company with headquarters in Bremen. The operative divisions offer services for automobile, industry and trading customers. The company has nearly 100 locations in Europe, America, Asia and Africa. 65 merchants founded Bremer Lagerhaus-Gesellschaft -Aktiengesellschaft von 1877- (BLG) in February 1877. A key factor in the company's creation was the desire of Bremen cotton traders to obtain an improved warehousing and trading infrastructure, including the option of issuing warehouse receipts and warrants. The business was restricted to handling and storage; it did not include the transport of goods. The company's own initial five warehouses went into operation in 1878 on the left bank of the Weser in the Sicherheitshafen – referred to since approx. 1900 by locals as Hohentorshafen. BLG itself provided for the early connection to the railway line. In the first decade of operation, the company stored mainly grain and legumes, lard, bacon and pork, tobacco, cotton, sheep's wool and coffee. In 1888, BLG expanded its operations to the Europahafen (Free Port I) on the right bank of the Weser, which following Bremen's accession to the Customs Union (October 1888) was conceived as a free port; the relevant operating agreement between Bremen and BLG dates back to May 1888. BLG played a seminal role in the development of port facilities on the right bank of the Weser up until World War I. With its completion in 1906, the company also became active in the Free Port II, the operating agreement was amended for this purpose. Moreover, from 1897, the company ran the Getreideverkehrsanlage (grain transport system) and in 1929, it took over the Weser Railway Station. As a reaction to the ramifications of the Great Depression, BLG introduced the so-called "Krümpersystem" in the beginning of April 1932, intended to prevent unemployment through staggered furloughing of workers. The system remained in force until the end of April 1935.