The Buss Group Celebrates Its 100th Anniversary

The Buss Group is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. In the autumn of 1920, the Gerd Buss Stevedoring Company was founded. Since the generational change in 1990, the Buss Group has undergone significant transformation and diversification. In addition to port logistics, the business fields now include wind energy, logistics real estate, shipping, and investments.

(Hamburg) The Buss Group is celebrating its 100th birthday these days. For many decades, Buss was primarily a port company with up to four handling terminals in the Port of Hamburg. Today, the owner-managed group of companies, with around 500 employees, is diversified across the fields of port logistics, wind energy, logistics real estate, shipping, and investments.

Founded in 1920 in the Port of Hamburg

Shortly after the end of World War I, the economy and thus the Port of Hamburg experienced a new beginning. In this prosperous environment, Gerd Buss, a former officer of a shipping company, founded the eponymous stevedoring company. The company quickly made a name for itself in loading and unloading ships. Within ten years, Gerd Buss, together with his brother Hinrich, developed the Gerd Buss Stevedoring Company into one of the largest in Hamburg.

From Stevedoring to Maritime Logistics Group

100 years later, port logistics now accounts for only a small part of the Buss Group. After World War II, the company prospered mainly during the economic miracle years until the 1980s. The rapid advancement of containerization in the piece goods traffic since the 1960s made the core business of the Buss Group, conventional cargo handling, increasingly redundant. Buss had to seek new areas of activity.

Important Milestones in Company History

Important milestones in the history of Buss include the new beginning after World War II (1945), the merger with the shipping company Aug. Bolten to strengthen the capital base (1970), the entry into the logistics real estate business (1995), the takeover of the Buss Group by the current managing partner Dr. Johann Killinger (2002), the founding of the investment house Buss Capital (2003), the agreement with the City of Hamburg on the closure of all Buss terminals in the Port of Hamburg (2009), the entry into the shipping business (2009), and the establishment of the wind energy sector (from 2011).”We have reached the 100th anniversary because we have succeeded in continuously adapting to the rapidly changing market. I would like to especially thank our employees for this. A very special thanks also goes to our customers, some of whom have trusted us for decades,” said Dr. Killinger, managing partner.

An Overview of the Business Fields of Today’s Buss Group:

Port Logistics

The high costs associated with the closure of the Buss Hansa Terminal in Hamburg in 2016 necessitated a reorganization of the “Port” business area. Today, Buss offers maritime factory logistics services and still provides classic stevedoring services in Hamburg. Outside of Hamburg, Buss operates terminals in Sassnitz/Mukran, Stade, the Dutch Eemshaven, and a factory port in Duisburg, either alone or in partnerships. The port activities of the Buss Group are summarized under the name “Buss Ports.”

Logistics Real Estate

A milestone in the company’s history was the entry into the logistics and logistics real estate business in the 1990s. This area is now an important pillar of the Buss Group under the name Ixocon. The business model is based on developing logistics centers and selling them to investors after successful completion. Some logistics real estate is held in Buss’s own portfolio. Since the founding of the business area in 1995, Ixocon has realized 54 projects with more than 800,000 m2 of warehouse space and an investment volume of over 600 million euros. The geographical focus was initially Hamburg. Today, Ixocon develops logistics real estate nationwide. The logistics project completed for Amazon in 2019 is the largest logistics center realized by Ixocon at 150,000 m² and is also one of the largest for Amazon in Europe.

Investments

In 2003, Buss founded the emission house Buss Capital, which designs and markets closed-end funds in the field of maritime logistics. Within a few years, Buss Capital became the market leader in container funds and an important financial partner for container leasing companies. In 2006, Buss Capital refinanced the entire leasing fleet of the Chinese leasing company Florens for 860 million US dollars. In the following years, Buss Capital expanded into additional investment markets starting in 2008 with real estate funds, ship funds, and funds in the booming cruise market. To date, around 31,000 investors have invested approximately 1.1 billion euros in a total of 88 funds and direct investments, as well as an alternative investment fund. The total investment volume of the placed investments amounts to around 2.5 billion euros.Over time, Buss Capital has built up a significant competitive advantage, especially in container investments. This concerns the procurement of containers, the management of container portfolios, and sales. For the innovative securitization of container investments for the US capital market, Buss Capital received the “Deal of the Year” award twice from the financial market organization “Marine Money.”As part of a strategic realignment, the management team of Buss Capital founded a new company in 2020: Buss Capital Invest designs and markets tangible asset investments outside of closed-end funds and direct investments. Its focus is on bearer bonds, other similar asset investments, and digital capital investments. An initial product is in planning. A fixed-interest investment with a short term is expected to be launched in early October.

Shipping

The shipping activities of Buss, summarized under Buss Shipping, merged in 2017 with the traditional shipping company Leonhardt & Blumberg. The new joint venture operates more than 45 container ships. The chartering is handled by Hanseatic Unity Chartering. This company, based in Hamburg and Singapore, consolidates the chartering activities of five shipping companies: Bernhard Schulte, Reederei Nord, Borealis Maritime, Atlantic Lloyd, and Leonhardt & Blumberg, with a total of more than 210 container ships. The merger has proven to be a very sensible step in the container shipping industry, which has been shaken by crises since 2009.

Wind Energy

The seed of the wind energy sector is the Buss Terminal in Eemshaven, which has served primarily as a base port for the logistics of offshore wind farms in the North Sea since 2011. Today, Buss offers not only logistics for offshore wind turbines but also installation and service for wind turbines on land and at sea. Recently, drone-based inspection services with automatic damage detection and weather-independent blade repair platforms have been added. In addition, Buss has established joint ventures with local partners in France and the USA to grow with the markets in the field of renewable energies. Since 2019, all wind energy activities of Buss have been bundled in the holding “Buss Energy Group.”

About the Buss Group

The owner-managed company offers services with its approximately 500 employees in Europe, the USA, and Singapore. The group of companies is engaged in the following business fields: in the Port Services sector, Buss offers its customers port service and factory logistics services; in the Buss Energy Group area, Buss consolidates various companies in onshore and offshore wind energy; Ixocon develops and manages logistics real estate; the shipping companies operate a fleet of modern container feeder ships and bulkers; and the emission house Buss Capital focuses on funds and investments in the container sector.

About Dr. Johann Killinger, Managing Partner

Dr. Johann Killinger is the managing partner of the Buss Group. He was born in Hamburg in 1960. After studying law in Freiburg, Munich, Berlin, and San Francisco, he passed the second state examination in law in Berlin in 1990. He began his professional career at the consulting firm Roland Berger. In 1991, Dr. Killinger joined the Buss Group, in which his family held a minority stake at the time. He built up the logistics and logistics real estate business areas. In 2000, he took over all company shares in these areas, and in 2002 all shares in the Buss Group. In 2003, Dr. Killinger founded the emission house Buss Capital, followed by Buss Shipping in 2009, which later merged with Leonhardt and Blumberg Shipmanagement, and in 2011, the entry into wind energy. Photos: © Buss Group www.buss-group.com