Damco to move headquarters to The Hague

   The headquarters of the freight forwarder and logistics company Damco will move from Copenhagen, Denmark, to The Hague in the Netherlands in the first quarter of 2013, the company said Tuesday.
   Damco, a unit of the A.P. Moller-Maersk Group, will join sister company APM Terminals in the Dutch city, and away from the location of the group headquarters.
   The move is aimed at bringing Damco “closer to the heart of the European logistics community and supports its strategy to become a top five industry player in the years to come,” the company said.
   “In The Hague, we will be closer to many of our customers, our main air and sea carriers, Europe’s biggest transportation hubs, as well as our competition and the kind of additional international logistics experience we’ll be looking to hire as we continue to grow,” said Damco Chief Executive Officer Rolf Habben-Jansen.
   Damco earned $97 million in operating profits in 2011, a nearly five-fold increase from 2009, with the improvement driven by strong business in Asian and African markets.
   “Our goals are ambitious and to reach them will require a combination of organic growth and selected acquisitions as well as strict attention to all of our costs,” Habben-Jansen said. “Only that will create the needed flexibility to invest when opportunities arise.”
   Damco said the move to The Hague will allow the company to “further optimize its cost structure, bringing it closer to the level of its primary competitors in the region.”
   The move will start at the end of the fourth quarter this year, with the transition to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2013. About half of the 150 Damco employees in Copenhagen will be affected by the move, with the other half to remain in Copenhagen to handle IT functions. – Eric Johnson