History
About DFDS´ history
DFDS was founded in 1866, when C. F. Tietgen merged the three biggest Danish steamship companies of the day, and thus celebrated its 140th anniversary in 2006.
From its inception, DFDS was involved in domestic as well as international trade, transporting both freight and passengers. DFDS’ international activities started in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, followed later by the Mediterranean. Towards the end of the 19th century, routes were also established to the USA and South America.
Land-based transport and logistics also became a part of DFDS’ business activities as freight transport by land began to grow, and in the 1960s a door-to-door concept for freight was developed.
A passenger route between New York and Miami, based on a cruise-ferry concept, was opened in 1982 but did not live up to expectations and closed in 1983. Subsequently, the DFDS Group was restructured and the activities in the Mediterranean and the routes to the USA and South America were sold.
Since then, DFDS’ geographic focus for shipping has been Northern Europe.
Land-based haulage and logistics activities were developed on the basis of organic growth and company acquisitions. By the late 1990s, DFDS Dan Transport had become one of the largest land-based transport companies in Northern Europe.
DFDS Dan Transport was sold in 2000 to concentrate the Group’s resources on shipping, and a focused new shipping strategy was introduced in January 2001.
Since then, freight and passenger shipping has also been developed on the basis of organic growth and a series of acquisitions. The most important investments have been in the Swedish passenger and freight shipping company Tor Line in the early 80s, the Norwegian freight shipping company North Sea Line in the late 90s, the Lithuanian freight and passengers shipping company LISCO in 2001 and the Norwegian freight shipping company Lys-Line in 2003.
In recent years, organic growth has been generated among other things by investments in tonnage, including the contract for six ro-ro newbuildings from Flensburg Shipyard, which has been critical to the development of DFDS’ freight activities in recent years.
DFDS is today one of the leading passenger and freight shipping companies in Northern Europe.
Books about DFDS
If you are interested to buy the various books written about DFDS, you can order them here.