Ten Bremen companies in the import and export business

The right location for a business depends on many factors - infrastructure, location, but also labor supply and quality of life. Bremen convinces companies from Germany and abroad with numerous location factors.

Bremen is Germany’s sixth-largest industrial hub in terms of revenue. Whether the sector is aerospace, food, automotive, shipping or steel production, Bremen has always been a major player.

New settlement in Bremen: for three decades, the Brüning Group had its company headquarters in Fischerhude. In the summer of 2023, the rapidly expanding company moved its head offices to the Überseeinsel in the Überseestadt (the New Harbour District) in Bremen. A modern brick-built office block with a glass facade now stands where Kellogg's once stored rice.

High interest rates, soaring rents, faltering supply chains and low consumer demand: does this mean the end of the good times for the once record-breaking logistics facilities sector? How is Bremen doing as a property hotspot and how can it safeguard its future?

BLG LOGISTICS GROUP AG & Co. KG’s AutoTerminal in Bremerhaven is a record-breaking automotive hub. Every year, the terminal handles some 1.7 million vehicles. But that’s not all.

165 years after it was founded, the Lloyd Werft was on the verge of collapse. "This business is part of our city" said ship-building company owner Thorsten Rönner. So, together with Kurt Zech, a construction entrepreneur and ship owner based in Bremen, he bought the company. The enterprise will return to its origins as a ship repair yard, as part of the business group run by Rönner and his brothers.

The gastronomy scene in Bremen's Überseestadt is incredibly diverse. Let us take you on a tour of the district's kitchens.

Despite crises and economic challenges, Bremen remains an attractive real estate location – as proven by these 8 selected new construction projects completed in 2022.

Robot football, exports, fish fingers and sundials – here are nine examples where Bremen is often at the top of the podium.

What would a port city be without shipping companies? Like a town without musicians, perhaps – so it’s a good thing that Bremen is home to a lot of national and international shipping companies. We’ll show you which ones.

Bremen without logistics – inconceivable! But what do the more than 1,000 companies that make up the sector actually do? We introduce ten logistics firms.

The federal state of Bremen is home to approximately 676,000 people on 420 square kilometres. Almost 22,000 companies provide more than 336,000 jobs. We present the strong sectors of Bremen as a business location.

What is the best place for a European high-tech expansion? Berlin? Paris? London? The Turkish robot producer Searover has chosen Bremen. Because there's something here that the megacities can't compete with. Welcome to Bremen - Bremen'e hoşgeldiniz!

Trade and industry are Bremen's economic heavyweights. This is an infographic of the sectors, revenues and products involved.

A year ago, hsag ON relocated to Bremen. For company co-owner Matthias Schmidt, the move has paid off: more than 100 employees will soon be working in the new offices in the Tabakquartier. How did this rapid growth happen?

Classic cars are collectors' pieces and investments. Anyone who wants one can call on the services of Michael Esin: his company, LPL Automotive, sources classic cars all over the world and brings them to his customers' preferred locations, via the Bremerhaven container terminal.

Bremen's ports are the engine that drives economic activity throughout the region. But do you know which goods arrive and depart, and where? We have taken a look around the eight port complexes in Bremen.

Urban, sustainable and multi-storey – is that what the urban logistics facility of the future look like? We are talking to Markus Meyer, Head of Northern Germany for Goodman, the property developers.

Cargo bikes are truly multitalented – they are not just appreciated by private individuals, but also those in business. Bremen is supporting the cargo bike in business and trade with a wider range of initiatives. Here is an overview.

Corona has triggered a boom in demand, but facilities are facing changing requirements and questions of sustainability at the same time. What are the developments currently facing the logistics properties sector?

The Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is composed of two cities, namely the city of Bremen itself (population approx. 568,000) and the port city of Bremerhaven (population approx. 114,000). The two cities are 53 km apart, but together they comprise the German federal state that carries the official designation “Free Hanseatic City of Bremen.”

Artificial intelligence (AI) is also making its way into the maritime industry. It enables autonomous systems, more efficient processes and safer operations. An overview of the state of AI in shipping and port industries with current examples.

An award-winning pioneer – Bremen’s Cargo Distribution Center (GVZ) was the first of its kind in Germany and is still one of the leading hubs domestically and internationally. Investors and logistics specialists alike value the benefits it offers.

Today Tamim Fannoush is an enthusiastic Bremen citizen. The Libyan originally came to the Hanseatic city to do business here. Now he lives here - and with his growing business he helps to take advantage of business opportunities in a rather unknown African country.

The autonomous, civilian MUM submarine has been designed to spend days and weeks submerged performing tasks for research and industry.

The new Silk Road is China's gigantic infrastructure project. Small and medium sized European companies can profit from it - a new network will help them. We talked to the initiators.

Bremen’s economy relies on logistics, whether road, sea, or rail. But do you know how many goods arrive in Bremen every year? Or how tall the tower would be if all the shipping containers in Bremerhaven were stacked on top of each other? We have crunched the numbers.

Bremen-based start-up cellumation has already won various awards for its invention, but now the company is really taking off. It has developed a new conveyor system called Celluveyor, whose modular construction makes it significantly more flexible and means it requires less space than conventional systems.

Logistics is the backbone of the German economy. There are few places where this is more obvious than in Bremen and Bremerhaven, which is why companies are keen to base themselves here.

In this interview, Andreas Heyer, CEO of Bremeninvest, explains the nature of the Überseestadt property market, the area’s positioning within the sector, and his assessment of its future prospects.

At her company Sabine Grimm Yacht & Interior Design, the passionate sailor from Hastedt, Bremen, offers 65,000 fabric samples – to the delight of yacht designers from all over the world who can find many rarities in Grimm’s treasure trove of textiles.

Bremen is expanding. Several construction projects will reshape the city centre. The 2018 Bremen property market report – an overview of office, logistics and retail properties, and of investment market trends – confirms that the city is an attractive location for investors and developers.

Europe’s largest terminal for breakbulk and heavy-lift cargo is located in Neustadt port. After Antwerp, Bremen’s ports are the second most important transshipment hub in Europe for forestry products, steel products and machinery. The federal state of Bremen is preparing for the future in a highly competitive market.

Global commerce would be impossible without shipping, and wind farms at sea are indispensable for energy provision on land. Yet maritime transport systems and infrastructure are exposed to a wide range of risks. The German Aerospace Centre’s (DLR) new institute in Bremerhaven aims to identify these risks and work with businesses to develop safeguards.

Exciting times in Überseestadt, Bremen’s New Harbour District. Large parts of the old 400 metre long Schuppen 3 building are to be demolished to make way for a new quarter featuring a mix of apartments, offices, retail units and services. And there is a good reason why it will be called EuropaQuartier.

The depths of the ocean remain one of the last great mysteries on Earth. What is the precise composition of the seafloor? What flora and fauna inhabit it? Where has the delicate balance of the ecosystem been seriously disrupted? We still don’t have complete answers to any of these questions, but four young scientists from Bremen are aiming to change that.

Bremen has the right location to suit any company, from the logistics sector at the Cargo Distribution Center (GVZ) to research institutes at the Technology Park and international companies at Bremen Airport-Stadt. Or perhaps you are looking for more of a mix of sectors to stimulate creativity? We can show you the right business park to suit your needs.

On the south side of the Europahafen, it’s full steam ahead for a new urban development showpiece – the Überseeinsel peninsula. Formerly the business premises of Kellogg’s, this 15-hectare pocket of land now has investment backing from Europa Immobilien GmbH, represented by Dr Klaus Meier. In our interview, he talks about opportunities, challenges, and visions for the future for the Überseeinsel.

Unloading shipping containers requires manual work, which is pretty unusual in the automated and digitalised world of logistics. But a Bremen-based research project aims to change all this with its IRiS robot.

In December 2014, ORTEC GmbH moved from Lower Saxony to Bremen. The software specialist hoped to strengthen its market position by moving to the city’s Überseestadt district. Around three and a half years later, we got in touch with the company again to ask whether the move has been a success.

Shipbuilding is a key sector of Bremen’s maritime economy. Bremen and Bremerhaven are home to prestigious international suppliers as well as innovative young companies. We present 13 companies involved in shipbuilding from all stages of the process chain.

Bremen-based company Home & Marine works in a sector that generates huge interest, but is often shrouded in secrecy – it builds complex entertainment systems for mega-yachts. The company is reluctant to speak about customers and orders, but since it was founded just over 25 years ago, Home & Marine has worked on more than 100 yachts.

The research alliance ROBEX is sending robots up active volcanoes and down into the deepest and darkest seas. Working across disciplines, the 120 scientists of the 16 institutes involved are breaking new ground on this project. They have been eagerly waiting to find out what has happened to the TRAMPER diving robot, which has been exploring the deep seas around Spitsbergen for a year. Now they are ready to bring it back.

A growing number of companies are becoming more aware of their social and environmental footprint, and are looking for ways to act with greater environmental and social responsibility. Germany’s north-west is set to become the national centre for social entrepreneurship in logistics. A new platform is under development and the first round of events is being planned to achieve this goal.

BLG Logistics Group is a major player in logistics with 18,000 employees. It established the Digilab in Bremen as a core element of its digitalisation. The company’s premises are reminiscent of start-ups in Silicon Valley, and there are good reasons for that.

In the space of just a few years, the maritime city of Bremerhaven has developed into a service centre for the seafaring and shipbuilding industry. At the centre of it all is the company German Dry Docks, whose managing director, Guido Försterling, has already heralded the era of ‘seafaring 4.0’.

How will the UK’s impending exit from the EU affect the logistics sector? Günther Hörbst, Managing Director of the Via Bremen Foundation, on the economic links between the United Kingdom and the EU