In 1873, his son Peter Friedrich Cretschmar took over the management of the company. During this time, two of the company’s own steamers operated from Düsseldorf and Cologne to Rotterdam and Amsterdam. Cretschmar took over his first shipping company agency.

In 1883 Cretschmar became the first person interested in participating in Düsseldorf telephone traffic and received the telephone number 1.

Between 1885 and 1900 Cretschmar took over various shipping agencies covering both Rhine and Rhine-Sea shipping to German and European destinations in the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and the Mediterranean.

In 1895 Cretschmar founded a branch at Neuss docks..

..and in the same year it erected its own storage shed on a quay front about 110 m in length at the commercial port of Düsseldorf which was under construction.

In 1902 the foundation stone was laid for the trade fair shipping agency: Cretschmar was co-founder and partner of the forwarding company founded for the “Great Düsseldorf Industry and Commerce Exhibition”.

In 1904, the company moved its headquarters from the warehouse at Dammstraße 5 to a large office building at Stromstraße 7, directly in the harbour area of Düsseldorf.

In 1908 Cretschmar took over the large warehouse depot in the Berger port of Düsseldorf.

In 1909 Cretschmar built its own coal tipper plant in Neuss and in the same year it became the agent for direct Rhine-sea steamship transport to the main ports of southern Norway.

In 1920, two years after the end of the 1st World War, Cretschmar resumed the direct Rhine-Sea transport to England.