Tradition and Progress

Tradition and progress have been closely intertwined in the development of L.W. Cretschmar. For without progressive thinking and entrepreneurial initiative, the forwarding and consignment company founded in 1836 by Leopold Wilhelm Cretschmar in Düsseldorf would not have grown over the generations to become the Cretschmar Group. And without the basis of its nearly 180 year old tradition with its teachings, experience and constant owner-managed focus of a classic medium-sized company, CretschmarCargo today would not enjoy the identity and flexibility that sets the company apart. Successful since 1836. Tradition means experience and knowledge. But also unity and loyalty. We’re not out to make quick deals. We want happy customers in the long term. And for us, that means doing our best every day. For our customers. For our environment. For our employees. Because this is the way of ensuring that tradition also means future. Because only through EXPERIENCE CAN WE DESIGN THE FUTURE. Open for everything new and with a keen sense of contemporary market developments, the company has placed its focus at all times on progress. What in its founding years was breaking into the then up-and-coming Rhine waterways and short sea shipping routes, was quickly followed by using rail transport as a form of transportation. In 1895 the company set up its own establishment in Neuss in order to serve the booming economy on the west of the Rhine. In 1902 this was followed by entering the trade fair business with a special forwarding company on the occasion of the Düsseldorf industrial exhibition. A further location followed in Hamburg and in 1936 the company could already look back on 100 years of corporate history. In 1937 the Wuppertal establishment was opened to tap into the business in the region of the “Bergisches Land”; in 1949 entry into the air cargo business took place. At the end of the 1950s, the flow of traffic transferred increasingly from boat transport to heavy goods vehicles and Cretschmar set up appropriate local and long-distance routes both nationally and internationally in the newly-founded European Economic Community. In 1968 a branch in Stuttgart was set up and, with the founding of L.W. Cretschmar Espanola in Irun, a move overseas to the Iberian peninsula represented a further major step forwards into the future. Shortly after German reunification in 1990, the first branch in eastern Germany was founded in Leipzig and commenced activities, which served to drive the expansion of the regular nationwide service. With the additional settlement of Cretschmar MesseCargo, account was also taken of Leipzig regaining its strength as a trade fair centre. The 1990s were additionally characterised by an increasing integration of stable data processing solutions for the entire organisation. With the Night Star Express service, in 1995 Cretschmar entered the booming market for overnight express deliveries. 1997 saw the takeover of operations of the largest high rack warehouse complex in Europe in Düsseldorf. The cooperation that had existed for many years with similarly managed medium-sized forwarding companies in Germany and Europe led in 2001 to the start of the System Alliance bulk goods cooperation and in 2006 to the System Alliance Europe. L.W. Cretschmar GmbH & Co. KG is a founding partner in both cooperations. The inauguration in 2011 of the new freight forwarding platform in Düsseldorf for national and European groupage transport was a vitally important strategic investment with an eye to the future. Likewise, the construction of the new overnight express deliveries headquarters, also located in Düsseldorf, was a decisive step in improving competitiveness. With the disincorporation of L.W. Cretschmar Süd by Oliver Rüter in the 4th generation of the CretschmarCargo family, in 2016 extra attention was devoted to strengthening operations in Spain and Southern Europe. As a strategic addition, the Wuppertal branch was established in 2020 as the fourth German location of L.W. Cretschmar Süd, further expanding the range of services in the Rhine-Ruhr region with a focus on selected southern European markets.