A new majority stake acquisition of Roland Spedition GmbH, a full-service rail and road transport operator, allows HHLA to boost hinterland links to and from Austria. The Hamburg-based company took over 51 per cent of the Austria-based intermodal service provider and now eyes optimising combined transport operations within its network.

Shareholders and managing directors of Roland Spedition, Christian Gutjahr, and Nikolaus Hirnschall commented regarding the acquisition that the two parties have been well-known partners for 40 years already. They stressed that nothing will change in their company’s structure, employee teams, and operations.

According to HHLA, Roland Spedition carries yearly volumes nearing 130,000 TEUs and is one of the largest owner-led container operators for combined hinterland transport in Austria. The logistics giant aims to incorporate Roland Spedition’s network into its own and benefit from links to Bremerhaven, Rotterdam, Antwerp, or Koper and Trieste.

At the same time, it aims to pull some of the Austrian company’s resources and use them for business with HHLA-owned shipping terminals in Tallinn, Trieste, and Odessa, as well as hinterland intermodal terminals. It should be noted that apart from rail operations, Roland Spedition also owns a truck fleet, making this combination ideal for first—and last-mile operations in combined transport links.

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