2023-06-19 20:15:47
By name, Deutsche Post is a very German company. In fact, foreign business has long been much more important for the Bonn group. This has consequences for the company name.
The Deutsche Post DHL Group is renamed. The global group will be called DHL Group in the future, as the Bonn-based company announced. The “Deutsche Post” part of the name will therefore be omitted on July 1st.
Already, 90 percent of the Group’s sales came from businesses under the DHL brand, including the parcel business in Germany. Only about a third of the roughly 600,000 employees are still employed in the former core business, the letter and parcel business in Germany. Other corporate divisions such as express, freight and supply chain services have grown in importance over the years. “Today we are one of the most international companies in the world,” said CEO Tobias Meyer.
Several name changes
The Post has gone through a number of name changes. From 1950 it was called the Bundespost. In the course of privatization, it changed its name to Deutsche Post in 1995 and to Deutsche Post World Net in 1998. In 2002, the Bonn-based company bought the US logistics company DHL – it was a big step for the once German postal service, because it made international business much more important. In 2009 the name was changed to Deutsche Post DHL. The addition “Group” was added later.
For a long time there have been considerations in the group as to whether the part of the name that focuses on the domestic market is up-to-date in view of the company change. This step was not taken under the long-time CEO Frank Appel, also because it could possibly cause mixed feelings among the workforce in the core business.
In May, Meyer took over the executive chair in the Post Tower. Under his aegis, the “Deutsche Post” is omitted from the name. The manager points out that outside of Germany, the company “almost exclusively uses the DHL brand, which is also becoming increasingly important domestically”. The DHL name itself comes from the surnames of businessmen Adrian Dalsey, Larry Hillblom and Robert Lynn, who founded the company in San Francisco in 1969.
No influence on service offer
Meyer emphasized that the Deutsche Post and DHL brands will continue to be used domestically as before. “We are very proud of Deutsche Post’s tradition, its rich heritage and history, which stretches back to the 15th century,” says the CEO. “We value the Deutsche Post brand and will continue to use it in joint branding with DHL. We will remain “The Post for Germany”.” DHL emphasized that the renaming will have no impact on the range of services offered by the divisions.
There is also a change on the stock exchange. There the company was abbreviated to DPW for a long time – this referred to the former company name Deutsche Post World Net. In the future, the stock exchange abbreviation will be easier to remember: DHL.
reactions from politics
Reluctant reactions came from politicians. The CSU member of parliament Hansjörg Durz said he was pleased that the company was so successful internationally. But it also shows that the previous name was not an obstacle to this success. “It is to be hoped that the company will continue to be aware of its roots in the future.”
The FDP MP Rheinhard Houben was surprised. “DHL breaks unnecessarily with the historical roots of Deutsche Post.” He pointed out that DHL is an abbreviation of the surnames of the American founders. “So now we have a company whose name explicitly refers only to America.”
The Social Democrat Sebastian Roloff could not understand the Bonn decision. He sees no advantage in the fact that the company wants to part with such a strong brand in its name. However, the service is more important than the name, said the member of the Bundestag. “And I’m sure that Swiss Post – under whatever name – will continue to offer high-quality, nationwide postal services.” The legislator will pay attention to this in the forthcoming postal law reform. (dpa)
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