About the Hartmann Group
How it all began
After many years of working for well-known companies on the seven seas, Captain Alfred Hartmann decided to found his own company and become a ship owner. Together with his wife, he purchased a second-hand, 1,500-ton cargo ship - and that was the cornerstone for the Hartmann Reederei (Shipping Company). By 1983, the fleet had grown considerably and the necessary office workplaces were set up. In the autumn of 1985, the company built its own premises in Leer, calling it "Haus der Schiffahrt" (the House of Shipping) and moved into the building together with other shipping companies. Today this is still the headquarters of the Hartmann Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG.
The roots: the shipping companies
At first the company specialised in the European coastal shipping trade, but 1984 saw the Hartmann Reederei expand its fleet with special ships: the first gastankers. Nowadays these ships form the core business of the Leer company.
In 1988, Alfred Hartmann founded another shipping company in Limassol, Cyprus - Intership Navigation. This company focused on the transport of bulk materials of different sizes.
1995 saw the founding of a third shipping company, Feederlines, in Holland's Groningen. The fleet is mainly deployed in European shipping trade and offers feeder services for large ocean-going vessels.
Hartmann Offshore was founded by Dr. Niels Hartmann in 2004. This shipping company specialises in ultra-modern offshore supply ships, so-called anchor handling tugs.
Core competence: own chartering companies
For Alfred Hartmann, the acquisition of own cargoes for his own fleet was a key factor right from the beginning. The cargoes for the ships should come from the company's own chartering offices. He put this principle into practice for the first time in 1990 – with gastankers – by founding the GasChem Services in Hamburg. This was followed by charterers for bulk cargoes (MTL in Duisburg 1996 and UBC in Philadelphia 2001), for containers (United Container Carrier, Hamburg 2004 and Hartmann Shipping Asia, Singapore 2006), for oil products (UPT in Hamburg 2003, a joint venture with Schoeller Holdings Ltd) and for services in the Offshore sector (UOS, in Leer 2008). 2009 then saw the first liner service for container ships, the Hartmann Asia Line. This company is based in Singapore and operates from there.
Direct access to cargoes – this principle makes the companies of the Hartmann Group considerably less dependent on market fluctuations. The flexibility thus achieved also enables the development of tailored solutions for customers.
Benefits: Qualification and training
As early as the beginning of the 1990s, a company-owned crewing agency was founded in Manila – Associated Ship Management (ASM). Its function was – and still is – to employ, train and further educate a major proportion of the crew ranks. The same applies to the Philippine officer ranks. In the adjoining training centre, ISNTC, the seafarers are trained, further educated and have their performances regularly tested.
Further owned crewing agencies have been recruiting qualified maritime personnel in Poland and the Baltic States since 1999. Administration of the seafarers on the ships of the Hartmann Reederei, Intership Navigation, Feederlines and Hartmann Offshore takes place in Gdynia und Szczecin. The two crewing agencies, Teamwork and Hartmann Offshore Crewing, started to operate under the name of Hartmann Crew Consultants in March 2011.
And the personnel departments of Hartmann Reederei and Feederlines supervise hundreds of German and Dutch seafarers. The further education of the seafarers takes place (among other locations) in one of Europe's most modern ship handling simulators, which was put into operation in the Maritimes Kompetenzzentrum (Maritime Competence Center) in Leer in 2009.
The Group of Companies under one roof
By the beginning of the 21st century, the Group of Companies had attained a size which necessitated a superordinate structure. This is the reason why 2001 saw the founding of a Management Holding company, Hartmann AG. This company decides on the strategic orientation of the group and coordinates its investments. The individual companies are – and will remain – legally and organisationally-independent.
